Acceptable Cooling & Exceptional Quietness?

I'm running the system in my sig with a Vantec 6027D fan and 80x80 case fan. I don't plan on ever overclocking, my #1 concern is having a quiet system for when I go away to school next year.

I've started working towards this goal when I got a Seagate Barracuda IV hard drive. It killed off all hard drive noise. I also plan on buying a silent power supply. Now I am looking to dampen the sound of my heatsink/fan. After going through the [H]ardOCP heatsink reviews I became interested in the "Spire - 5T060B1H3R". It runs a few DB(a)'s quieter than the Vantec I am using, will it be enough to make any difference? This Vantec is extremely loud.

All I want is my system to be able to handle long, intense, gaming sessions without the fear of temperatures >~50c. Any suggestions on a good case fan and heatsink/fan combo would be greatly appreciated.. Also any other advice on running a quiet system would be equally valued to me.

Thanks in advance.

p.s. With my current set up, I am getting about 55c when just playing Quake3 for short periods of time. Would going quieter screw me over?



Athlon XP 1900+
Abit KG-7