Thanks for all your reactions to my original question. In the end, based also on all your feedback, I decided against the Optiplex. The thought of paying a premium for a completely proprietary system that might *still* be too loud for my taste was too much to bear. Instead, I picked the Asus Pundit ...

The only thing I need to find out now is if a Pundit is more quiet than a fan moded Shuttle SK41G. I would love to have a SN41G2, mainly for the looks, but it's too expensive, especially when you count in all the memory related problems people have been getting. I'm also a bit worried about the Pun...

>> But building your own is the very best way to go if you know what your doing << I've just read the 'vicious circle' thread, and to a certain extent, that reflects my own DIY experiences with noise reduction -- although I (obviously...) haven't gone to the same lengths as rusty et al... Put anothe...

My brothers dell had a Samsung hardrive, until the mobo died and the only replacement one you could buy is through dell. And my moms dell has a western digital 400bb. So it just depends on what drive they can get cheapest I think. Sure, although they're supposed to be a bit more conservative with t...

Thanks to all for the valuable feedback. I'll have to see if I can persuade Dell to tell me the HD drive make and model before I order... Also, special thanks to aphonos for the SD vs SMT info. I was already leaning towards the SD model, this decides it.

GamingGod, you happen to know what model Dell your aunt had? Was it indeed a recent Optiplex? As for the advice to build it myself: I've tried to improve the noise level on some of my own systems with aftermarket components, without much success (Molex Radial Fin proc cooler, 'quiet' power supply, e...

I'm tempted to abandon my own build-a-quiet-PC project and buy a Dell Optiplex GX260 ready-built instead -- considering that these systems seem to be engineered for low noise. However, he Optiplex comes in three case styles: small form factor (SFF), small desktop (SD) and small minitower (SMT), with...