klusda have you tried fan speed at level 2? Presumably the fan will still spin up - maybe around 800 - 900 rpm?

I've got as far as looking at the Asus P8H61-I as a possible M/B as hopeful the Asus fan control will be reasonable. Not sure on voltage options though. Be interested to hear what you go for in the end MB and CPU wise.

For what its worth i'd opt for the i3-3225 as it has the HD 4000 graphics and is typically only an additional £10 in the UK. My uinderstanding is that the I3 will give off less heat than the AMD in virtually every scenario but stand to be corrected on this. I'm contemplating a similar build at the m...

Hi all, I suppose i am one of SPCRs many long time lurkers and have picked up so much invaluable information over the years culminating in two home desktop and one work desktop builds which are inaudible in the slightly noisy environments in which they are placed. So much thanks to all for the artic...

Yes - lots of times with success a few years ago. Switched to Windows 7 now but always found it to slipstream in Service packs, updates and also remove unwanted features perfectly. A stripped down CD installed much faster as well. Not used any recent builds if there are such a thing.