Its finally occurred to me my pc makes too much dang noise, and has gotten louder over my years of upgrading. Since i dont have a pile of cash but will get bits here and there, I'd like suggestions for what I should try to quieten first, considering both noise and $$$. I'm assuming i should just open my case and listen to what's loudest and start from there?

Here's the noisemakers i have now:
350watt Turbo-Cool PC Cooling and Powersupply PS
generic 80mm case fan (that came with my aluminum, plexi-glass CompUSA Case)
A 3.06 P4 HTT processor with an intel 2.4G stock fan on it (OMG you wouldnt believe how loud the intel 3.06 fan is. Surprisingly, it hasnt crashed with the 2.4G fan but i'm sure they make better ones than even that).
A BFG 6800GT OC
An 80GB 7200RPM WD 800JB HDD
Asus DVD with "silenttrack"

Comment:
>To quieten my video card, i'd probably replace it. I'd be too nervous to take the fan/heatsink off. I'm hoping its not the worst noise offender.

Ooh... That's tough to pick out the biggest offenders. I'd say it's a toss up between the PSU and the HSF with the video card trailing behind. Both have recommended replacements here.

If you don't want to replace your video card's heatsink, then I'd suggest trying to trade it in for a Galaxy GeForce 6800GT. It has an NV Silencer built right in to it.

The hard drives and possible case fans will run a distant 4th and 5th to the noisemakers I've outlined above, but you should probably deal with the first three before attempting to silence the rest.

WELCOME TO SPCR

yup, that's a pretty bad case of the noise. I'd start with the PSU, get a 120mm Fortron, good value for the money. Then put a Zalman 7000 AlCu on the CPU, and turn it down to 5V. And perhaps see if the WD harddisk can be put on foam.

I have a P4 2.8C HT machine powered by a Fortron 120mm PSU. As long as I do things like surfing the web and running office applications the PSU is very silent. But as soon as I load the PC with work (two instances of F@H) it is not silent at all. So if you regularly give your computer real work to do, then I would go with something higher up on the recommended list (or a Nexus NX-4090).

Please start by reading core articles, esp the stickies & FAQs for newbies.

MikeC,

Maybe try bolding this part too: "#### FAQ for the System Advice Forum ####". I didn't notice that, is why I say it. Had you given me the benefit of the doubt, you would have been correct in this case. Another idea would be to put that on the main page instead of a sticky within one subforum topic.

Azzie, youd really benifit by reading everything, then coming back to the forums, sure you'll not recall it all, I didn't, but you will appreciate each string better too.