I'm currently running the following rig:
Super Micro X5DAL-G motherboard
Dual 2.66ghz Xeons
2 gigs DDR 266mhz ram
Radeon 9700 Pro
Two SCSI Seagate Cheetah drives (18 gigs, 15000RPM) in striping RAID
Adaptec 29320-R SCSI card
Two IDE WD 60 gig 7200rpm drives (hopefully to be in mirroring software raid)

Now, I know quiet is gonna be a relative term. But...
Should I go wtih the Q-Power case (that way I could use liquid cooling for the processors and vid card) or go with the Antec? Which will be quiter? Price is of no object...
ATM the SCSI drives make a HUGE amount of noise (vibration). No matter which case I get I'll be suspending them on elastic. Should I get the Antec so that the drives aren't as audbiel? Or will the Q-power be qutier because of the lack of fans on the vid card and Xeons?

All help DEFINITELY appreciated (and if there is another case thats better than either plz lemme know)
Thankyou,
Parker

But overall, which will lead to a quiter overall system? The watercooling route/case? Or the Antec Sonata?
Would the thicker metal in the Sonata case lead to a lower hd noise than the Swiftech case?
I know the drives are supposedly really loud no matter what you do...but I was just trying to at least get everything else quieted...

Ok, everyone knows that 15000 are A. LOUD and B. H-O-T. So, the problem is that usually when you make them quiet that means putting something (rubber,foam, etc) around the drives - causing massive overheating.

Would it be possible to use the Koolance HD Waterblock on the HD, THEN surround the hard drive in a rubber enclosure (or something similar)? Would the koolance water hd cooler be enough when the drive was completely closed in? If it wouldnt be enough, could you use a couple of the coolers (ie one on each side of the drive?) to solve the problem?

Thankyou,
Parker

I would go with the water cooling case and then try to watercool/rubber box the hard drives. Should be able to quiet things down quite a bit.

Well, if money's no object, than I'd go with watercooling and some of thesenifty innovatek water-cooled rubber HDD mounts. Just check and make sure you can get the right waterblock mounts for the Xeon CPU sockets.

Also, I don't know which Cheetah drives you have, but the 15K.3 Cheetahs are supposed to be respectably quieter and much cooler than their predecessors. Again, if money's no object...

I'm willing to bet you could do better than the components Swiftech has chosen to include with the Q-Power, but it would take time to research, and wouldn't be a "plug-and-play" solution. And the integrated heatsink on the back of the Q-Power is pretty nice.

Good luck.