Why does my case sound like a wind tunnel?

I just started noticing that my case is sort of loud. I don't know if this is just normal for a custom computer, but I know the HP I have and the Dells at school aren't even close to this loud (not wind tunnel loud.)



I have:

Coolermaster Centurion 5

Corsair 520W PSU

1-120mm

Antec LED Case Fan (Rear Exhaust)

AMD Athalon X2 5600+ Stock HSF (about to have the Zalman 9700 LED)

and the 120mm and 80mm CoolerMaster fans that came with the case.



So why is it so loud. If there is a specific reason, maybe I can fix it, or if it's how loud a normal case should, I won't worry (or just go water cooling).

Is there any way to test the dBA?

How old is the build there? If you have had it in use for some period of time one thing most likely is the accumilation of dust and dirt. Often you can see a layer of dust right on the fan blades themselves that will need to wiped off manually followed by the use of a can of air cleaner. Fans that see buildup will also start bogging down as well then seeing temps starting to climb.

I've had it for about a month... I don't think it's dust...

I'd try stopping each fan one by one so that you can determine which one is causing the excessive noise. If it's really bad it's possible that one of the fans has a bad bearing. You can purchase a fan controller to decrease the speed at which the fans spin.

Well it could be a defective fan (or just a really bad one...).

But also you do have to consider that Dell's and HP's (and all those premade OEM machines) are made to have minimal cooling. My friend has a Dell and he always brags about how he can barely hear the computer. However he never considers the fact that his computer has only one 120mm fan, resulting in pretty poor ventilation.

Yeah, I tried disconnecting each fan and the HSF, but none of them made it much quieter. It might be the PSU (seeing as how I can't test the others without it) or it could just be a combo of all of them combined.



I may just forget the LED fans, considering how I got cathodes that make it virtually impossible to see the LEDs from the fans. I'll look for super quiet fans and maybe a controller so I can have it low when doing basic stuff, and high when gaming and I don't really care how loud it is.



I guess your right. I shouldn't be comparing my computer to a Dell...

Have you tried listening with the side cover off to see if you can pinpoint the sound? Without any fan besides the supply's going you would have to closely to see if that's what you are actually hearing.