Totally agree. Spend the money on E8400 or E8500 and run that under air at above 3.4Ghz and clock for clock would be faster anyway.
I agree with that from a performance point of view, but it isn't the only thing to consider.
First, that doesn't solve the noise problem. Watercooling can be quieter, but most watercooling systems need a fan to shift air through the radiator and good case cooling is still important. Obviously, passive systems are available, but they generally cost a fair bit. If you've got a noisy pc with an E2180, you'll still have one with a different CPU.
Second, there is no way you need to spend £150 on a decent watercooling setup to cool an E2180. Something like an XSPC combined pump/res, an XSPC RS rad and any number of decent cpu blocks will be fine and cost no more than £90. That makes the economics of changing to something like the E8400/8500 less attractive.
Also, lets not forget that watercooling can be fun! You don't need to go mad with triple rads etc. My own setup in sig is cooled by an XSPC pump/res, a 120.1 TFC Xchanger rad, XSPC edge CPU block, swiftech MCW30 for the Northbridge and a couple of decent fans. With the fans at 5v for quietness, I get idle temps in the low 30's and load around 50c.
If you want to do it, go for it, but it won't automatically sort out your noise problem. You could probably make your existing setup a lot quieter just by changing your case fans and getting a decent air cooler (freezer 7 pro?) which would probably allow a slightly better overclock too, and that would be a lot less cash.
