It could be a dying hard drive (especially if you hear clicking noises), but most likely it's a bad fan. Buy an $8 can of compressed air and blow out all the dust from inside your PC (if you've never done this before, you'll be shocked at how dusty it is), especially inside the workings of all your computer's fans. If you still hear the noise after removing the dust, it's probably too late and you'll have to replace the fans. If you're not comfortable doing this yourself, it's worth it to take it to a pro -- installing a CPU fan improperly can completely destroy the chip, turning a $30 repair into a $200+ one.
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