For me, the fascination with computer noise is due to my profession...I'm a recording engineer/producer, and having a loud white noise source in the same room as my work is distracting and detracts from my ability to do the best job I can. Ideally, I'd have a machine room and just put the bastard elsewhere, but no such luck.
I walk a fine line at the moment...I hate the noise, but I'm scared of heat problems...every time I make a change for the cooling system, I make sure to monitor the system and CPU temp closely for a week or so before and after the change, to make sure things don't get too hot.
Right now, the unfortunate truth is that my hard drives are louder than the super-quiet fans I have...they also create too much heat for the drive silencer/drive cooler combos I've been able to find so far, so that's not an option, and besides, those take 5 1/2" bays, and I'm all out.
So, that's my justification...I think in my case, it'd piss me off anyway, but I have a genuine reason.
MPEDrummer