Nice overview. I went with a closed loop water cooler for my current build. I normally don't "overclock" my computer, so stock or slightly better than stock CPU cooling is probably just fine for my needs. I put my case fans on a "switched" connection this time, so they aren't running continually. That made for a much quieter computer. After reading this article, I'll probably just go with a better aftermarket air cooler with my next build.

Before I just connected the case fans to run whenever the computer had power. I also ran 4 case fans: two intake & two exhaust. Yeah, it was definitely a little noisy, but I never had an overheating issue...lol