how do you like sound of your PC?

[SensoVision]

some time ago i had to switch to new power supply unit, since it was in winter and temperature in the room wasn't high it runs pretty quiet (it has speed regulation of fan speed depending on temperature), but now we had summer and temperature in my flat raise up to 29 degrees and PSU start to make really lot of noise(previously I wasn't sure what cause such raise of noise at first so when I did some clean-up from the dust I decide to check which fan is loudest and switch it off, so I start to stop them one by one and when I got to the fan of PSU unit I was shocked my PC is actually noiseless if stop fan from power supply, since other fans are really hard to hear, all of noise come from one fan at PSU unit.) I would like to mention that I don't mind noise from my PC previously, I always thought that I couldn't fight with it so easily(by changing PSU) as I thought that it's produced by all fans, not by only one, but since I was wrong and it could be changed I decide to find quite power supply and put it in my PC, especially if take into account that I don't switch it off in the night and I sleep 2 meters away from it
So now I've did some research and probably find really silent PSU Seasonic S12-430 you may check review about it here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article226-page1.html
seems I got too much into describing my problem I just wonder what other people think about sound produced by their PCs and if anyone use some quiet power supply or other things to lower this noise. Would be interesting to hear some stories about this.

[Hope]

I absolutely HATE sound on my computer. I make sure that the sound is ALWAYS turned off. I find it distracting and annoying. Since I do IT at the office, I tend to turn off the sound on all computers. It drives everyone nuts, but it is one of the benefits of being IT. They can't complain too much since they need me to fix their computers.

[Queen Bee]

I have really annoying sounds coming from my hard drive, especially when I'm running virus scan. I have finally gotten to the point where I don't even notice it anymore, but everyone else comments about it when they enter the room.

[SensoVision]

Rachel, have you ever tried to get yourself some noise absorbing blocks which are mounted to HardDrive to lower noise from it? or you could change your harddrive for something from Segate brand they are made most silent drives I've work with, currently I'm on WesternDigital it really works faster but produce much more noise comparing to Segate

[Queen Bee]

Rachel, have you ever tried to get yourself some noise absorbing blocks which are mounted to HardDrive to lower noise from it?

I have never even heard of noise absorbing blocks before. Who makes those?

[SensoVision]

check this out: http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/disktwin_aluminum.html I've never try them himself since they are not available here, but I think they shold absorb a bit of noise.
BTW on the site I've mentioned you could find a lot of things which could help to reduce the noise caused produced by PC hardware

[Queen Bee]

Hey, thanks for info on that. When I get another job I might consider purchasing a pair. Sometimes the noise is pretty annoying, I almost think my computer is going to burn out on me...

[SensoVision]

are you sure it's HDD since based on my experience I could say that usually most noise are caused by high-speed CD-ROMs, fast CPU fans(with 5000-6000 RPMs) and fans at PSU, HDD cause some noise but usually when it's not fitted well, maybe you should check this out and see if it fit well? BTW what brand of HDD are you using?

[12noon]

I just get a bit of noise from the fans inside my PC. It's not that bad and i don't even think about it.

I once had an old graphics card and the fan fell off. Now that did make some noise.

[Queen Bee]

I'm pretty sure it's the harddrive because it makes a lot of clicking noises, and becomes more noisy when I'm running extra processes. I have never really examined it because I thought it was just my brand of hardware that was causing the noise, and didn't think it was that unusual. It normally only disturbs me when I'm not using my computer, otherwise I don't notice it.

Is that strange clicking noise from the harddrive or the fan? It's a rapid, random clicking noise...

[SensoVision]

I think you are right, and it's looks like it comes from harddrive, so I guess there is no need to look for other source of noise...

[Queen Bee]

Well if that's the case, I might invest in those vibration dampeners you mentioned... It might help get rid of some of this noise. This is probably the noisiest computer I have ever owned.

[SensoVision]

maybe just try to change hardrive since those dumpers probably could help to fight vibration but not clicking noise since it produced inside harddrive and probably wouldn't be affected in any way by dumpers.

[Andy]

I don't mind the sound of my PC even though it's got 2/3 fans?? But it is in my office room. Downstairs in the lounge I notice the vibes coming through the ceiling which a little annoying. But, maybe there is some power management feature I should be using to close it down when I'm not using it.

Now there is a trend towards using PC's to playback DVDs in your home entertainment system so they must be quiet.

A while ago I made a mini-ITX PC which is still in my lounge. I silenced this by fitting a large diameter fan rather than the standard high-rpm small/noisy fan fitted as standard to the PSU. Here are some details.

[donecweb]

Rachel, The sound of clicking noises from a hard drive are generally just the drive head being accessed and moving from one position on the platters to another. However if your hard drive didn't have this noise when you first got it then it could be other things, also if the noise is constant. Best case is a fragmented drive, making the head jump all over the place for it's data. In this case a simple defragmentation of the drive should help. Next it could be some bad sectors on the drive and the head keeps trying to read them. In this case the drive might be helped, if using windows, by doing a Check Disk Scan with recovery of bad sectors selected. This could take a very very long time with the larger drives out now and especially if there are bad sectors. If that doesn't help and you are not in a position to replace the drive then try formatting the drive. Note: if you have bad sectors this also could take a very long time. The worst case is that the noise is really the bearings and then the only option is to replace the drive. So I suggest that you make sure you have a good and continuous back up until you find out what is making the noise. A grinding noise and a slow drive when trying to read the drive is also a possible indication of bad sectors.

DonEc