WD Green hard drives for mass storage. Slow, but quiet.

If you're careful and don't mind voiding warranties, PSU fans can be replaced.

I've also had two more ideas.

I'm going to get a vibration pad to sit the PC on, and possible something like that for the microphone (rather than a big shock mount and arm for the microphone, small desk) too. I reckon that + the windshield might help quite a bit.

I got the Windshield btw, and there's literally zero difference.

Quoting: liamdaweI got the Windshield btw, and there's literally zero difference.

Have you considered that the problem may lie in microphone, not in the background sounds? Did you try to record with this microphone in some very silent room (for example on long cable or with some super silent laptop instead your monster PC)?

Quoting: wojtek88

Quoting: liamdaweI got the Windshield btw, and there's literally zero difference.

Have you considered that the problem may lie in microphone, not in the background sounds? Did you try to record with this microphone in some very silent room (for example on long cable or with some super silent laptop instead your monster PC)?

I am positive it's the PC fans.

have you tried to blacklisting the hdmi sound from the graphics card? i also had crackling noise until i blacklisted the hdmi sounds. might not be relevant but just a suggestion.

It's fan noise, I assure you :)

I need to either

a) Box the pc in, but that increases heat and is a bad idea
b) find inventive ways to shield the microphone
c) buy cheaper fans (going with this to start with sometime in the next few months)

It's not too much of a problem now I have a quieter case fan at the back and my new PSU's fan only gets used under heavier load. That plus using a noise gate in OBS will help a lot.

You could buy a fan controller and control it manually mabye you will be able to find the sweet spot. i dunno the quiet fans has always seem to be more expensive where i live :P