[idleloops]

Noise bothers me, I even get bothered by the heads resting in a hard drive. It seems that the quieter you get your environment - the more bothered you can become. I've a pretty decent asus gfx card that remains unused, because it has an onboard fan. Both my desktop and laptop are whisper quiet.

I had a friend with a Pentium 4 machine, that he just kept in a nearby cupboard. Once shut behind the door, you couldn't hear it at all. If I was a home owner (and could modify my house at will,) I'd probably just place my PC in another room (preferably a store), and channel cables through the wall. Would be cheaper than wasting money on over-priced cooling. The good thing about this, is that you also don't have to worry so much about what your PC looks like. You can even mount a motherboard in something like a biscuit tin.

[ekianjo]

A desktop is usually noisy. Recently it gets really hot where I live, and I can see the noise difference my desktop fans make VS the same conditions in Winter... By the way, are there some manufacturers of desktop cases which you could recommend to reduce the noise?

I like your idea of having the PC in a different room than the actual screen and controls. But that's not really an option if you rent an apartment and cannot drill holes through the walls :)

[cuu508]

Lots of good advice on http://silentpcreview.com

Recommended cases: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Case_Basics_and_Recommendation...

They have similar recommendations for PSUs, heatsinks, fans, HDDs etc.

[cfn]

This an interesting article about sound proofing your computer. It is written with sound studios in mind:

http://www.quietpcusa.com/how-to-silence-a-computer.aspx

[idleloops]

There's lots of good advice on building silent PCs. I actually have a roomy desktop case, a Lian Li, a passive GFX card, an energy efficient CPU and only one big CPU fan, and a pretty silent energy efficient PSU. These were all picked with noise in mind when I last built my desktop PC. My case actually is pretty thin alu, it resonates because of the hard drive and thin chassis, so I've had to tediously dampen the drives with rubber (I wouldn't recommend that case.) Some of the older cases - I'm talking a naughties case, can be found (probably at the local tip) that are incredibly thick, and these make for a better quieter unit in my opinion - but at the same time they can be quite ugly. But then again - most PCs are ugly!

A friend of mine just picked up a Pentium 4 (yes all my friends have P4s), for £20, with a nice thick case, but the thing sounded like a helicopter taking off - the fans were so loud. We replaced the CPU fan (something like an Arctic freezer), and now it's quite easy on the ears.

My PC case is hugely bloated for my needs, I barely touch the DVD unit anymore, so I could just throw it in a trunk. Or make a new chassis for it. I only keep it as the size doesn't make me curse whenever I have to go in there. How about a piano stool for a case?

I think my favourite case I ever had was a micro ATX case that I modded to accommodate the PSU on the front. I could then keep it on the floor and still turn it off easily. As it was low down it was quieter. It also served as a rather nice foot warmer.