Personally I think a few dollars more spent on a better quality and then a larger capacity power supply is the single best thing they can do for themselves. Not having the fan come on is a bonus.. I enjoy that as well. What this is telling you is that your power supply is operating under 50% capacity.. and 50% capacity it where a power supply is most efficient and produces the cleanest power.. it gets worse the more you use. And if you get a Platinum or even a Gold you won't be using hardly any more electricity in the process.. I say a wise decision.
Now.. if you're buying PC's for a office and you're buying 1200 of them.. then saving $30 on a power supply whose capacity is "nice to have but not essential" starts to make economic sense. But heck, our personal machines are personal.. this is the time to splurge a bit and drive the Veyron of computers if you're so inclined. Its just not enough money to worry about.. But if you don't have to hear a fan going on/off and whirring away. PRICELESS. My fan never goes on unless I hit 90% of greater overall load.
My thoughts exactly Steve. This system sits on top of my desk right now, and its so quiet, I'm thinking about leaving it there permanently.
The CoolerMaster case was purchased for its large interior with lots of room for the water cooling and radiator, and great air flow with 4 case fans.
But it also has a window, and the fans have LED lights on them. To be honest, I didn't really care about the lights and window when I chose this case, but there kind of cool, and then there's the overclocking panel that comes with the motherboard, fits in one of the 5.25" slots, shows CPU temp, fan speed overclocking info, all gamer stuff I guess.
Just started working on a 60 image pano, compared to my old machine (vintage 2004) well, goes without saying.