intx
You could add many more reasons:
When you have a quiet PC at or below the level of ambient noise, the sheer sense of luxury and "smoothness" is indescribable to those who have not experienced it. I use the word
smooth, and I mean it in much the way a 2Ghz system feels smoother than a 1Ghz one. There's such a sense of ease that everything you do on/with the PC is so much smoother, easier, more relaxed.
It's like driving or riding in a fast, quiet, comfortable, new car compared to... an early turbo diesel Mercedes that has been driven on potholed roads for 20 years?
Aside from hearing damage, which is not that much of a risk even with fairly loud PCs (
admittedly the worst are pretty dang loud!) there is the reduction of stress. >40 dBA of machine noise day-in, day-out, is a lot of stress. People don't realize how much it adds to their overall stress... until they power the PC off and sigh with relief. We are effective at tuning out unwanted noise, if it not
TOO loud, but we pay a price. Part of our mind is engaged in suppressing that noise, and that is the cause of stress.
Here's a question to act as your answer:
Do you feel a sense of relief when you turn your computer off? Conversely, how much strain does this suggest you're actually under when the PC is on?