It seems that we are always caught in some type of balancing act in our lives. There is give and take to almost everything, and it is finding the point in the middle ground where we are most comfortable that is often the task. Take working for example. We could all work seven days a week, in order to accumulate the most money possible. But, then you would have no time to enjoy the money you were making?.and would likely be in ill health due to exhaustion and stress?.and would probably be a bit batty from lack of social contact. So we seek to balance having enough money with still having enough time to be happy.

Obviously, this does not simply apply to lifestyle. I have said on many occasions that enthusiast CPU cooling is far more of a balancing act than it is about flat out performance, especially of you are in the same room as your build. You need to cool your components effectively, but also in a manner that doesn't cause noise to the point of disturbance. Since all forms of cooling rely on air movement to work, there is going to be at least some noise involved, and the tolerable level is going to vary from individual to individual. Beethoven may have been fine with a cooler churning out 70 dB and keeping his cooler at 72 degrees under load. However, Beethoven was also hearing impaired, so the noise would not have been as important as the cooling in his balance. To those who find the noise factor important, they would be more likely to find a five degree increase very acceptable if it got the noise down to an almost imperceptible 25 dB. It is really all about finding the balance of these two factors that will make a cooling choice right for you.