Bhodi speaks the truth: if you are willing to spend a few bucks, a silent system is very attainable. Here's what I did last Christmas:
(Keep in mind I use my PC for two main purposes: gaming, and recording music. Having 4 leafblowers going at 80db just isn't acceptable when you are recording
an acoustic guitar. I have a few tracks with a high pitched whine in the background that is ugly as hell).
1) First, tackle the PSU. There are a lot of silent or nearly silent PSU's out there. I went with a Zalman ZM400B-APS. It has a large 120mm fan that is controlled depending on the case temperature. For the vast majority of the time, it runs right around the 25db level. Inside the case, it cannot be heard at all. You can find it for about $85 bucks online.
2) Next as the CPU. I went with a CNPS7000A-Cu from Zalman again. It went for about $30. I run it at the 5V setting (which is right about 20-25db) and even after a few hours of Planetside or Far Cry the CPU temp never goes above 40C. It is quite large and heavy (looks like a big orange mushroom), so you need to make sure there is clearance in the case
before you try to use it.
3) Next was the video card. I went with a ZM80D-HP which is a fanless heat pipe cooler. Yes, you guessed it, from Zalman. I'm running a 9800 Pro in this rig at the moment, and I thought it would be adequate. However the card would overheat after about 15 mins during games with no fan. So I got the optional 80mm fan that mounts to the heatsink and ran that at 5V. Maximum video card temp is now about 48-50C under maximum load. This is the loudest component in the PC now however it's
just above audible (perhaps 30-35db) with the case open. With the case closed I can't hear it.
4) Hard drives. My hard drives were already pretty quiet, however I could still hear the seek clicking. My case is a rack mount that's bolted into my studio rig,
and the clicking would transmit through the case into the frame and sound a lot louder to me. So I got a
Smart Drive and mounted my drive inside of it. It's an aluminum enclosure that has a copper plate to transmit heat to the outside, however it's stuffed with foam to deaden the sound. Now the hard drive is inaudible.
5) Case fans: I got two Panaflo 120mm case fans, and re-wired the connectors to use 5V instead of 12V. They spin at about 900 rpm each and move enough air
at that voltage to keep the case temp reasonable. They make very little sound.
Total cost was about $200, a lot to spend on cooling, but I went from leaf blower to dead silent with no loss in performance or heat instability issues. Now, I have to look at the LED's on the front to see if it's on or not: even in a dead silent room, I can't hear anything from the PC except for a barely perceptible sound of air moving. It's no problem to record in the same room as the PC now.
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