Thanks radar, thats useful to know. After a lot of serious consideration I actually went for a completely different one in the end. I read too much bad stuff about generic PSUs. Instead I upped my budget and opted for this aerocool one.
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=603272
It has some good reviews and is rated at 19dB which sounds better than most noise-wise.
Thanks for the help and I'll post again when I recieve it and get it fitted.

Hi Dogbiscuit,

Hey, very cool piece of kit.
I look forward to hearing how you do.
CHeers
8)

Got the unit today and fitted it. It's a very sexy piece of kit and it does seem to be quieter. However, my pc is still not as quiet as I'd hoped. I turned it on for a moment with the cpu fan unplugged and it was much quieter so it seems that the cpu fan is the noisey culpret.
I bought a silent one last summer and fitted it because the cpu fan that was in wasn't turning properly and my pc was crashing. However my mobo and cpu died about 2 weeks after fitting the new fan and to this day I'm not sure if it died because I fitted the fan wrong or if it was just dying anyway.
So, I had to get a new mobo and cpu and just stuck with the fan that came with the new cpu and so I still have the spare silent fan that was on my old cpu for 2 weeks, sitting in a box. Do you think I should dare fit it again or is this a professional job that I should take to a specialist?

Hi Dogbiscuit,

I think that you might be able to try the quiet fan but will have to keep a VERY close eye on the cpu temps. Firstly install the new fan, making sure that the thermal paste is covering the cpu with a thin layer. When you boot up firstly go to the BIOS and check the cpu temperature there for about 30 secs to 1 minute ( the cpu is not under much load, so if the temperature climbs quckly above 45 degrees centtigrade IMMEDIATELY shut the system down and put the old cpu fan back in and use that)
If the temperature stays reasonable then boot to windows and download the app here http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php and keep a very close eye on the cpu temp with te CPU under load ( one way to load the cpu is to open Calculator, change the view to scientific type 99999999etc and then click on the Xcube(3) button untill the calculator stops responding, this keeps the cpu at 100% for quite a while) If the temp gets too high you might need to replace the cpu fan with the original.
Let us know how you do

Ok I have downloaded speedfan. I see there are 5 temps listed, which is the CPU temp? I will enclose a grab of what I've got.
I've noticed my spare fan has some wear and tear on the copper block on the back, possibly from my last cpu burning out! Do you think this will be ok or does it have to be an unblemished surface?
If I do fit it what sorts of temps am I looking for in general and when under load?

Attached Images

speedfan grab.JPG (40.7 KB, 6 views)

Hi Dogbiscuit,

Ok the temp for your CPU is normally Temp2 on Speedfan (53) so yours is fairly high but not over the top. Was the screenshot taken after pushing the CPU or just at idle?
Ideally you want the surface on the base of the heatsink to be as smooth as possible to make as much contact with the cpu to move as much of the eat from it as it can
The temp of 253c for HD1 is strange and might be either an old drive or faulty temperature sensor, not really much you can do about that unless you case is hot enough to fry eggs on
Let us know about the question above.

I can't remember if that grab was taken after I loaded it or not, but just now it's sitting idle at 54C. The temp above that (the top one, which also appears in my system tray) is that the case temp? Sorry but I'm new to pc temps!

I think I am actually just gonna buy a new cpu fan because it seems to much of a risk to take a chance on this one. Can anyone reccomend an ultra silent one with blue lights!?!