The 9600GT is a very good alternative to the 8600GT. It is a bit more expensive, but the performance is in a whole different league. It will run Assassins Creed with no problems. The stock cooling of the 9600GT (after the drivers kick in) is very quiet, and i doubt that you would change it to the Ac...

I'm running an 8800GT with the accelero S1 passively in an Antec SOLO case with the only exhausts being the Corsair 520W PSU and a Scythe S-Flex @ 5-600rpm.
My temps are fine according to nVidia Monitor (low 60s after hours of stress)

Here are some benchmarks of the E6850 vs Q6600 with regards to gaming: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q6600_8.html#sect0 And here is the E8500 vs E6850 vs Q9300 vs Q6600: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_9.html#sect0 These benches show that clock ...

Here are some benchmarks of the E6850 vs Q6600 with regards to gaming:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/di ... html#sect0

And here is the E8500 vs E6850 vs Q9300 vs Q6600:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/di ... html#sect0

It's too bad that they do not offer a 8800GT or even 8800GTS with Arctic Coolings solution. With regards to CPU they should offer the E8400 as gaming performance is better with the Core2Duos than the Quad cores. This two changes would drastically reduce heat production with a minimum if inpact on pe...

I'm using 8800GT with Accelero S1, which delivers superb performance and no noise (haven't experienced the coil noise some are complaining about) My brother has a 9600GT with the stock cooler, and it is very quiet, cannot hear it over the other noisesources in the system (running in Antec NKS 3380 c...

Both the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 and S2 support the 9600GT, and with the low prices of both, I think installing one of these is the best way to silence the card.

I would suggest that you get rid of the stock 8800GT stock cooler. I have owned both a 8800GTS and 8800GT and both stock cooling solutions were unacceptably loud for my liking. Applying an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 is a super investment. Having one 120mm exhaust fan should be suffiecient, and there...

gimmezell, that looks like a nice build, but it would be far too costly.

I might give the stock AMD cooler a try using smart fan to slow the fan down.

I have the Solo with a ninja installed on a E6750 with the Gigabyte motherboard, and it a very succesfull combination. You should also try and undervolt you CPU, that way it will be much easier to cool the CPU. I droped the voltage from the stock 1.35V to 1.2V and have experienced no stability probl...

Thank you so much for the quick and competent replies.

It seems that the cheapest route will be just fine, using the AC Alpine 64 and the 4400+, and perhaps replacing the stock Antec Tricooler.

Does anyone have any experience with how well the mounting mechanism for the HDD copes with vibrations?

Here is the spcr recommended 120mm fan list:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html

I have used a Scythe S-Flex SFF21E and a Pabst both undervolted to 5-7V and they have worked great.

I have thought about the Solo and a Corsair PSU (I have the very same combination in my own system), but that would drive the price of the system too far up. Also according to the spcr review of the NSK3480 that it was a big step up from other alternatives in the same price range. It could be possib...

My brother is in need of a new machine, and as the hardware "expert" of the family I have volunteered to build him one. Seeing as the machine will be used primarily for watching movies and playing iTunes, and that he is on a tight budget, I will focus the build on low to middle end components that c...

I have the 520W Corsair PSU, and I'm satisfied with it, can only hear it when i put my ear close to the exhaust, then there is a slight clicking sound. I have the Gigabyte motherboard AND the Creative Xtreme Music soundcard. I'm very satisfied with the Creative soundcard, but I have not bothered to ...

MikeC why would you attach a fan to the GPU? That would only propel the heat upwards, which is the way it will go on its own. Just stressed the 8800GT with an hours Need for Speed Pro Street, and the highest temp i achieved was 59celcius, so not bad at all. And this is totally passive cooling, syste...

I have a somewhat similar setup as you have en mind. Ninja Plus with stock fan @ 700rpm Intel E6750 @ 1,2V stock speed Gigabyte P35 S3 Scythe S-Flex @ 700rpm Antec Solo Samsung T166 (using the elastic mounting system of the Solo eliminating all vibration) Geforce 8800GT with Accelero S1 (43C idle, h...

Ultrachrome, do you need the ram heatsinks like with the other 8800 cards, or is the vf1000 enough?

Finally a new video card cooler review fra spcr, and I'm pleased to see that the cooler performs so well acoustically. I wouldn't dare buy this cooler (or any other cooling solution with a fan) before spcr can vouch for it's noise because it seems that most reviewers have a completely differet noise...

The Logitech X-230 seem to be very popular and offer excellent value for money. They are very cheap too (=$40) If you step it up you can get the Logitech Z4, which I have very good experiences with, my girlfriend actually uses them as her stereo, and they can even handle a party! I my self have the ...

Its funny how the harddrive cage design of the Sonata/3700BQE have changed from being a good idea and thinking out of the box to being virtually useless and a bad idea to start with. I believe that it was discussed in the original review that the 90 degree turned orientation of the Sonata/3700BQE on...

Are you running your videocard with stock cooling?

The temperatures for your CPU seem fine, so nothing to worry about here, I will trade low temperatures for low noise any day (as long as the temps are not causing instability of course)

If you are going to run the Papst fan at 12V (1400rpm right?) then it will be noisy too, but not as much as the stock fan. The Papst is good becuase it undervolts nicely and at 5V it delivers enough airflow AND is very quiet. If you complain about the noise of the Papst fan at 5V, then you have a ve...

Are you going to modify the Shuttle, because if not then my guess will be that the harddrive is not going to be your primary source of noise, and therefor you can safely choose the 80gb harddrive over the 40gb

How about this enclosure which supports 10,000rpm drives:

http://www.silentmaxx.de/sm-hd.php

They have an english site too, but I don't have time to find it right now.

I'm curious Jan, why run the CPU at less than the specified voltage and speed, seeing that your Zalman CNPS7000 can handle the heat quite fine at 5V?
Does the lower speed reduce the strain on the PSU and enable the PSU fan to run slower, or is the only benefit a lower temperature of the CPU?

Good news from Edward Ng, I do hope it's going to be possible to fairly compare the two heatsinks as they are going to be testet on two different test rigs.

Ralf, have you tried giving the Globe fan fewer volts, to see how low it will start, and see if this reduces noise further.

I could imagine that the Globe has fairly similar characteristics to the Papst, as it runs at approx. the same rpm at those voltages. Also the sound described in the review could fit the Papst.

Too bad you have no Papst 120mm fan to compare with the others, would be nice for all us European users.
Could you maybe note at what rpm the fans were spinning at the different voltages?

Found a minor typo during my reading on page3:
After that I plugged to fan into the power cable

to should be the

If money is not a concern then I would buy a fanless PSU too. It seems that you have pretty good airflow in your case, so getting a PSU with a 120mm fan is not crucial. Remember that MikeC has reviewed alot of PSU's so he does know waht he is talking about, and the Noisetaker scored higher than ALOT...