I was wondering whether any of you might have a few suggestions for some easy ways of quieting down a computer. Since my budget for larger hardware purchases is not very large at this time, one method which would, in my view be applicable pretty easily and at a modest price would be fitting some of those acoustic insulation plates consisting of foam and bituminous cardboard to the inside of the computer case. Is this approach recommendable in your view, or are there any other inexpensive methods I might try? I already took care to buy a silent power supply when I upgraded my computer, and the AMD CPU fan I am using is, to my ears, also rather quiet, but since I am running a total of three HD/case ventilation fans my system is not entirely noise-free in acoustic terms. (Yes, I'm aware no system really is noise-free, but I hope you get the message ;-) )Thanks!

>I was wondering whether any of you might have a few>suggestions for some easy ways of quieting down a computer.>Since my budget for larger hardware purchases is not very>large at this time, one method which would, in my view be>applicable pretty easily and at a modest price would be>fitting some of those acoustic insulation plates consisting of>foam and bituminous cardboard to the inside of the computer>case.There is a very timely article in this month's MaximumPC that covers this very same issue your having. One thing to watch out for is you can seriously raise your case temps to dangerous levels by doing too much. >>Is this approach recommendable in your view, or are there any>other inexpensive methods I might try? I already took care to>buy a silent power supply when I upgraded my computer, and the>AMD CPU fan I am using is, to my ears, also rather quiet, but>since I am running a total of three HD/case ventilation fans>my system is not entirely noise-free in acoustic terms. (Yes,>I'm aware no system really is noise-free, but I hope you get>the message ;-) )3 Fans !! Whoa!!...But seriously I feel for you. I have a 3.06 533FSB P4 in a Coolermaster w 7 80MM fans and 2 HD Coolers. Talk about loud.You may want to look into Antecs Temp. controlled fans that auto. adjust RPM's based on case temps.Hope this helps :)Bobby

That's exactly why I was asking this question :-) . I wouldn't slap two or three layers of the stuff on top of each other in any case.If I'm not mistaken, you must be having something like ten fans in your rig, including the CPU fan - assuming that you don't water-cool or deep-freeze ;-) . Looking into ASUS Probe at this moment, I can tell you I'm running at about 107

The best way to silence your PC is to install water cooling system.I have done it with mine about 6 months ago and praise the day I met a guy who suggested it to me.What you need is a low cost system consisting of a medium size plastic container (like a lunch box type of thing), the water cooling pump (one used for aquariums) and two water blocks made of copper. On top of that you need several rugged plastic hoses to connect this set together. The system runs the water through its cooler on top of the box and circulates it around the piping system and water blocks closely attached to your processor and graphic card processor. No fans, other than quiet power supply fan. My temp on the processor oscillates around 35 degrees Celsius (around 95F). The cost for the whole set was 100$ in my case. The only maintenance you do with it is to replace water in the plastic tank every 2 months.See some overview pictures below:

Yes, this is probably true, but I have neither the skills to install such a system nor the courage ( :-shy ) to have water run through my computer, to be honest. While browsing some hardware retail sites I came across a HD cooler which is based on heat pipes, meaning that it does not require any fans. Do you believe this might be worth purchasing? This would eliminate the noise from two fans currently installed in my system.

Well, neither did I. I gave my PC trustfully to a guy who installed it for me.My major concern was the potential incident of water spillage over all electronic components, thus expensive part replacement.It turned out to be false concern as they use distilled water (demagnetized or sthg) that does not conduct electricity.Heat pipes on the HD I have heard of but it does not really eliominate the need for noisy fans on the processor and a graphics card.Dom