Noisy PC - suggestions?

I bought my PC specifically for use in my studio (i.e. converted spare bedroom ) and it was very quiet when I first bought it. Over the past couple of years it seems to be getting progressively noisier, to the point where now there's a lot of background noise when I record anything acoustically (vox, acoustic guitar). The "solution" so far is to move the mic as far away from the PC as possible (works but it's a bit of a pain) and/or to use noise reduction (which causes some loss in quality).

What I'd LIKE is to not have the noise in the first place - or at least reduce it as much as possible.

I've done some googling on this and there seem to be a lot of thoughts floating around the web but I thought to myself "Self" I thought, "I'm sure some of those nice people on HC will have had to deal with this situation. Ask them" ... so I am

I hear alot of people complain about this. They must have awfully reflective rooms and the gain really cranked on condencer mics to have it audiable in the mix.

Ad suggestions, You could replace the fans or build a padded box to cover it like they do for printers. It has to have ventallation holes. That would knock it way down and you can use ported tubing or pvc for the holes strategically placed to to vent the heat yet still block most of the sound. You would bee a chimmney tupe ventallation where cool air can enter through a tube at the bottom and ventallate from the top as heat rises drawing cool air in from the bottom. Use some thin plywood to build the box, have a hinged door if needed and cover the inside with a layer or two of the foam rug undermatting. Keep plenty of space at the back where the fans are.

Alot of times your fans gather lint, hair, and other material on the blade shaft. Pick the crap out of the fans and blow aout any dust. I clean all my pc's once a year. Also even though the fans have "sealed" bearings, I find a few drops of 3in1 oil will quiet most.

Open it up and vaccum out all the dust. That will keep the air circulating better so the fan won't kick up to such high speeds.

Beyond that, if your computer must be in the room with you, you can seriously reduce the noise by baffling it with 703 panels.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll try vacuuming the dust out and see what difference that makes.

If that makes little or no difference I'll look into getting some panels. Isn't there a danger with panels that it'll make the computer run hotter? Presumably the same with padding?

As for the "reflective room" or the gain cranked high - no, not really. The sound of the PC is clearly audible right here in the room, or even from just outside the room.

You don't have to entirely enclose the PC.

I was doing a freelance gig at a nice home studio be the Mac was SO GOD DAMN NOISY! I went back to my studio and grabbed a few hanging 703 absorbers and brought them back with me. I put sort of a little triangel around the PC; the top was open. You couldn't even tell the thing was on after than.

HEY BROS

Definitely clean the dust out of there. If it's still noisy, you can try, in order of effectiveness:

- Absorption behind the computer (catching the PSU and case exhaust fan)

- More absorption - As Chris Carter suggested, you shouldn't completely surround the case

- Quieter fans. This is probably the cheapest improvement you can make and it's extremely effective. Scythe is a good brand for this. If you have the stock CPU fan, replace that first. Smaller fans are louder because they have to spin faster.

- Quieter PSU

- Hard drive mounting insulation.

You also want to make sure that the noise is not caused by a failing hard drive or PSU. PSUs in particular get real noisy when they're about to give up the ghost.

Also, most modern video cards come with their own fans. If yours is noisy, I recommend writing an e-mail to the card's manufacturer calling them assholes.

Thanks. Yeah I'm fairly sure it's one of the fans that's making the noise - certainly it sounds like a fan noise. I bought "silent" case fans when I bought the thing and I think they're living up to their name so I'm thinking it's coming from the CPU, the PSU or perhaps the video card. If I could do something about the noise at source that would seem the most sensible way forward, rather than allowing the noise to happen and then trying to cancel it, but if I can only acheive the latter it'll be a step forward from where I am now.

I have an external drive that started making some god awful noise. I thought the drive was going south. It was just the fan. I cleaned it and that didn't help so I replaced it and it's silent again.

i started having issues with this when i was running a condenser on an N72 that was fairly cranked and trimmed (yeah yeah, majorly asking for it, i know). recording aside, for me it's definitely more audible than the money was worth for the scythe fans, cpu cooler, and case liner in a rack case that now has a tendency to run hot. then again my room is super dead. idk... i'll be switching to watercooled but that's overkill for you. post-digression: the OC panels will work in a pinch, and the culprit is probably

a) cpu fan if intermittent

b) psu if constant

c) HD vibration

i'd only suspect the vid card if you were recording and watching youtube and/or playing solitaire simultaneously. gui's for daw software aren't terribly hard work for most vid cards.

HEY BRO

Not all video card fans are created equal. They're usually pretty small, and of crap quality, so I wouldn't be surprised if one was noisy under a light load.

An another note, one common symptom of a dying PSU is increased "fan noise". I'd check that out for sure.

One thing to consider for the future is getting a computer that uses quieter cooling technology. They make larger fans that move more air and operate more quietly now (larger fans means fewer fans usually means less noise). If you really want to get crazy you can get computers that use liquid cooling or some combination of heat-pipes and liquid cooling. These are supposed to be dead quiet.

I've seen boxes for sale in magazines that enclose your computer while still allowing for ventilation, so you could search for those. As for me, I actually drap a down comforter off of my desk while recording so that it muffles the computer noise. I also try to get the mics away from the computer as much as I can. Those simple measures seem to yield pretty good results.

I only wish my setup was good enough to pick up the noise from my (fairly quiet) PC. And as the others have said, definitely keep your fans clean. I've found that once a fan gets worn out from getting dust-clogged, usually it won't ever be quiet again. You just gotta replace it.

If you start reading this page http://www.silentpcreview.com/ and its forums, you'll learn a lot, get a very quiet computer, but also spend a ton of money if your willpower isnt strong. Once you get rid of one noisy thing, the next noisiest thing starts to bug you, until you're running a passive water-cooled system with suspended harddrives, heavy case, etc.

Really, just check what kinds of fans it has and see which is loudest. Modern cpu fans really arent horrible as long as the motherboard is able to contol it by temp using a program such as Speedfan. It can also control case fans if they're hooked up to the board and the board supports it. If your motherboard has a chipset fan though, thats usually a big problem, same with many video card fans.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm away this week (and next) so I've not had chance to try anything but I will as soon as I'm home for more than a couple of hours! Hopefully one of the suggestions will help get to the heart of the matter.

I spent $90 on a Antec Sonata Case (came with power supply) 2 years ago and it is whisper quiet. I clean it once a year and its the best case Ive ever had. And Ive used close to 100 cases in my many years. The new Sonata 3 case, while cosmetically different than my DAW rig, is still whisper quiet. My wifes PC uses the new case and Id recommend it for the money.

I still build my own PCs for the studio because it

You can use larger fans, bugger fans turn slower but move more air. YOu can use all copper fanless heatsinks, also, water cooled solutions.