I tried searching but there were no results found.
 
I have an msi p6n diamond mobo and it came with this little fan that is crazy loud.  
 

 
Just unplugging this fan reducing my system's noise I'd say by 80%. Is it safe to just take the fan out? I felt the heatsink after the fan had been remove for a while but it was rather hot to the touch so I put the fan back on. The noise drives me a little crazy. Is there any quieter alternative? Can I put a passive cooler on top of the brass that is already there? I had bought one in the past but never used it.

You might be able to buy a quieter replacement (of course you shouldn't just remove it without a replacement).  Check out the various cooling vendors and perhaps the "Silent PC" sites.

i guess i'll do a search for it.

Is this a bad idea? I took out the nb fan, but mounted an 80mm case fan above the nb heatsink. only thing is that the fan is a good distance away from the heatsink and will blow air around the cpu and the ram.  
 
Do you think just mounting this fan to blow in the nb area would be enough to cool it, or should i look into some sort of air duct?
 
I'm using speed fan to monitor some temps, but it doesn't give me the nb temp. I get the cpu, hds, and environment temp but nothing specific to nb. is there a way to make sure i'm not burning up my nb?

You can try Fan Mate for $3.99. Shipping costs more than the unit so you may want to purchase something else along with it.
 
I have one of these hooked to my NB fan and have it set so it doesn't go above 4000RPM. Anything above 4000RPM gets quite loud.
 
Check speedfan's web site to see if they have a config for your mobo. If so, you can download and install it and it should show your nb temps.

or try an Antec Spot-Cool