A few manufactures make quiet computers, but if you cant afford them you might need to do the work yourself. Weather your PC has just a little noise or like an F-16 while sitting at idle, eliminating the noise is easy and rated from beginner to advanced, but all can be accomplished by you.
99.5% of all noise coming from your computer is fan noise and can be taken care of very easily.
A lot of the noise coming from a computer is due to the heatsink being clogged by dust, hair and cigarettes smoke being sucked into the computer and getting stuck in the heatsink.
What happens is if dust builds up and gets stuck in the heatsink, your computer over heats and the fans try to keep the heatsink cool, and then intern making the fans spin up faster and more often. Not good at all.
Cleaning the fans and heatsinks are very easy to do and does not take that much skill or time do. What you want to do is unplug the cables attached to the computer, including the power and let the computer cool down for about 5-10 min.
(This next step is standard, but does depend on your make and model so check with your manufacture)
Put the case on its side so that the front face is facing right. Take a screw driver and unscrew the screws on the side panel. and slide the panel to the left, once open you might see a lot of dust.
Taking the fans out of the computer is also very easy, just unplug them and unscrew the fans from the CPU’s heatsink, the fan on the back of the computer, and if any, the front fan. After these fans are out remove the dust by taking a vacuum cleaner or a low powered leaf blower to the heatsinks in the computer. Make sure to use the vacuum lightly and without any attachments over the other components and dont blow or suck things out or place. (You dont want to break anything)
While the fans are out of the computer, clean and check the fans to see if they can spin freely, the bigger ones should spin for at least 2 sec or longer, the smaller ones dont spin that long so you want to see is if the fan rocks back and forth when stops spinning. If the fan makes grinding noises while being spun, or doesnt do the prier stuff replace immediately!
If your video card has a fan on its heatsink, remove the card and clean and check the fan.
If you can, take the front face plate off the computer (Take care not to break the clips). Dust likes to accumulate in between the plastic faceplate and the metal case.
Check the screws in your case and its components to make sure that they are hand tight, you would be surprised what comes loose over the years of a computers life.
Doing this steps makes a world of difference to the noise of the computer and you will find that all of the fans are more quiet due to the air flowing freely thought out the computer. A good practice is to clean the dust from a computer every 3-10 months depending on the environment you live in.
If your studio needs to be absolutely quiet or your OCD! You might want to install some accessory’s while the computer is open.
Lining the sides with Sound-absorbing foam such as AcoustiPack™, though it can make your PC run a bit hotter, it turns your PC into an almost-soundproof system.
Newer Hard drives dont make that much noise but can vibrate other parts in the computer so by using a product like the ZALMAN ZM-2HC2 Noise Prevention Heatpipe Hard Drive Cooler that converts the standard 3.5in drive to a 5.25in drive and takes the vibration out
NOTE: If your hard drive does make loud noises look into replacing it with a new one, the bearings in your hard drive might be going bad.
Like before, case fans do cause alot of noise, and choosing replacements are up to you, but there are many fans to choose from and alot are rated for having a low rpm meaning less noise. The down side is they don’t circulate air as well as one that has a standardized rpm. For a look at some quiet fans check outQuietPC.com, they have some great fans to choose from.
Speaking of fans, the same should be said about a cpu fan and heatsink. Keeping a heatsink cool is a key thing that your computer needs, and changing a stock heatsink to something that is more adequate may need to be done. Depending on the make and manufacture of the CPU, you can check out QuietPC.com to see what you may need.
You also may want to check with the manufacture of your computer to see what CPU socket you have a nice google search will work also. (If you are changing the heatsink don’t forget to buy thermal grease)
While you are replacing the fans look into adding gaskets or anti vibration screws to your fans to lower vibrations
After cleaning your computer, you might have noticed that there is this box attached to the case! That is the power supply and it cant be cleaned without taking it apart, WARNING: DO NOT OPEN… YOU MIGHT GET SHOCKED! just vacuum the outside of the case and it should be fine.
Alot of people might argue that the power supply is one of the noisiest components in a computer, and I agree! Having a cheap power supply can cause audio problems such as, buzzing within the recording. Having Quiet and Higher Quality power supply can dramatically reduce the clatter.
When looking for a power supply you want one that has at a minimum of 1 fan that is on the bottom of the unit, rated for ultra low noise, supports the components your going to be plugging into, and the wattage you need.
Other things you might want to look into are North/Southbridge Coolers and RAM Coolers, as well as video coolers and fans, for those who do video.
I hope you enjoyed this article, if you have a correction or just want to add somthing, please leave a comment below
Benjamin Straw
