Quote Originally Posted by 'maqz',index.php?page=Thread&postID=32387#post3238 7
Check out silentpcreview.com! Most people on these forums just throw a bunch of computers together and don't care abot the noise. :P
I've been reading that site for years now - it's fantastic. In summary of what I've built based on many reviews from that site and testing out various components, here's what I would use for the goal of silence:

Case: Antec P180/P182. It's heavy and large, but it is built for silence with great cooling. The sides use metal-plastic-metal layering to further muffle sound, and it works. Note: If you use a very long videocard, like an 8800GTX, you'll have to remove the middle 3.5" harddrive rack out of the case. That's not usually an issue because there is still room for 4 hard drives in the lower drive compartment - where they should be anyway for better cooling.

CPU Heatsink for air cooling: Scythe Ninja (the best heatsink for low-rpm 120mm fans since the fins are spaced further apart than the Infinity/Tuniq Tower/Zalman/Thermalright 120 heatsinks). Get a Ninja and 800-1200rpm Scythe S-Flex or Nexus 120mm fan and it's very good cooling for virtually no noise.

Northbridge chipset heatsink: Thermalright HR-01. It's a tower-type heatpipe, so make sure you have room. However, it's fanless and cools very well compared to the tiny 40/60mm fans that are currently stock on chipset heatsinks.

Graphics card/heatsink: It depends on your card and the amount of space you're willing to lose since nearly all videocard heatsinks are larger than stock, but the Thermalright HR-03 series (Plus model for the 8800GTX/Ultra) is currently the best for quiet cooling. The Arctic Cooling Accelero S1/S2 models are cheap and very good as well.

Fans: The Nexus 120mm fans have been around the best for years, but I prefer the 120mm Scythe S-Flex noise characteristics now. They come in a variety of speeds as well (800rpm, 1200rpm, 1600rpm).

Hard Drives: The old Seagate Barracuda IV was very quiet for years, but the last couple years have been dominated by the Samsung Spinpoint models (T model now). My next drives to try out are the Western Digital GP drives - they vary in speed from 5400-7200rpm depending on use, which lesses power consumption and heat while not in use. They're also extremely quiet so I'm probably going to purchase a pair for my next machine.

Power Supply: All SeaSonic models. They're a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for. Not only are they very quiet, they're also very efficient, stable, and reliable. Corsair's power supplies are simply rebadged SeaSonics, and there are some Antecs (like the Earthwatts) that are also SeaSonic PSUs.

DVD/CD Drive: Plextor & Samsung. There are a lot of drive models available, but I've seem to find the Plextor and Samsung drives to be more 'solid' while discs are spinning - leading to less vibration & noise. For the price, the Samsung drives are hard to beat.

If I were to build a machine now for quiet multibox gaming & WoW, I'd go with something like this:

Intel Q6600 w/ Scythe Ninja & Scythe S-Flex 1600rpm 120mm fan.
Gigabyte X38T-DQ6 motherboard (or eVGA 780i motherboard for SLI)
8800GT (or 8800GTS G92) w/Thermalright HR-03 & Scythe S-Flex 1600rpm 120mm fan.
2x Western Digital GP 500GB hard drives
Samsung DVDR/CDR drives
Antec P182 w/4x Scythe S-Flex 1600rpm fans.
Corsair 620W or SeaSonic 700W PSU
Front drive bay fan controller - Switchable from 5V/7V/9V/12V for all 4 case fans, CPU fan, and GPU fan.

My current machine is similar to the above, and I have no problems with the noise even while overclocked.