[Maestro]

I have to agree with what pdf said above: Size and weight are definitely also a BIG factor when you're looking for silence. I think that may be part of the reason that the Temjin-06's are prominent here so far--this is a big case with panels and supports that have some real heft to 'em. I know if I moved my current setup into a smaller, aluminum case, I would be forced to move to smaller and faster/louder fans to maintain the same cooling, plus the panels would transfer more noise, etc, etc...

Also though, I do not think that performance necessarily needs to be sacrificed. I think my PC posted here would pass muster over at SPCR, and as pdf says, his certainly would too, and neither of these is really sacrificing anything.

Really, I do not think we can define silent computing, and I think it is in itself a relative term. I would think that this section of the forum would be most useful as a place to discuss HOW to make a PC quieter, not necessarily as a showcasing of what components/modifications/whatevers will result in some pre-determined decibel level that defines "silent". I think that taking a set of hardware and reducing the decibel level from 36 to 24 without any loss in performance would qualify as a practice in silent computing, whether 24db is considered silent or not.

However, if you're looking for a number, I submit 20.31728db @ 2'3.8" as the gold standard.