[citation][nom]Flameout[/nom]i'd still prefer fanless tech. tis the future[/citation]Fanless today means you've got massive heatsinks and loads of heatpipes, special low-power binned chips, and your machine is slower and/or more expensive compared to actively cooled models.
This isn't likely to get better any time soon on the full-on PC front, as long as they keep cranking out faster chips. I think ultra-silent fans are a MUCH better compromise if you absolutely need silence. You'd better be running an SSD-only machine, too, because a HDD will generate more noise than a silent fan.