I built my new system yesterday, here's the spec:

Chenbro PC61166 Gaming System Silver
Nexus NX-4090 Special Edition, 400W ATX
Nexus Case Fan 120cm
2xSamsung SpinPoint P80 160GB (SP1614C)
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 0.09µ Socket-939 boxed, 2.20GHz
Zalman CNPS-7000B-Cu
ASUS A8V Deluxe Wireless Edition
Corsair DIMM XMS Kit 1024MB (2x512)

Sadly, I got the SpinPoint with JVC motor and it's not that quiet. Right now I don't have a front case fan to blow some air onto the HDs so they are very hot too, I think a 92mm Nexus Fan will have to do.

At default speed (about 2000 RPM) the Zalman 7000B is pretty loud, but after I used the packaged Fanmate to tune it down all the way (about 1300-1400 RPM) it's perceptiblly quieter, but the 120mm Nexus Fan is still quieter, which kinda makes me regret that I didn't go for the XP120 and a Nexus fan. The Nexus NX-4090 works really well too, very quiet for a 400W PSU.

I ran CPU Burn overnight yesterday, with the case open, and to my surprise today I see the CPU temp hasn't even exceed 40°C!
I set the "Overclock by 10%" (2420MHZ now) option in BIOS and closed the case, turned the cpu fan down all the way (1400RPM) and then started the Passmark BurnInTest. It's been running for 1 hour now and CPU temp peak at 56°C (52°C when I turn the fan way up).

So far I'm quite satisfied with my new rig, but I'm sure there are things I could do even better. For example, I do think my CPU temp is quite in the safe range and I wonder what further reducing the fan speed would do. And what can I do about my hard disk? Will rubber suspension help in my case?

And right now I run without a heavy duty GPU (currently using a dated Geforce2), I'm sure things will not look so good as soon as I get a 6800GT, well...

P.S. I tried to set the FSB to 240 in the BIOS. but it doesn't seem to have any effect? The CPU still shows up as 2200Mhz, and it only changes when I said "Overclock by 10%", can someone give me a short explanation of what I can/should do with the MHz in the bios?

many thanks in advance!

would never have believed it, but i used $1.99 bungie cord to suspend my hitachi 80gb drive... although it is not 'inaudible' from close range, it is probably inaudible from ~10 feet... in my experience, hard drives make the most noise so i'd start there...

I think I have to do something about the HDs as well, when I close the case and let some disk benchmark run they become pretty loud:(
And the sound also resonates in the case and makes it sound even louder...
I'm considering the NoVibes decoupling rack now, but not sure if it would work with my Chenbro Gaming Bomb Xpider case, anyone has some experience here? I have some screwless mounting rails for the 5'' drives, don't know if it would work...

Pleased to see you are getting such nice results with your Winchester processor - I have the identical model in my new rig, with a Zalman AlCu and am presently showing around 53oC under 95% folding load.

However I have to say sometimes this has risen to 64oC or even higher and I am mystified as to why (this can even occur first thing on booting system after about five minutes of load). The only idea I have presently is that it might be to do with heavy memory access if the controllers are on the CPU now?

I am not sure how to tell if I have JVC motors or not - but I have identical spinpoint to you and am pretty happy with it. Then again I also have a Seagate SATA and a Barracuda ATA alongwith it, so that could be a factor

Do keep me posted if you experience any temperature anomalies. Also my idle temps never seem to go as low as yours (maybe your case is cooler? - my case temp is showing around 22oC prsently if the readout is to be believed, though I suspect 34oC may be nearer truth).

Do you use native ASUS utility for temperature readout? I am using MBM but had to add some compensation values to get it to match up with BIOS reports.

MainframeGuy, your temp difference is probably caused by F@H.

F@H uses several different cores for the calculations. The Gromacs core uses floating point calculations. The Tinker core uses integer calculations. These calculations are done in different parts of the CPU. While crunching a WU that needs the Gromacs core a CPU generally gets hotter than when crunching a WU that needs the Tinker core.

Harddisks:

You turn it over to the side with the electronics and look at the round metal in the middle. The manufacturer is printed on it.

While a JVC Samsung is worse than a Nidec (or so it's reported, I'm among the unlucky) suspension goes a long way to knocking off the noise. Also a good case is required to contain the airborne noise. The Chenbro is reported to have very good airflow and Samsung drives are cool to begin with. Still, I suggest you suspend your drives in the intake area as suspension tends to raise temps a bit. Although I've never used one, I can't seem to feel that NoVibes would match the results of a nice bungee suspension.

CPU Temps:

Have you guys undervolted your CPUs? You can do that even when you're overclocking. In one (noisy) configuration, I managed to run my 2000MHz/1.5V A64 at 2300MHz/1.25V.

As for the reliability of your BIOS/software/MBM temp reports, you can go ahead and do the calibration thing. It's in the forums.

Folding:

My temps stay the same with Gromacs OR Tinkers OR Ambers.

Another night of heavy load test (BurnIn Test of CPU and RAM for 17 hours). The CPU is overclocked to 2420Mhz with Cool&Quiet properly enabled, fan way down (1400RPM), and the CPU temp peaked at 51°C, which is simply awesome!
As soon as I terminated the test the CPU switched the multiplier to 5 and it's only 1100Mhz, and I watched the temp go down to about 30°C in 1 or 2 minutes! Would never have believed that!
Must say I'm EXTREMELY impressed by the Winchester CPU: fast, good overclocking potential and so incrediblly cool!

Is it possible to undervolt the CPU on A8V Deluxe? I haven't found such options in bios, and my overclocked CPU while running full speed consumes about 1.6V, 1.36 while tuned down by C&Q.

HD suspension can only be done with a 5'' HD case, right? In my Chenbro case there's a 3.5'' HD cage in which my Samsungs reside at the moment. It's right behind the grill of the intake fan (which I haven't installed yet), would be a good place, but can it be suspended in the 3.5'' cage at all?

Also, what is a "bungee suspension" and where can I find some guides on how to do it properly?

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions so far!

A8V is Asus right? Asus usually does not offer undervolting in BIOS. You might try to find the controller chip on the motherboard and using the correct ClockGen program for it.

Bungee suspension is specifically aphonos' suspension method. I use it loosely to refer to any method of elastically suspending a hard disk. Check the sticky in the silent storage forum and also browse the reviews referenced there.