Right now I got a pretty silent pc.
The only thing that is making noticable sound is the graphics card and occationally some noises from the harddrives (they are not SSDs)
I'm running passive cooling of the CPU (a Scythe Ninja without fan, but a lot of low-rpm fans around the case)

I'm going to upgrade my harddrive, CPU, RAM and motherboard.
I've already decided that I'm getting the harddrive called Samsung SSD 830 Series 256GB.

So, I need help deciding on:
CPU that can be cooled passively (or close). Low heat emissions, but packs a punch
Type and amount of RAM (is there any point having 16GB, or should I get 8GB instead?)
Motherboard that makes the most use of the HDD, CPU and RAM (silent ofc, meaning no chipset fan. they are always very noisy)

I use my pc for photoshopping and gaming ie. Battlefield 3, Diablo 3 and various new titles.

Does anyone have a recommendations for what CPU, RAM and motherboard I should get?

You should provide a little more info.
Photoshop does benefit from more ram, games don't beyond 4GB, how often do you use Photoshop?
Battlefield 3 stresses the whole system, whats your screen resolution?
Do you want to max out all settings on your resolution or are you willing to settle for lower setting if it means less noise?
What case do you have?
A fast graphic cards produces lots of heat, is your case well ventilated? Can you add a fan for the graphic card?
What power supply do you have?
High end graphic cards use lots of power, if you want to keep your current PSU you might have to get a graphic card that uses less power. Or you have to buy a new PSU.
Whats the time frame for your upgrade?
New Intel Processors will come out April 8th, new nVidia cards April 12th(maybe) and mid level cards from AMD sometime in the next two months.
Last but not least, whats your budget?

More information about my PC:
Case: Antec Performance One P182. I have 4 fans in my case, all running on low rpm (top and front inwards, back and PSU outwards). I'm not sure if there is room for any more fans tbh.
PSU: MIST, 650W
Resolution: 1680x1050 on a 22" monitor. I might get an 24" in the future
Graphics card: Gainward GeForce GTX 560 Ti Phantom 2GB.
I have no plans of getting a new PSU og a graphic card

I don't really use Photoshop that often. It varies from time to time. But I'd say about once a week on avg.
I'd like to be able to alt+tab in and out of games pretty fluently.

I'd like to max out on my res., but it dipends on how much more noise we're talking about to do it.
Noise while gaming isn't really a big problem, as the gamesound is far louder

The gfx-card is very new, and I'm not buying a new one any time soon.
I'm just getting an SSD, CPU+cooler, RAM and a mainboard. So all I'm asking is what CPU, RAM and mainboard should I get to keep my pc silent, og even more silent then now.

I thought about getting the parts within the next new weeks or so. But it dipends on what the benefits are if I decide to wait a while

I haven't really thought about my budget. Within reasonable limits I guess.

The main reason why I'm upgrading is because I want to get the most out of my new SSD (Samsung SSD 830 Series 256GB)
which requires a new mainboard, which requires new cpu(with cooler) and new ram

Well, for the motherboard, it really depends on your personal preference. Many mobo's don't have fans so it's really up to you to decide. Personally I prefer ASUS because I have good experience with them and they have excellent fan controlling (at least for the CPU fan, but that doesn't seem to benefit you). I believe most motherboards would satisfy your needs.

Sorry must have misread about the graphic card.
Intel 2500k CPU has the best price/performance ratio atm.
I recommend the Z68 chipset. You can overclock the cpu and use VIrtu: you plug the monitor into the mainboard and the graphic card will only be used for 3D applications and games. It has 2 Sata 6GB/s ports and 4 Sata II ports.
MSI boards are Power efficient and I hear they have good fan controllers in order from least to most expensive: MSI Z68A-G43 is the entry level model, only two external USB 3.0 ports. Thte GD55 also has two internal USB 3.0 ports, the GD65 two SATA 6GB/S ports on top of that. The GD80 has two internal USB 3.0 ports, one SATA 6GB/s port, one ESATA, and a third PCIe 16x slot for a third graphics card.
Photoshop can use the ram and 16 GB are cheap. Speed doesn't matter much at all 1333MHz is ok if 1600 is only 5$ more you can buy it, it's not worth more, imho.
The fastest SSD is the Intel 520 series, but it's expensive. The Samsung 830 is also good, the Crucial C4 has the best price/performance ratio. Going from HDD to SSD is a noticable speed increase, going from one SSD to a faster one is measurable, but not a huge jump in performance.

Battlefield 3 benchmarked. Not a CPU intensive game. A 3GHz dual core or better will work fine.

Blizzard's games tend to be more CPU intensive than GPU intensive. The latest new release, Starcraft II, only uses 2 cores. But, faster is better.

The benefit for quad core in these games is for the other stuff running in the background (browser, itunes, teamspeak, etc).

