We also love performance, right?
In the end, you need a fan controller.
I have a completely capable (not highest end) gaming rig.
It runs very quiet.
Here's the specs:
Antec Sonata Case (good quiet case)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Swapped NB cooler with Zalman NB Cooler)
AMD Athlon64 3200+ s939 (these run at 1.4v at full clock speed)
Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 (solid copper, pretty quiet)
2x512MB OCZ EL Platinum Edition (2-3-2-5-1T)
OCZ ModStream 520W PSU (Modular and 120mm fan)
ATi All-In-Wonder 9600 (Runs games great, no fan)
Plextor DVD±RW 708A (Reads video at 2x max)
Western Digital 250GB 8MB Cache HDD (not the quietest, good enough)
Zalman Fan Controller (the brains of staying cool)
Here's what I do.
When I'm not gaming or doing anything really intensive I have all the knobs at their lowest on my fan controller and my CPU at [email protected] via crystalcpuid. When it's time to do some serious loads I set the cpu back to [email protected] and turn the silent boost up to max (2500rpm). Its still quiet!
I always leave my rear case fane (120mm) at 5v and my 92mm Zalman HDD fan at 5v unless there is a heat wave here in southern cali.
My temps are always below 30C idle. And most people say the MSI reads temps higher than they really are. The lowest temps I've seen at idle was 16C. At full load (gaming) I've seen 45C. I'll post some extra stats if you have any specific questions. Meanwhile here is a pic:
![Image](http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/1756/img30183zf.jpg)