Davabled
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How-To: Electrostatic Shield Mod for Front Panel Audio Cables
This do-it-yourself mod adds a simple layer of metal foil, terminated to a ground point, to reduce the amount of airborne electrical noise penetrating the unshielded front panel audio cables that come with many cases.
People looking for truly clear audio out of their front panel ports will probably have to wait until manufacturers start selling high-quality shielded cables. (among other things, like video cards without squealing capacitors and coils) 
What it may do:
• Decrease the amount of buzzing/static/noise heard when using headphones/speakers connected to the front panel connectors that came with your computer case.
What it will NOT do:
• Completely eliminate all electrostatic noise. (including that caused by video cards that squeal under high loads - that noise will likely require modification of the video card)
• Eliminate non-electrostatic sources of noise, such as those caused by:
o Driver/operating system limitations
o Bus latency issues
o Ground-circuit problems
o Noise present in the source audio
How-To:
Materials needed:
• Metal tape (found at most hardware stores; I’m using a role of 3M Metal Repair tape. To the untrained eye, it almost looks like duct tape. Duct tape will NOT work for this) The key thing here being that it is conductive. Tin foil could also be used but would likely be harder to work with.
• Non-conductive tape. I’ll be using some black racing tape (basically just black duct tape) in the screenshots since I find it convenient. Electrical tape or heat-shrink tubing are other viable options.
• Jumper wire(s). I’ll be using a jumper wire with alligator clips on both ends again due to convenience.
Prep:
Shut down the computer and remove the power cable! Leave the power cable unplugged until the mod is complete, or you could accidentally short out and fry something!
Step 1:
Remove the audio cable from the case entirely, if possible.
Step 2:
Lay the audio cable out on a table. Unroll a strip of metal tape the length of the cable. Lay the audio cable on the top of the strip of tape, and then roll the cable into the tape. You only need to roll it enough to get one layer of metal tape around the cable. I prefer this method, wrapping the metal tape around the cable in a spiral fashion could cause dead spots due to the tape not being conductive on the sticky side.
Step 3:
Using a knife or scissors, cut the remaining tape away leaving a small strip which we will use in a moment to connect our jumper wire too. (optional: leave a small strip at both ends so the cable can be grounded at both ends)
Step 4:
Fold the small strip of metal tape onto itself. (The sticky side of the metal tape doesn’t conduct very well, and in many cases will act as an insulator). Connect one end of the jumper wire to the now-folded strip of metal tape.
Step 5:
Cover the length of the cable with non-insulating tape. In the pictures I will be doing it the same way I covered the cable with the metal tape. The key here is to make sure that none of the metal tape is exposed. You should be able to easily cover the jumper cable connection area as well.
Step 6:
Plug the audio cable back into the case and soundcard (or motherboard if using built-in sound). While doing this, see if it’s possible to route the cable away from your video cards and hard drives. Also keep it as far away as possible from power cables. If it goes near a power cable, see if it’s possible to have the cable run at a 90 degree angle to the power cable. This is the hardest part, since most front audio cables seem to be just long enough to reach the sound card.
Step 7:
Connect the other end of one of the jumper cables to the interior of the case. If you don’t have alligator clips like I do, you could wrap a wire around a screw and screw it in someplace convenient. (optional) Repeat this for the other jumper cable near the front of the case.
Step 8:
Verify that everything is attached properly.
Step 9:
Don’t expect much.
Final Steps(s):
Plug the computer back in and give it a test. There should still be some static, especially when running graphically intense things like games, but it should hopefully be much more bearable now.
Troubleshooting:
If there’s no change in the noise levels, than you probably have other causes of noise such as those listed at the beginning. But here are a couple things you can try:
• Try a different location for jumper wire.
• While the computer is on and the side panel is off, try moving the audio cable around a bit in your case and see if the level of noise changes, this might help you find a better way to route the audio cable in the case. <- I found the greatest reduction of noise by moving my cable around while listening to the headphones. Location and orientation of the cable had a much greater impact on noise levels than connecting the grounding jumper did.
You may want to check out this thread discussing this issue in regards to an Antec case, I gained some of my inspiration there:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100720554
This was hastily done by me in about fifteen minutes. I hope that, after reading this, others will be inspired to do their own noise reduction mods. I’m eager to see what you can come up with; I know many of you can do even better!
Good Luck!
P.S. More… ahem… travelled users will probably choose to use an S.E.P. field instead. 
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