Quietest mobo for overclocking?

[nicros]

What is the best mobo for overclocking that doesnt have noisy fans? I will not be running sli, and have an e6600 that I want to oc. Under $250 would also be nice. Something rock stable and good for a relative novice to oc?

Thanks! And links are greatly appreciated!

 

[Arctucas]

Umm...

Most motherboards do not have fans (except maybe a chipset cooler) and normally do not make noise, unless there is something wrong.

I believe you should have asked; what components such as graphics cards and cpu coolers have the quietest fans?

When it comes to overclocking, quiet sometimes means less cooling and therefore lower performance.

I think you will find widely varying opinions on that subject, so my advice would be to do some research (Google is your friend). Look for fans with low decibel (dB) ratings but high airflow (CFM) ratings.

It is a balancing act where you often need to trade one for the other.

Although there is always watercooling...

 

[n00b_SLicer]

and there's always phase...

 

[MadHacker]

and there's always phase...

but that isn't necessarily quieter

 

[jprevost]

and there's always phase...

Since when did phase become quiet? I think Thermaltake is trying but the high pressure systems just aren't easy to get quiet.
As for the quiets motherboard for overclocking an e6600, that's just not enough information for me to provide a quality opinion (answer ).
What kind of cooling will be on the processor, air or water (or phase change)?
The e6600 has a multiplier of 9. So stock fsb of 266.67MHz (quad pumped = 1066.67MHz) so stock the processor runs at 2.4GHz. If you "only" overclock it to 3.6GHz that needs a 400MHz fsb (1600MHz effective) and a LOT of chipsets can do that. Because of the slower fsb of that processor and no SLI I'd do what I did, get a motherboard with the p965 chipset. Mine is a completely silent ASUS P5-E non-deluxe which is perfectly capable of hitting 400MHz without any aftermarket chipset cooling solutions, just adequate case cooling like a 120mm exhaust.
I'm running my e6300 @ 2.8GHz (400MHz fsb) for over a year with an 8800GT and it's trucken along scoring 11800 in 3DMark06 (win xp pro 32bit 3GB ram).
There might be a cheaper chipset now that has replaced the p965, the _3_ might have fallen in price but they were designed for 333.33MHz fsb processors like the newer 45nm intel releases. It wouldn't be necessary for an older processor.
The general rule of thumb is to get a motherboard from around the same time the processor came out, hence my recommendation for something cheap like a p965 but if this processor will be upgraded soon (I hope not) then you might want a newer chipset. I wouldn't spend big bucks on it because most every intel processor right now is thermally limited by the architecture more than the multiplier settings. Example; on air, almost all of the e6000 series processors run in the 2.6-3.0GHz with retail HSF. Aftermarket cooling gets them ALL up by another 400MHz but they are all around the same speed! It's like this with all processors, not just c2d.
Good luck.
BTW, if you look for SLI and water cooling overclocking then a motherboard like the stryker that comes with a water block built into the northbridge headsink could a perfect match. It isn't cheap.