Best mix of performance, noise level, and ease of installation?

[Wolfcastle]

I've got a E6600 that I may cool in the near future.

PERFORMANCE-

I figure Thermalright Ultra 120 Ex. is probably the best for performance.

INSTALLATION-

But most of the top performing heatsinks seem to be difficult to install and also require removal of motherboard from the case to install or uninstall. That's deal-breaker for me because I don't want to remove the motherboard from the case.


NOISE-

Nor do I want something that's too loud, but most good heatsinks allow you to put in your own fans, so this may or may not apply depending.

What do you think provides the best mix of high performance, ease of installation, and fairly low amount of noise?

Thanks.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

the zalman 9700 is an excellent cooler which is also easy to install. zalman is also a company dedicated to "quiet" products

 

[coolpurplefan]

I've had machines that were noisy, less noisy, somewhat silent and dead silent. When you get to dead silence, there's no way to compare it to anything. As a matter of fact, I can't understand how someone can even imply silence if it still makes even a little noise.

Even though I've bragged about my dead silent computer before, I'll post the details here in case someone didn't see the details. I have a passively-cooled motherboard, video card and CPU (with a Scythe Ninja heatsink). I know the Coolermaster Centurion 5 case is one of the cheaper cases, but it still has the airflow I think you need for the Scythe Ninja heatsink. Also, the one with the side window doesn't have holes on the side. So, the airflow is front to back. The front is made like a mesh and there is a black foam behind that to stop excess dust. And, in the back, there is a place for a 120mm fan and that's where I installed the 120mm fan included with the Scythe Ninja. But, it's connected to the CPU fan header, not a regular AUX fan header so the fan can change speeds depending on the CPU temperature. I DID NOT install an 80mm fan in the front of the case since I find 80mm fans make more noise and Samsung Spinpoint hard drives are cool-running anyway.
I also have a Seasonic S-12 500 watt power supply in that computer.

Now, I have a Silverstone LC20 case with a bunch of 80mm fans and a Vantec Nexus fan controller and it's no where near as silent as my other computer. It's silent compared to a lot of machines, but it's not truly silent.

EDIT: I just saw you have a socket 775. Well, there is a thread somewhere here that shows you how to modify the bracket for the Scythe Ninja in case you wanted to use it on that kind of motherboard.