Photoshop will use as much cpu as you can give it. So, quad core will be better than dual. It'll also run faster with 16GB than 8GB...but, it may not matter for the casual user.

Your current gpu is fine for these games. No need to upgrade.

The i5-2500k suggestion is the best. Fast quad core with ability to overclock if you want to.

Thanks for the tips guys!

Ok, lets say I decide to get i5 2500K and 16GB of ram.
What cooler should I get for the CPU to run the most silent system?

The top part of my current case looks like this:




I'd like a cooler that benefits from my top and back fan. The top fan blows air inwards and the back one outwards.

Is it possible to just use a cooler without a fan? Or do I need to have a fan for it to be cool enough?
If I need to have a cooler with a fan, where would you put it? On the right side of the cooler blowing towards the back fan?

Which version of the Ninja is that?
If it's the Ninja 2000, all you need is this mounting bracket and your good. The Ninja is among the best coolers for semi passive use, no need to replace it.
If not a new Ninja or Thermalright HR-02 Macho.

That is a Scythe Ninja PLUS Rev. B (SCNJ-1100P NINJA PLUS Rev.B), so I think I have to get a new one.

Do you still think I can use a cooler without a fan for the i5 2500K, with my case setup ?
If not, where would you put the fan when you look at my pic of the hardware?

So, which new one should I get? I'm not really sure which ones are the best for my kind of use
Is it a race between Scythe NINJA 3 Rev.B (SCNJ-3100 NINJA 3 Rev.B) and the Thermalright HR-02 Macho?

Depends on whether or not you want to overclock. There are two fans in close proximity to the CPU cooler. You could try as is or build a small fan duct from paper to the exhaust fan. If the temps are still too high I would add a fan blowing towards the back.

There are others, but at very low fan speeds it's hard to beat the HR-02, it's inexpensive and has good mounting hardware, which is a somewhat rare combination.

I'm not going to overclock.

I'll try the Thermalright HR-02 Macho without a fan and check the temperatures
If the temperatures are too high I'll add a fan blowing towards the back (the HR-02 comes with a fan)
But, hopefully, the fan wont be needed.

I see that the Ninja3 has 8 heatpipes compared to the HR-02 which has 6. Does it even matter / make a difference?

Are there other coolers that are even worth mentioning for my kind of use? I'm totally outdated when it comes to CPU-coolers :p
It kind of seems like the HR-02 is the best choice for me...

When it comes to the mainboard I've been having a look around
Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 seems to get decent reviews

However, most of the motherboards have way more ports then I need.

All I need to connect is:
1 graphics card, 1 SSD + 1 HDD, 1 DVD-burner, mouse (usb), keyboard (usb) and mic (usb), and ofc sound and 1 network cable.

Are there any other motherboard that I should consider? I think the Asus card is a bit expensive (236$ in norway)

If you have a separate video card and don't plan to use the ssd caching feature or Quick Sync, then just get a P67 board. Asus has a product comparison feature on their website. You can see which mobo has only the features you need. Heck, you can do the same at an etailer like newegg.com and get a feel for pricing at the same time.

Take a look at the Asus P8Z68-V Gen3 without pro, Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 and the MSI Z68A-G45 (G3). All of them have two internal and two external USB3.0 ports, which is a must have in my opinion.

I ended up on Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3.

Now it only memory remains to decide on what memory I should get.
More specifically, what Mhz it should be?

The mainboard supports:
1066, 1200, 1300, 1333, 1600, 1800, 1866, 2133 MHz (1.5V)

I know I want 16GB of Kingston memory (have very good experience with Kingston)
But what kind og Mhz should I get?

And, another thing.

The Gigabyte MB seem to only support 1.5V memory.
Does that mean that I have to get 1.5V memory modules and not 1.65V?

If not, is it worth it to change the MB to one that supports 1.65V?

It's the other way around - 1.5V memory is compliant with Sandybridge and is what you should be using. Best bet, see what's on Gigabyte's qualified vendor list for RAM. As for speed, look at 1333 and 1600 with similar latency. Performance bump is slight when you go up in speed, but if the price is close, might as well get the 1600.

According to this sheet of supported memory, there are not that many choices when I want 8GB or 16GB memory.
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Me ... d3h-b3.pdf

Any suggestions what I should get?

I'm not really locked to Kingston, it's just that I have good experience with them.

Heh - no 8GB sticks on there and not a wide selection of 4GB, either. No specific recommendations. I had good luck with G.Skill.

1600MHz CL9 for 4GB sticks CL10 for 8GB Sticks. That's the sweetspot of the price/perfomance ratio.
I bought 8GB of Corsair Vengeance on sale for my next rig. My current system runs on G.Skill didn't have any problems with them.

I would go for two of these kits:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?s ... e=KINGSTON