Keith, I come on this forum to voluntarily help people where I can and point out both the positives and negatives of things so they can make the most informed decision. If what I say sparks discussion and debate then all the better as I learn more as does the OP and anyone else who reads that particular thread. This is how I've learnt so much in the past 18 months or so. I do not come on here to be spoken to in the manner you have above. Those comments are in no way a part of the debate at hand or constructive and are simply derogatory towards myself. I'd be grateful if you'd refrain from making any such comments in future.

Cheers, matt

E6400@3.2GHz, Zalman CNPS9500-LED, P5KC, 2GB CL4Corsair Dominator DDR2-6400, Samsung 500GB, 512Mb X1950Prowith Slippy's ATT tweaks, Enermax 535W PSU, Win XP Home SP2, Antec Solo with 1x120mm Noctua, 2x92mm Nexus fans

theres an awful lot of may/probably/may in that statement. We have all stated that the freezer pro WILL satisfy the OP's needs.

Where have we disputed that point?. What we are saying is that the Freezer Pro and AK965 will provide all the cooling that the OP requires. The OP said he wants a quiet(ish) pc NOT a SILENT one. To this end , the fact that there is a budget of £550 means that spending any more money on a more expensive HSF is a complete waste of money. In this case , more money spent on a quieter graphics card would be a better place to spend money than on a more expensive HSF.

Matt, we all come on here to voluntarily help people. The difference with this sub forum though is that we are recommending other people to spend there own hard earned cash. It is easy to throw in comments such as there are 'more expensive better coolers about' . You aren't the person who is spending the money though.At no stage have you recommended a cooler that the OP should buy instead,nor have you suggested which other parts of the build he should cut back on in order to fund your more expensive fan. 

  Its not just me who has said that the freezer Pro would suit the OP and after multiple posts from me and others, you were still saying that the OP should buy something else and that the freezer Pro was noisy. As an aside , in the review that you were basing all your comments on , they were driving the fan via a dc supply with a voltage regulator on it, this is not how anybody installing the fan in a computer would be using it as they would be taking advantage of the PWM fan control on the mobo's. Having defended the freezer Pro , I still state though that I would recommend the akasa AK-965 as I consider it to be better than the freezer pro, not from a 2 year article but from personal experience of using both coolers.

  We were talking from first hand experience and you continued to state secondhand, 2 year old information on hardware from 2 years ago as fact.You have no experience with using the Freezer Pro and assume that because the review says its noisy running flat out, that the fan will be running flat out most of the time , thereby making the system noisy.Slippy and Dave and myself have all pointed out to you that the fan in normal operation on overclocked curent (i.e C2d and C2Q) sytems runs very slowly and that the noise output is negligible. By ignoring that information , you are being discourteous and effectively saying that we don't know what we are talking about. Hence , I stand by my point that you should have the courtesy to listen and learn from what we are telling you.

 I apologise if my wording was blunt, but you weren't taking any notice of what we were telling you.The OP also made no reference as to whether he would be overclocking . If non overclocked, and intel speedstep enabled then as Slippy has already pointed out ,the fan noise output would be negligible.

Cheers,

Keith.

Raidmax Sagitta case, E4400(overclocked),parkle 8600GTS,Asus P5N-E SLI (with VFM's chipset fan mod) ,250 GB SATA,Antec TruePower Trio 630W PSU , 2GB Patriot DDR2 6400 RAM.

My point exactly Slip. All I'm trying to do is point out there are quieter and cooler options out there if he thinks its worth it. If depends on how badly he wants a silent pc. I'm a stickler for having a quiet PC so what I consider an irritating hum others may consider quiet. Similarly, its why I've got an expensive hi-fi, because I can hear the difference in quality and I get enjoyment out of it everyday. To some people that would seem ridiculous and they would strongly argue that a £50 stereo is more than adequate.

Keith, you are talking in your summarising comments as if I haven't already conceded that you guys are probably right about the ACF7 Pro and how quiet it is. I use the terms 'probably' and 'may' as like I have said and you yourself have reminded me, I have no personal experience with an ACF7 Pro, so I cannot say for absolute certain.

The reason I am making this whole arguement, again as I've pointed out in an earlier post, is so that the OP doesn't unwittingly buy a ACF7 Pro and find its noisier than he would like. I also included several links in one of my earlier posts to recommended quiet components that he could consider. Again, as I have said before, I'm doing this just so he's aware of all the facts before he parts with his cash - and as I said in my previous post, the ensuing debate has no doubt enlighted him as it has me. No he hasn't mentioned overclocking but he wants to keep his rig for 3 years so to me it seems inevitable he'll want to overclock it at some point if it gets him a potentially large, free upgrade.

I'll say this again Keith just so we're clear. I concede that you're probably right about the ACF7 Pro and that it will meet the OPs needs. But then I said that in my last post, as well as many other things I've had to repeat for you here, so maybe you should follow your own advice and listen.

Cheers, matt

E6400@3.2GHz, Zalman CNPS9500-LED, P5KC, 2GB CL4Corsair Dominator DDR2-6400, Samsung 500GB, 512Mb X1950Prowith Slippy's ATT tweaks, Enermax 535W PSU, Win XP Home SP2, Antec Solo with 1x120mm Noctua, 2x92mm Nexus fans

Dave has already pointed out that the case fans on the LC13 case are going to be noisy,the graphics card is also going to be noisy.concentrating on the HSF is not where noise elimination will be most effective.

Cheers,

Keith.

Raidmax Sagitta case, E4400(overclocked),parkle 8600GTS,Asus P5N-E SLI (with VFM's chipset fan mod) ,250 GB SATA,Antec TruePower Trio 630W PSU , 2GB Patriot DDR2 6400 RAM.

I know, Slip has already commented on this after I said maybe a 3rd party HSF isn't necessary; citing that the ACF7 will do the same cooling as the stock intel but quieter. I'm focusing on the HSF because thats what we were discussing.

I agree the case fans will create noise and either a new case or removing the fans altogether will help solve it. The fans that you put in a case make a big difference to noise and cooling: hence the link in my earlier post to a roundup of good fans. I also included a roundup of quiet PSUs.

The graphics card can also be noisy but it depends on the card and cooler attached to it. Exhaust fan coolers can be noisier because fans that blow directly downwards inside the case are muffled by the case itself. Again like the CPU HSF, you can buy 3rd party HSFs that are quieter and/or cool better, but again its a personal choice: does the noise from it bother you enough to warrant the spend?

Cheers, matt

E6400@3.2GHz, Zalman CNPS9500-LED, P5KC, 2GB CL4Corsair Dominator DDR2-6400, Samsung 500GB, 512Mb X1950Prowith Slippy's ATT tweaks, Enermax 535W PSU, Win XP Home SP2, Antec Solo with 1x120mm Noctua, 2x92mm Nexus fans