Quiet Socket A fan

[sj33]

Just got an Antec P180 case and Seasonic S12 600W PSU, and christ! You get what you pay, not only is my machine running cool, but it's also silent... bar my CPU fan!

Looking for a fan for a Barton 2600+

[Digfox]

Both pricey, but either the

Zalman CNPS7000B-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-007-ZA) ?26.97, or
ThermalRight SI-97 (Socket A) Heatsink (HS-019-TR) ?23.44 + quiet fan

...are likely to give improved noise over a stock cooler. There's a

Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2L CPU Cooler (Socket A) (HS-011-AR) ?7.64

But I don't know how good or bad these are.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_CPU_Coolers_1.html

Check out the forums on Overclockers for more.

[sj33]

Cheers mate I did look on OC, but they didn't seem to have much in the way of Socket A coolers. Admittedly it was 3am though, so I'll take another look :P

[sj33]

Been looking around...

http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/4in1heatpipe/cl-p0071SonicTower/cl-p0071.htm

Blimey!

Fanless! 0dB! Though you can attach a 120mm fan if you want. My case (Antec P180) already has 2 1200mm fans by the CPU, so it might not be necessary,

[themanwithapc]

I did something like this fairly recently, but didn't have too much space to play around with since I have a HTPC case (silverstone LC).

I used an Aerocool HT-101 cooler that was recommended to me from another forum. They also recommended I change tha fan that comes with it, but I didn't have the time, money and couldn't be bothered really so just stuck with the included fan. The result is a PC which is quieter than my 360, and I still have a crappy old PSU that I need to change, which I suspect is making most of the noise.

Besides that, I'd recommend giving Zalman a look too. 2 pieces of advice though.
1.Make sure you know how much space you're working with. Some coolers are absolute beasts and it can be problematic mounting them.
2. Unless you have a special cooler that does not need fans, I would always recommend you add one. I'd rather have a slight hum and a stable PC rather than a silent PC and lockups all over the place. Some of the latest Acoustifans have very low noise ratings (<5dB I think*)

[fahrenheit]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article30-page1.html

[Leon Retro]

That Sonic Tower looks like it could do the job.

I use 5x Sharkoon 80mm 1000rpm Golfball fans (<9dB) at the moment for system cooling mounted using rubber plugs. My CPU fan is just a generic double ball bearing auto-temperature controlled one mounted in a rubber gasket ontop of the heavyweight copper Globalwin CAK388T, gets noisy (audiable) when games are running (but acceptable as I don't want my games crashing because of heat) but I can't hear it if I have headphones on. Until recently the noisiest components were my hard drives (generating a low hum vibration) which I replaced with one large quiet drive in a silent enclosure.

(edit: this is my old PC btw - my new one is still under warranty.)