We're in a similar situation with hardware. I, too, am in it for the long haul.
I know you'd hate reading through hundreds of threads (been there) so here's a bit of a cheat sheet for the "Cgminer Configuration" tab when the noise becomes an issue for ya.
I got mine to quiet down some 'cuz the wifey was complaining about the howling.
DISCLAIMER: (heh-heh ) Try at your own risk.
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Find your "Cgminer Configuration" tab under the "STATUS" tab & then find the following fields near the bottom of this page:
"Target Temperature": 50
"Overheat Cut Off Temperature": 70
"MORE OPTIONS(Default: -quiet)": --quiet
or
"MORE OPTIONS(Default: -quiet)": --avalon-fan 80
or
"MORE OPTIONS(Default: -quiet)": --avalon-fan 20
The last three "MORE OPTIONS" lines vary between AVALON miners since they're not all created equal.
Mine is hanging at the edge of my window for cooling purposes (in a high rise building) & isn't any louder than my regular desktop fan for most of the day.
PS:
Don't forget to go to the Avalon Wiki page & select the proper one you have for the correct info.
Good luck & happy mining.