do all E-System PCs make a loud noise?

[Propman]

Bought a new E-System PC from PC World recently. It makes a loud whirring noise from the fan. Having used a laptop and being spoiled by top notch work PCs for some time, is this unusual? Or just common to cheap (sub €1,000) PCs?

 

[Towger]

Mainly just cheap PCs, but not all. We have an expensive HP server that sounds like a Hover. If you look at the Dell's web site you will see they have different ranges of PCs Low, Mid, High. You can select the same spec in the Low and Mid range, but have a €150-200 difference. The difference is the Chip Set (bus speed), Memory speed, Hard Disk speed/interface (when SATA was new) and of course the quality of the case/PSU and thus how loud it is. Then you have the Gamers with high speed graphic cards which can cost as much as the base PC.

Where is an industry around reducing PC noise.

Towger

 

[philboy]

A bit of info on why PCs make noise, not only the cheap ones. It's a bit tecchie orientated but a good insight either way:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000665.html

You can always try switching off one of these fans, the loudest one as suggested in the above article. Just keep an eye out to see if the machine begins to overheat or if the side of it feels too warm.

 

[ClubMan]

You can also take steps to reduce the noise emitted by your PC using DIY or custom kit solutions.

I'd be wary of switching off fans to be honest. I remember working for a well known Irish software development company where the CTO (who really should have known better) disconnected his CPU heatsink fan because the noise annoyed him only for his CPU to burn out within a couple of days!