I have a small hard drive that is making a constant high pitched sound that is typical of the drive, and not very noticeable to the average person, but I have pain induced noise sensitivity. I am curious about how to calculate damping potential. As an initial guestimate, the frequency is very near to my maximum audible range and likely around 12kHz-16kHz. It is a little higher than the switch mode power supplies that I can also hear if it is dead silent in the room, although the drive is a higher amplitude. Addressing the noise with a solution is probably beyond the scope of anything I would actually do, but knowing how to solve it is far more interesting to me. (ELI15 )
High pitch noise like from hard drives, typically in the 5 to 15k hz frequencies generally can be dampened quite a bit with pretty simple solutions like accoustic foam. Since it’s probably not that loud you won’t need much material to achieve a bit of reduction. Only thing I’d worry about is temperature management, keep an eye on it. Afaik there are also special desktop PC cases that are insulated, for like sound studios and such.