Noise Driving me to insanity!

Ok guys I'm going to give as much detail as I can here so someone can truly help me out. I've had my computer which I built for about a year now and I can't take the noise anymore!

I have an A8N-E motherboard with a 3500+ stock heatsink and an Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W modular PSU. Those are the components that I believe are the worst noise makers and I want to make this computer as silent as possible while making it cooler.

Now to make the porblem worse my computer Idles somewhere in the 40's usually 43 degrees Celcius since in it in a "computer hole" in my desk. Now the problem is that at this temperature the fans spin up really fast to cool it down and it sounds like a jet turbine in my room. Now when I have the cover off of one side it goes down to about 36 which is great and the fans are at the sound level I like them to be, BUT I don't want to keep the side panel off. The problem is this, I have a pretty cheap case, Not too cheap but cheap enought to impede airflow.


The first thing I need to chage is the case. I need a case which allows air to flow form the front to back cooling the case becasue my current one has NO ventilation on the front and basically it just gets REALLY hot in the back becasue the air has nowhere to go. So that's first I need a modest looking case with front front panel audio and possibly USB ports, side windows optional .


Next I would like to get rid of the powersupply for a better one becasue this current one makes a slight high pitch whine while getting hot as well so a good PSU at around 450 - 500W that is nice and quiet. I have been recomended a seasonic which I think I'll get.

Next up I need to get something other than the stock heatsink and fan, possibly something big and quiet any recomendations since I haven't ever shopped for a heatsink before? Last up is the little fan on the motherboard. I've read that there is aftermarket passive solutions to replace it but to me it's not really as important as the other things I've mentioned.

So that about sums it up, apart from the video card fan (X800XL, I really don't care much for this fan and don't feel like replacing it) those are all the fans in my case making noise. Once I get all this replaced I would like to put one giant slow spinning 120mm fan somewhere to keep it all cool and quiet. Thanks for taking the time to read this.


EDIT: Easier to read now ?

EDIT 2: I also realized to ask if anyone has any good desks/places to buy desks to help out this situation. I don't like my current one.

Look for a case with 120mm fans. They'll cool better and are normally quieter than an 80mm.
Same thing for the PSU, get one with a single 120mm fan (look at Enermax for modulars or the Seasonic line are quiet as well).
For the HSF, if you're running stock you can try a Zalman CNPS 7000. I currently use one on my stock 3500 and it works well and is fairly quiet. You can get the fan controoler with it and adjust the speed if necessary.

I am looking for a power supply, I can buy it from you with a decent price.

get case that support 120mm front and back. bigger fan has more airflow and quieter.
get either Nexus fan or Panaflo fan. if the case has no fan grid, just a open hole, that is better. fan grid makes noices.

Get Scythe Ninja Plus for cpu cooler. it is the best with silence.

If you post in paragraphs I'll help you

I seriously can't read that, but would be glad to help if you space it a bit more.

I'll tackle the case...the Ultra Aluminus is super light, has good airflow (120mm intake and exhaust, duct or side 80mm), plenty of room inside (slightly larger than mid-tower) and is awesome for routing and hiding cables underneath the removeable mobo try or behind the "vanity plate". The best part is that it's only $100.

Seasonic makes great psu's so I would go with the one you're thinking of....as for the hsf, I have an SI-128 with a 120mm Aerocool 98cfm led fan that looks great through the huge side window and performs better than some mid-range water cooling setups. You also might want to ditch that little buzzy chipset fan that Asus boards come with and replace it with a passive sink or a better/quieter hsf.

PSU - Ultra X-Finity 500w ($20 after rebate, free shipping):
I currently have this PSU (there was a $50 rebate on it a while back) and I can honestly say it's dead silent, it has one low speed 120mm fan in it and thats all.

Case - P180 or P180b ($140, free shipping):
The case has temperature zones that separate your hard disks and PSU (bottom) from the rest of your components (top) and it takes all 120mm fans (comes with 3, has mounting for 5).

HS/F - Synth Ninja ($50):
With all the airflow that case has to offer, you can get away with running a Synth Ninja (passive, no fan at all) for your CPU cooler.

SilentPcReview just posted a favorable review of the Silverstone Element Plus, a 80Plus rated (highly effecient) 500W PSU.

Another vote for the P180B.

another vote for the Ninja HSF..

the ikea jerker desk is very nice for the money

You don't know what noisy PC is until you've listened to a Vantec Tornado, or a Black Label Delta 60mm fan that runs at 7,000rpms.

Have you made sure you don't have the blue/black fan monitoring cable plugged in. Some SP 2 have this problem (mine for e.g.) spinning the psu fan to full speed.

My PSU is nearly silent now, or certainly not louder than my stock fan on my Ninja.

I think some of the suggestions have already been stated...


High end Powersupplies
The S12 seasonics are definately quiet.
The OCZ Powerstream (not sure if you can find them anymore). Supposedly the Game Xtreme are also pretty quiet but no firsthand experience.

Cheap powersupply
A lot of them such as the Nspire are actually quiet. For a stock non overclocked and basic system a cheap one works ok. I'm not going to guarantee that if it blows it won't take everything else down with it (including the house), but I think this worst case possibility has been blow a little out of proportion here on the forums. I found the low end popular brand name power supplies to actually be much louder because of their build it like a tank mentality.

Best high end case
Antec P180 and it's variants. It has the most 120mm fan slots of any case I've seen and the construction is top notch. If it were only a little bigger, I would favor it over my Lian LiV2100 which suck at air flow, and is even more pronounced by the price tag of this cas Go for fans that are 120mm and lower than 1600rpms. For 80mm case fans, go for ones that are less than 2000rpms.

HSF
For HSF upgrades, I'd recommend fixing the case airflow first. A good HSF in a crappy airflow case still sucks at cooling until you improve the case airflow. The Scythe Ninja, Thermalright XP120, Zalman CP9000? amongst others are all good quieter HSF's. Since your using the stock HSF, that does need to be replaced because those are quite loud. Look into building a duct so that the rear case fan sucks more of the air directly away from the cpu. I cannot stress how much greatly this increases the HSF efficiency for it to only get fresh cool air rather than getting some of the recycled air.