Hard Drive/Fan Noise

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futurestar

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Does any one have any suggestions for reducing HD/ and fan noise? I have a P4 2.4 GB with 2 Western Digital HD's, an Echo Mia soundcard and an Antec case (supposibly designed to reduce noise). I'm working in the confines of a fairly small room, and still find it pretty noisy when using mics. Are there quiter HD's/fans available?
 
put a thick blanket over your comp...this is dangerous depending on how much outside air cools your computer. the next method is to record the vocals in another room...if you have enough cable or you can afford enough.....try recording the vocals in your closet or the bathroom. in the bathroom, put towels over the bathroom rail or record the vocals in the bathtub (no water running) and put towels over the rail and maybe stopping the echo off the ceiling..(it sounds crazy but i stood on top of the toilet bowl with a comforter and the sound was kinda good)
 
About the only thing you can do is change the cpu heatsink/fan over to something that with an 80mm fan. Slower and quieter than those little high speed ones but cools as well. If you have any front or side panel inlet fans on your case, you could make them run at 5v. WD hard disks aren't the quietest things out there either. The hard disks could be replaced with the Seagete Barracuda V. Those 2 things cost money of course, but you're probably gonna have to throw money at the problem no matter what your do.

A cheaper alternative is to get a RF wireless keyboard/mouse combo that can go pretty far, and a quality VGA extension cord. Whatever else it takes to actually have the box in the next room...
 
If you intend to stick to IDE, get yourself Seagate Barracuda IV hard drives. I have three of them in my box, and I practically don't hear them. The noisiest parts of my Antec Sonata case are PSU fan and 120 mm case fan. I am using an excellent Alpha heatsink (for Athlon), which allowed me to use very quite Panaflo fan, so this one is pretty quite as well.
 
I think the cheapest and easiest way to fix this is to simply buy some plywood, and make a simple box you can put your computer in. You'll want some kind of sound absorbing material, but don't get any expensive stuff, I would recommend those egg carton looking things some people put on their bed for comfort. (sorry don't know what to call them, but if you see them you'll know what I'm talking about).

Use that material to help absorb any sounds your PC makes, and to keep your PC from overheating it might be best to leave one plate of the box unattached, and especially don't block any air vents!

Basically if you can make something to shield away your PC sounds, that should do the trick. If you have a closet think about putting your PC in the closet while doing recording, that might be the easiest and cheapest method....although it'd require you to move your PC a lot unless u can leave it there permanently....which might be annoying if you actually use ur closet like most people lol.
 
Thanks, some good suggestions for me to consider. The only time It's really an issue is when I'm trying to record myself. Otherwise, I can put the mics in another room.
 
I don't get these posts

I live in the city and cars go by all the time lol. I have to mix at at least 40db to balance out the outside noise lol. I have my case on my computer open lol. I do have seagate barracudas, the best quiet hd! I also have a quiet cpu cooler. The noisest thing on mine is the psu fan.
 
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