You may have a loud computer box. Whenever you turn it on, the whirring sounds of the fans, optical drive and hard drive may really annoy you. Here are 5 ways to quiet that box down.
1. Upgrade to a new hard drive
Many hard drives get louder as they get older. Your ears are not fooling you if you have an old hard drive. Getting a new one can cut the noise out quite a bit.
2. Soundproof your PC case
Foam blocks do wonders. And yes there are kits specifically for it. For those that would ask, "Doesn’t that increase heat?", not necessarily. It depends on the application.
3. Put it on the floor
Sounds obvious, but if the computer box is on the floor and not on the desk you won’t hear it as much.
4. Keep it away from the wall
Sound will bounce off the wall in your direction if your computer is directly adjacent to it. To note, if you’re forced to have it next to the wall, put some kind of foam or cloth on the wall itself and it will significantly decrease the sound-bouncing.
5. Use premium-grade case fans
Cheap case fans are loud or will become loud in short order. Spend the extra few dollars on premium fans with better bearings to keep it quiet.
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Putting your computer on the floor it increases the amount of dust that will be collected by the box. Not a smart idea since dust will cause over heating and you’ll end up paying a lot more replacing parts than just putting up with a little noise annoyance.
One of the loudest noise sources can be the power supply. The better units have quieter fans that also change speed as a function of the power load.
Problems may arise if replacing the existing power supply unit on some older computers. For instance with some of the much older models the emphasis was on the 5 volt supply delivering the wattage; while the 12 volt rails were more of an accessory simply to power the drives.
On more modern motherboards this situation has changed, and the emphasis is now on the 12 volt rails to deliver the power.
As a consequence of this some of the older power supplies fitted to ancient computers are incompatible with new ones, and fitting a new one to an old computer will result in insufficient power distribution.
‘Just a thought.
A desk can amplify any sounds made by the PC – try lifting the PC slightly to see if that helps.
If this reduces the noise, try putting something absorbent between the PC base and the desk. For example, I used an old mouse mat under a compact desktop box and that helped a bit.
However, beware of destabilising tower PCs or blocking air vents by using too much or too soft a material.
Install a high-power CPU cooler and find the best safe speed. The one I have starts making noise at 2200 RPM. Maximum speed is ~2600-2700 RPM, and I keep it at ~2000, still getting 29C idle and 35C full load (could probably drop to 1300-1400 RPM).