How to Silence your PC for Less Than $20

YOU’LL NEED THIS

YOUR PC Compressed air, thermal paste, and patience.

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, you don’t actually need to spend a whole wallet full of cash to make your PC run silently with liquid cooling and big radiators—which is great, because with the human malware that is Covid-19 going around, chances are your local PC shop won’t accept cash, and you’ll also prefer to save it for a rainy day. But now we’ve come to a non-metaphorical rainy day, and you’ve decided it’s time to do something about that loud PC of yours. So here’s how you can silence your PC for under $20 (your results may vary).

A wonderful thing is that almost every PC—laptops not included—comes with cooling gear that is, at least moderately, over-dimensioned for the task. Like your car, it has to be able to keep running properly on a hot day,