you're in luck! not only am i a freak about managing my heat, but i'm also a noise freak. being that the two don't typically go hand in hand (if you want a CPU-&-GPU cruncher to be cool, expect it to be loud...and alternatively, if you want a quiet computer to remain cool, don't crunch on it), i've had to do quite a bit of research in my quest to find a middle ground.
i was previously running the following:
case: Rosewill ARMOR
CPU: PHII X6 1090T
CPU cooler: Tuniq CR-T120-EX-SV W/ Arctic Silver 5
GPU: ATI HD5870 2GB Eyefinity 6
GPU cooler: Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo Pro
this case is almost entirely mesh, so it breathes very well. yet somehow it doesn't sacrifice airflow. the comes with 4 120mm fans (1 front, 1 rear, 2 top) and 1 200mm side fan. despite the 120mm fans' cheap clear plastic appearance, they move a decent amount of air without being overly noisy...that is not to say that they were super quiet, but the noise they did produce was very subtle and didn't contain any high or low-pitched whines or hums...and their LEDs are fortunately on a switch so they don't always have to be turned on (i never used them). my CPU cooler was oriented such that it exhausted air out the top of the case, and not out the back. i also changed the OE fan arrangement slightly - of the 2 top exhaust fans, only the rear one sits more or less directly above the CPU cooler, which kind of made the front top exhaust fan useless. fortunately the case contains a 120mm fan mounting location on the bottom of the case just in front of the bottom-mounted PSU location. so i took the front top exhaust fan and made it an intake fan at the bottom, which combined with the front intake fan, provided great cooling for the GPU, even though the 200mm side intake fan was already blowing directly on it.
at first i was running the reference cooler on the GPU. it was a blower style cooler, so it sounded like a vacuum cleaner at any speed above ~30%. i replaced the reference cooler with the Arctic Cooling TTP, and the difference was night and day. it moved more far air w/ far less RPMs almost inaudibly, all while running significantly cooler under 100% load (55°C max vs 78°C max w/ the reference cooler). the only downside is that it didn't vent hot air out the back of the case like the reference cooler did. that is, it exhausted all the hot air back into the case. long story short, it caused my CPU temps to rise a few degrees C to a max of 45°C under 100% load.
i've since moved this case to the office to house another computer, and my CPU-&-GPU crunching rig is now housed in a CoolerMaster HAF 912 case. while this case doesn't cool quite as well as the Rosewill ARMOR did, i attribute that to the ARMOR's mesh design, which probably allowed a good deal of heat to escape the case simply by way of convection. that being said, the HAF 912 is a step or two up in build quality, and actually costs less than the Rosewill case. it was also worth the slight sacrifice in cooling ability b/c my CPU and GPU temps only went up a few degrees C. that being said, i did have to make some additional modifications to the HAF 912 case. it only came with a 120mm front intake fan and a 120mm rear exhaust fan. while one wasn't particularly noisy and quite tolerable, the other had an annoying whine, so i decided to remove them both in favor of quieter solutions. i actually replaced the front 120mm intake fan with a 200mm Xigmatek fan. i also have the same 200mm fan at the top of the case since my CPU cooler still exhausts out the top and not the back. i replaced the rear exhaust fan with a Scythe Kaze 800 rpm silent fan, and put a Noctua 140mm intake fan on the side grill to cool the GPU.
i should also mention that the above temps are indicative of a rig that crunches 24/7 with all 6 CPU cores under 100% load and the GPU under 100% load., crunching Einstein@Home, LHC@Home, & Test4Theory@Home (LHC@Home 2.0 Beta) on the CPU, and Milkyway@Home and SETI@Home Astropulse on the GPU.
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