People keep implying the hardware in the mk2 is some very-hot bleeding-edge hardware that is not subject to normal cooling solutions
The DSPs are in fact very very low heat output chips - lower than a typical laptop, never mind a full on PC. Does a laptop make more noise than a Mk 2?
There are lots of feasible quieter cooling options
The Axefx 2 appears to be optimised for ruggedness in live use, by sealing the case and fitting a noisy fan inside it
If it were optimised for studio use, it would probably have vents, and a quieter fan, or heatsinks on the outside like fanless MOSFET power amps
I wish my ears were not so sensitive, the fan washes everything in a sea of pink noise in my studio, so it had to go in another room, even though there's now longer cable runs and no front panel to see.
Critical listening or not, why would I want to play any instrument in a room that masks the detail in the note tails?
for amusement, please watch this video: it seems Intel CPUs survive overheating, whereas AMD CPUs burn and smoke
CPU overheat - YouTube
I don't know how tigersharcs fare, but they do work up to 85 Centigrade, which is pretty hot
Since the tigersharc is intended for normal passive heatsink cooling, or adding a fan, depending on the application (see the other thread), I think a good fanless large heatsink is very likely to be adequate. This is not a Xeon chip
btw sensitivity to fan noise is very variable between people. Not sure if sensitivity means I have tinnitus starting, or if it means that people who are not sensitive have poor hearing. Since the music industry is full of people with hearing damage, we need to be careful about trying to insist that objective truths exist about perception of fan noise. It IS subjective