Sound proofing a computer

It would help if you could identify where the main noise is coming from. You can get products such as this acoustic foam however it will probably raise the temperatures in your case so the fans may need to be run faster to compensate. You can puchase hard drive caddies or suspend them on elastic cord to dampen vibrations. You could replace your existing fans with quieter models or undervolt them. Essentially you are limited by your imagination and your wallet because the options are many. :)
 
I'll have to investigate when I get home, but I think it's generally the case fans. The CPU fan isn't too bad, but come to think of it the GPU fan is quite noisy particularly when under load (not that it's under load any more, as I think it's rogered).

I suppose a new case could help with this, forcing the air to move more efficiently around the case?
 
I'd look at replacing the fans, lowering voltage, or using quieter CPU & GPU heatsink/fan, and replace motherboard chipset fan (if present)
 
It's an old XP3500 so as far as I can remember it doesnt have a chipset fan. Is it possible to get a pc like mine to run at near-silent levels by replace fans like you suggest?
 
XP3500? I don't think such a CPU existed, it could be an XP3200 which would mean it is socket A. You can definitely get fanless coolers for them or at least you could. Generally North/Southbridge heatsink/fans can be replaced with larger heatsinks if needed. Case fans can be either undervolted, adjusted by a fan controller or replaced if the other options aren't working. Depending on the graphics card you can probably replace the cooler on it as well - Arctic Cooling and Zalman should do suitable models.

What case do you currently have? As you suspect there may be better cases around for airflow.
 
How do you lower fan voltage? Would be interested to do it to my thermaltake fans X3 which are noisy.
 
iv done this before, i used sound deadening from car audio shops, its like foil backed self ahdeasive rolls. it does work in deadening the sound but there are some drawbacks.

the case whcih i deadened was wa very old one dating back 8 years, and as such being a full tower case its cooling was crap to begin with and the sound deadening increased internal case temps some.
second problem was that the case ended up weighing a shed load more, case ended up weighing nearly 25kg! although once its in place weight does not really matter.

if you got a good case that has proper cooling as in air in the front and out the back then sound deadening is good to cut down some noise, but a crap cooled case is not much good at all for the project. although i did use my old skool case for 7 years worth of builds, finally ditched it end of last year/ early this year for the antec 900.
 
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