My fans are louder then my HDs. I have a 40gb Maxtor 7200rpm drive, and a Seagate 200gb 7200PRM drive. Can't be heard over the fans ( 80mm intake, 80mm CPU, 92mm side intake, 2x80mm PSU, 92mm exhause on back) and the front drive bay covers are off, so the drives are like RIGHT THERE by a hole.
Now, my server on the other hand... It just has plain IDE drives (40gb seagate 7200, 60gb maxtor 7200, 12gb quantum fireball 5400) and 3 fans (60mm cpu, 80mm intake, 80mm PSU) and I can hear the HDs whine like no tomorrow. I need to put that thing in a closet or something.