cryphakon

It isn't as bad as other new albums but still disappointing that after their all the work to use analog only instruments they compressed as much as they.

I suggest next time you do a build that you look at meeting the 0dB mark, that is one of the few things I see Macs have [near 0dB]. TBH I used to not care how noisy my PC was when I built it, I just wanted maximum cooling so I could OC the GPUs, CPU and RAM. The quiet PC community does it for multiple scenarios including 0dB for music rooms and I have seen some completely silent gaming rigs (woefully under powered). Unless your listening room is completely isolated there will always some ambient noise which can mask the quieter PCs. Also look at if you have the money large SSDs as HDDs will never be completely silent.

As a high school student I have a small collection(500ish albums), it's all ripped(forced to use ALC) and on my desktop's 1TB internal caviar black drive. I use the internal because the WHS isn't always on and it has other tasks to do such as streaming to the TV etc.

Why do you need to buy a NEW PC? Why not purchase passive coolers for the components inside the PC or use low noise fans? There are entire sites dedicated to building silent rigs such as QuietPC. A passive cooler for the CPU and GPU will cost you less than a 100$(maybe $50 I don't know the US market prices) and the PSU is either passively cooled or the fan doesn't even make a noise. Music listening is a walk in the park compared to video conversion, file compression or gaming, your PC isn't going too start getting to hot. Post the specs of your PC please and I'll have a look at what you can do cheaply to get it quiet.