Xbox One X becoming very hot with noisy fan during gameplay

Definitely return it.

My console runs cool for the most part and I can barely hear it.

Even after several hours of use.

Good luck.

No, it is not. The Xbox Series S should be almost entirely silent. Possible reasons for a noisy hot console could be:

• Faulty console. It's not able to cool itself because of a hardware fault
  
• The console is enclosed in a area where it can not draw in cool air. Relocate the machine to cool area with space to breath
  
• Summer months and hot rooms will increase the difficulty of your console to cool itself. If the room is over 25c+ you'll have a hot console with a noisy fan.
  

According to Microsoft, if the top vent feels hot, that is normal. Read this:
http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/system/ventilation

If the opposite side of your Xbox One, which houses the disc drive, becomes very hot, then I would suggest sending it in for repairs.

As for the noise, mine makes various noises when playing games, and it's usually something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK4nUM3RIBU (Granted, as long as I'm several feet away from my Xbox One, I can't hear it)

I've asked around and watched numerous videos on the subject, and as far as I can tell, unless your Xbox One makes a loud rattling noise, it's just a rather noisy fan in your console. It shouldn't do any harm.

Some fans go noisy over time and there is nothing else to do besides exchanging them - unless you are savy enough to exchange and/or service/repair the respective bearing(s). The question were how much does it bother you? If it is only during ramp up time
of the cpu and doesnt bother you during gameplay it might be tolerable.

Best regards

Sassan

The only sound I can hear in both of those recordings is the sound of a fan.

For reference, even after I have been playing a reasonably intensive graphics game (Forza Horizon 5) for 10 hours+ straight in the middle of Summer, I have to literally get down on my hands and knees (it's just off the floor) and almost press my ear to my Series X to hear anything from it.

If it is that loud from more than a couple of feet away, then either the console is running very hot and needs the fan running aggressively to cool it or the fan is faulty. It's possible you may be in a much hotter country than I am (UK) but I would think the fan is still faulty (which would be incredibly bad luck on your part given the issues already).

A noisy fan doesn't always necessitate it not doing it's job properly, just that it's noisy whilst doing it. If the console was overheating/being pushed too hard, it would likely show in lagging, glitching, games crashing etc. I would think it's simply the fan being noisy....HOWEVER, the only way to know for sure is by having it looked at