Bristol_Jonesey
The only item now producing noise from inside my pc case is the CPU fan.
I'm tempted to swap it out for a different model, but I've sort of backed myself into a corner with the case.
Most of the 3rd party coolers I've seen are quite tall and my case is a 4U rack mountable.
 
Anyone have any suggestions?
 
Cheers,
 
 
Jonesey
 

I have a 3U rack mounted case, and I've been very pleased with my Zalman fan. Check Zalman CPU fans on NewEgg, and you'll see that they offer quite a few fans that lay flat. (BTW...I don't over-clock. It's a dedicated DAW only.)

Thanks

I just put my PC in a 4u rack...and I really like the rack, but it's ended up being noisier than my tower, which was pretty noisy anyway.  So now I have three fans, three HD's, video card with fan.  The rack case fans sure seem to move the air though.  I just put it in another room and ran firewire, USB and video cables to it, and that's probably what I'll continue to do in the future.  Nice and quiet here in the "control room".

3 fans?   CPU, PS, case?????  Or 3 case fans?
 
Do you need all the fans running full on?
 
Are you using speedfan or other app to check temps?
 
I have my comp in a rack, but it is not touching the frame. It sits on a 2 inch foam pad on a rack shelf. Giant CPU HS/fan, PS fan, 1 case fan, 3 disks
 
===============================
http://www.buildcomputers.net/hdd-temperature.html
 
Then Google came along and published "Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population", a research paper (on more than 100,000 consumer hard disk drives) that some consider to be the Bible on HDD failure. Some of the major findings include:
Hard disk temperatures higher than 45°C led to higher failure rates. 
Disk temperatures lower than 25°C led to higher failure rates too. 
Older hard disk drives (3 years and above) were a lot more prone to failure when their average temperatures were 40°C and higher.
 
This study also suggested that the effect HDD temperature has on failure rate is not as severe as previously believed. However, there was no mention of the effect of temperatures higher than 50°C (probably because Google kept their hard disk drives in server rooms with strict temperature controls).
 
What is a Safe Hard Disk Temperature Range? Drawing conclusions from the Google paper, smaller independent studies and tech forum users:
 
Hard Disk Temperature
 Less than 25°C:    Too cold 
    25°C to 40°C:    Ideal 
     41°C to 50°C:    Acceptable
  More than 50°C:   Too hot
 
Hard disk manufacturers often state the operating temperatures of their hard disk drives to be between 0°C to 60°C - This can be misleading because what they mean is that your hard disk will function at these temperatures, but it doesn't tell you anything about how long they are going to survive at this range. -
 
See more at: http://www.buildcomputers.net/hdd-temperature.html#sthash.6JAV1itJ.dpuf
 
There are a few popular hard disk temperature monitor freeware, but we highly recommend CrystalDiskInfo  - http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html
 
 

I fond it was lot easier to destroy my hearing capability (when I was lad) so that the noise of a DAW is now moot (or is that mute?).
 

For me, recording voice over with a condenser mic, its the noise of the computer's fans bleeding into the recording that would be the issue ...

Let's see...
 
A larger diameter cooling fan spinning relatively slowly (and quetly) can move the same amount of air (or more) than a smaller diameter fan spinning relatively faster (and loudly).
 
A DAW does not require a powerful 3D gaming graphics card (which consumes a lot of power and requres a fan(s) for cooling). A passively-cooled low power "business graphics" (think of stock traders and spreadsheet gurus) card providing good 2D graphics is quiet and cool, and can typically support multiple displays. As well, the integrated processor graphics in many recent Intel Core i cpu's is adequate for a DAW and can support multiple displays.
 
Recent motherboard chipsets and power regulators don't require separate cooling fans (not even on X79), nor do memory sticks, unless one is doing heavy overclocking and boosting voltages.
 
Efficient quiet running power supplies are available, in many of which the fan only runs when necessary.
 
A variety of quiet cases are available at reasonable prices.
 
HDDs can be mounted for quiet operation with sufficient cooling.
 
SSDs do not make any sound.
 
Heck, a Macbook Air doesn't make any sound and yet is plenty powerful enough for serious recording and mixing work, and can even run Sonar when bootcamped. As can a Mac Mini (although it has a fan which will spin up when it's worked hard). OTOH, an iPad won't run Sonar but it's silent and can be used for serious audio/MIDI work.
 
Point being, no reason for a DAW to make audible noise. As has already been mentioned, building a quiet DAW PC is possible even on a budget if one is careful about what components one selects and how they are installed.

Intake and outtake fans can be made to be virtually silent through the use of voltage regulators, but the wildcard is the PSU fan. Many PSUs are very quiet, but it always seems to be the loudest thing in all of my computers and there's no way (AFAIK) to manually regulate the fan speed. So, I guess, my point is that choosing a quiet PSU is arguably the most important part of building a quiet DAW, given that all the other parts are quite easy to make darn near silent. 

There are silent (fanless) power supplies (one has resided in an HTPC here for years). But it's necessary to assure they are adequately vented and/or exposed to sufficient cooling airflow (e.g. from quiet case fans).
 
Wih some better fan-cooled PSUs like Seasonic, even when the fan starts up its speed (and noise) remains quite low so long as the internal temp stays below a certain point. A PSU when top-mounted in a tower case and drawing its cooling air from the region around the cpu may tend to run hot and need to run its fan all the time and at higher speed, whereas when bottom-mounted in a tower case and drawing its cooling air from outside the case (through a case vent) it will tend to run much cooler and perhaps not even need to spin up its fan at all.
 
In a rack/desktop case, using a PSU with a flow-through design (with a front rather than a side intake) and supplying adequate air flow from a quiet front intake fan(s) will help keep its fan from spinning up. This can also work in a tower case, with either a top or bottom PSU mounting, so long as cool air is communicated (tunneled) to the front of the PSU.

The "top down" CPU heat sink/fan combo has some merit.  I have a big old Scythe heat sink (I think it's a Ninja).  It does a great job of keeping the CPU cool, but I found I have to run my fans faster than I'd like because the chip set and other motherboard components aren't getting enough circulation because the heat sink fan is blowing the air above the components parallel to the surface of the mobo.  Just something to consider.