[johnwill]

I STRONGLY recommend against running the processor with no fan! When you put the case on, the temperature is going to shoot up significantly, especially in the tiny case with minimal ventilation. Also, the temperature will climb when the processor is under load, and with no decent cooling, it's probably going to go well over safe operating temperatures.

 

[johnwill]

In my two Pentium-4 systems, the Intel cooling fan is very quiet, I don't know of a quieter solution for the P4, and the Intel retail cooler is a well designed HS. I think I'd just live with it, are you sure the noise isn't the P/S fan?

 

[johnwill]

FWIW, the Intel P4 has an excellent thermal management system, and it's pretty difficult to burn one up. Tom's Hardware did a test of the P3, P4, and two AMD processors. They removed the HS while the system was running. The two AMD's went up in smoke, one taking the MB with it. The P3 crashed, but did no hardware damage, replacing the HS and rebooting fixed it. The P4 continued to run, just started running much slower to keep the heat build-up within a safe level. I was quite impressed, and it's one reason that this system is a P4. I have an AMD system too, but it's got a good HS, and I make sure the fan is running.

 

[johnwill]

Well, it's safe to say that for processors, cooler is almost ALWAYS better.