Ok, I'm looking for recommendations on quiet PC components. In the past I've had some luck with the Vantec Stealth line, and while I can't really complain about their fans, their "stealth" power supplies are still pretty loud. Currently I'm looking into trying to put together a system with nothing that peaks above 15-20 dB. I found some power supplies that claim to do this with some pretty good testimonials, but I've never had experience with them and don't know whether to believe the hype or not. So if anyone has/is using a SilenX power supply or has any other fan/ps recommendations other than the stealth line, I'm all ears.

well try some passive cooling, if ur looking to spen for it, ill dig up a link for ya for a completly passive system

Just put a brick of ice on top of the processor.

yea thatll work as good as the chocalate heatsink

though tis a good idea, but ud need distilled water and an completly clean airtight container... so a vaume sealed fridge or freezer, yay. Ive been thinking bout this one, but im to lazy and broke

If you want quiet, Zalman is where it's at. I'm running a Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu HSF, and it works beautifully, and is quieter than hell. I've never used them, but I've been told their PSUs and case fans are just as quiet.

http://www.quietpcusa.com

Hell: At least it's a dry, quiet heat.

Personally, I always pictured hell to be filled with the undying screams of suffering souls. Quiet as hell...not so much.

However, in all seriousness...I know a guy that "accidentally" tossed a room air conditioner out the window. If you could figure out a way to rig the compressor and R-134a cooling lines into something that you could use directly on-chip without condensation, there you go. You'd be the only guy whose active cooling system runs over 10 amps..

...but that compy would chill your beer just as well as it would your processor.

you don't need that big of a compressor one off a minifridge will do fine. i've been thinking about rigging up a vapochill like system for awhile done some research into it and it shouldn't be too hard i don't think just need time, money and motivation now.

Its pitted with caveats. Although not the ‘most’ quite thing around an Antec sonata case / power supply combo is pretty quite for air cooling PCs. The most main stream (and inexpensive) quite combo is a Thermaltake silent boost (~30), Sonata case (~90). I have made a few machines with the pair, and retro-fit other peoples systems. It is a affordable quite solution. Quieter than when I have used Vantec stealth fans. Zalman stuff is quite, just a little more expensive, and it does not fit with all mobos but it is prettier.
Ok so with the Sonota, when the case first turns on it will be loud, and then quiets its self quickly (reduced fan speeds), if it gets warm the fans speed up in the power supply and exhaust, so its not so quite any more. A quick trip to the pro car audio place in town for some sound killer road mat will help that a lot. I have Under clocked a mobile XP to use passive CPU cooling in a dell like way with success.
you may discover that your hard drive is extremely loud, while the case does quite your hard drives down some, you may sell want some other type of sound damping for you hard drive. Same goes with your video card / chipset cooler, if it is loud this case is not going to fix that. The case makes it easy to use a power supply shroud with a low speed fan by supplying a moldex connector on the outside (back) of the power supply. I have used one such shroud and it worked very well.
Two words of warning: First, this case is so quite I found my self thinking it was turned off many times when it was not. Even with the bright blue LEDs I still found dumb ass restarting my computer on accident.
Second, If you plan to use two or three hard drives you need to get another (quite) fan for the hard drive area. And it is nearly imposable to use rubber pull through fan mounting things on a different fan if cut the tails off, so don’t cut the tails off.

You will also notice how loud your mini fridge is you have this system in your dorm room.

zalman's power supplies are the quietest and the most efficient psu's you can buy. their heatsinks and pci fan coolers for northbridges are good too. zalman is the way to go if you really need the quietness.

shifting away from fans, pay attention to hard drives. some drives whine like a bitch, others are decently quiet. though I cannot dintinguish which brands/models are quiet these days, I know maxtor has a feature on some new models that will quiet the heads/platters.

The quietest hard drives I've come across from my personal experience is Seagate. Although my IBM isn't very loud either, it's still louder than my Seagate drive.

Yeah there's a case out there somewhere that uses absolutely no fans, just heatpipes and heatsinks. It costs like $1200 though. Here it is:

Zalman TNN-500A

Ok, I have the case already and am trying to create a silent system within. Also, I can't find the site I once used to calculate my minimum power supply size. I was thinking around 350-400W or so would be sufficient for this. Basically I want a supply that will be sufficient for the expanded system without a ton of wasted overhead. If you leave your system on 24/7, you do spend a decent amount of money on computer power, in our last house the majority of our electric bill was powering 5 systems.

AMD Athlon 2600+, 512 (1024 eventually) MB RAM
1 HDD (up to four eventually 2-ATA, 2 SATA)
Mid-range NVIDIA/RADEON VIVO card
Onboard sound
Onboard LAN
CD-RW drive
DVD RW Drive
3 Case fans.

Let me know what you guys typically put into something like this.

that site was bogus to begin with. supposedly I needed a 500+ watt psu.
I was running the following on a Compaq 238w psu::
Asus P3B-F
Intel P3 500 @ 550
1GB SDRAM (4 x 256)
4 hard drives
cd drive
ATI 8500
SB Live
Lan card
2 case fans

I believe you will be fine with a good 300w or a generic 350w
with all those hard drives, you will want a psu that has a high rating for 12v line.