I've come to expect my DAW to be seen and not heard.
 
So right now I have 1 desktop & 2 laptops running while updating system software; a 2008 home built Core2Duo tower with 4 HDDs, fanless PSU & super quiet CPU fan running Windows XP, a 2012 HP Envy i7 with 2 HDDs running Windows 7, and a 2016 Alienware i7 with 2 SSDs & 1 HDD running Windows 10. The difference in noise pollution is amazing. Although they are all very quiet, the DT wins the loudness war. The HP comes in 2nd place. Both have fans that run nonstop. But I can't even hear the Alien. It's dead quiet.

Laptops usually are quiet.  They are designed that way, however with the quiet comes the tradeoff of heating up faster.  
 
Desktops can be made quiet.  "Quiet" fans, "quiet" CPU coolers, etc.  Some hard drives are noisy and nothing you can do about that except replace it with a quieter one. 
 
My current desktop (built a year ago) is "dead quiet".  I used a "BeQuiet" case that has quiet case fans.  Using the on-board Intel CPU video so no separate video card with fans.  SSD for OS and Sonar.  Quiet liquid CPU cooler.  There is one mechanical hard drive but it is quiet.  I can record with an SM58 sitting beside the tower and there is no PC noise heard in the recordings.  

My server and my DAW are so quiet it’s like they’re not even on.

Oh that’s right; they’re not. On that is. They’re both broken, dead, stuffed, caput. I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say I’m not happy. Just spent all Computer savings on Cubase and Samplitude. Grrr!