Insulate PC: You should definitely pay attention to this

If your PC is too loud, insulating the case can be very helpful. Most of the time it is not enough: We show you what you should pay attention to and how to get your PC as quiet as possible.

Loud PC - Does the insulation mat help or is it due to the fan?

First of all, you should differentiate which form of noise pollution you will find in your housing. This is the only way to find a suitable problem solution.

• If you primarily hear your fans, then housing insulation will hardly help you. This insulates, but usually hardly absorbs any sound. Insulation mats are usually not designed for this.
• If you want to make your PC fans quieter, we recommend a fan controller. With this you can adjust the speed of the individual fans and thus make the PC a little quieter. However, we advise you to initially only attach this fan control to the case fans.
• You should be well informed before changing the graphics card and processor speeds. Most of them are completely automatic and depending on usage they are sometimes louder and sometimes quieter.
• The situation is different, however, if you have compact water cooling on your processor. Here you can monitor the fan speeds and turn them down if necessary. Always keep an eye on the temperature of the processor. Here, too, we recommend that you read the water cooling topic carefully before you change any of the settings.
• Another solution to the problem of loud fans is to buy new fans. There is now a large selection on the Internet and there is something for everyone. For example, if you primarily use office applications, you do not need case fans with a high air flow rate. These are mostly located in water cooling and therefore more in the gaming area.
• When buying each item, pay attention to how loud it can get under maximum load. This way you can prevent your PC from becoming too loud due to the built-in parts.
• If your components are quiet, but your case itself is very loud, then it is probably due to the vibrations of the fans. You will often hear a soft rattling. Here the insulation of the PC case helps. We will explain to you exactly how this works in the following.

How to Insulate Your PC

• First you should order insulation foam mats. You can find these on the Internet or in a well-stocked hardware store. However, we advise you to buy the mats on the Internet: There you will find more mats that are designed for PC cases.
• Make a plan at the beginning where you need to put the mats everywhere. It is helpful to know where the vibrations come from and what the loudest noise sources are. Be careful not to cover any important openings for fans. Otherwise the air flow can no longer take place in your housing and it will be too hot for the components.
• Once you've made the plan, it's time to cut the mats. It depends on how big your case is and how it is shaped.
• You can also insulate individual components with washers. You can install these washers all around on hard drives, for example. This dampens the vibrations and the surrounding material will not chatter as soon as the hard disk is working.
• For some hard drives, there are also entire installation frames. These then have small rubber rings on the screws with which the hard disk is damped.
• The underside of your housing can also be insulated. For this, use rubber feet that you attach to the feet of the housing.
• Similar to the mounting frame for the hard drives, there are also rubber frames for other components, for example for your power supply. Attach this to the back of the power supply unit, where you screw it onto your housing. The rubber frame is therefore between the power supply and the housing wall and thus prevents vibrations from being transmitted.
• If after all these measures your PC is still too loud, you should consider buying a soundproof housing.

If you would like to find out more about water cooling, take a look at our workshop on this topic. Here we explain everything you need to know about water cooling on 13 pages.