Dota (1, in warcraft 3) would have a hitch every once in a while, and i'd die if it was in a fight. Cause was swap writing to disk, that you can't turn off in winxp. I was already looking at linux, so i said f it. Bdw warcraft 3 runs well on linux if you add -opengl.

It is impossible to "cancel" noise in a room, because physics. Maybe you could cancel out some waves in some parts of a room, but you would probably intruduce your own waves in other parts of the room.

My advice: get some foam/stone wool, plants, a couch, put a blanket on the wall and or ceeling. Absorb the waves. Active noise cancelation only really works in earphones.

I'm not into this topic, but i do want to share a talk by Joe Armstrong (creator of erlang).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNICGEwmXLU

The whole chanel is full of stuff like this.