I know it's off topic, but the latest quiet fans that have come out over the last two years make a huge difference in a person's computing experience. I use a Corsair H80 to cool my CPU and whenever I started rendering, my computer turned into a jet engine. It wasn't all that noisy before but it certainly was noticeable. It was the kind of noise level that you always noticed it was there. It was just too noisy to ever go become unnoticeable.

This week, I decided I was going to do something about it. I replaced the Corsair fans with Noctuas NF-P12. And the rest of the computer fans were all replaced with Corsair's new AF quiet series fans. Did it make a difference? Absolutely.

When I render, I hear a relatively quiet whining noise. That's it. Otherwise, I hear absolutely nothing at all. My computer has become completely quiet. The case sits about two feet away from me and there is nothing but silence as far as I am concerned.

But what about cooling? The ambient temperature inside the computer is about quite a bit cooler than before. The CPU itself is about two degrees Celsius cooler than before the changes. When I push the machine, the difference is not enormous but still on the lower side. As for the GPU, the lower ambient temperature makes quite a difference when rendering. My card now runs 6 to 8 degrees Celsius cooler. That's 11 to 14 degrees farenheight!

At first glance, the numbers on the box would scare me away. The Corsair AF120 Quiet Series only has a CFM of 39.88. But I discovered this week that the CFMs are not the be all and end all.

I would recommend going this route to anyone who wants to concentrate on the video's sound and not have to tune out the computer's noise. I am very happy I did.