> I sometimes miss good old HDDs, because you could tell if they were busy just by listening. But considering the godawful noise the really fast HDDs made, SSDs

> I sometimes miss good old HDDs, because you could tell if they were busy just by listening. But considering the godawful noise the really fast HDDs made, SSDs are a blessing. Oh indeed! I used to run my HDDs in soundproofed enclosures (a company was selling those back in the days) but of course it would make them overheat. So I'd cut a square hole in the HDD enclosure (and through the soundproofing foam inside the enclosure) and then I'd put a large but quiet fan on top of the HDD. This worked great, for years. Having owned silent computers like the Commodore C64 / C128 and Amiga the switch to the early ultra noisy PC was particularly painful to me. So back when "silent PCs" weren't a thing I made my own: I'd run fans at 7 V instead of 12 (by using the 12 V and 5 V pins to create 7 V), I had my neighbor (electrical engineer) create me a device I'd put into all my PSUs that'd turn the PSU's fan off when the heat wasn't too high (back then this didn't exist: but I wanted one anyway so I had my neighbor "invent" one and I'd then replicate it in all my PSUs) and... When I found these HDD "quietening" enclosures, I ordered so many the company asked me if I wanted to become the official importer for the Benelux area : ) I'd have super quiet "panaflo" fans shipped to me from Japan and I'd replace all my PSU / CPU / tower fans with these quiet fans. So basically I had quiet PCs before it was a thing. Nowadays I just buy Be Quiet! PSUs / fans and a well insulated tower and I'm a happy camper. Things got way quieter : )