Those old intel servers were absolutely terrible about noise, I have a couple that run a little louder but the server with my witness on it is actually super quiet most of the time. Just harddrive spin noises when there is any sort of load. Its all contained in my home office though, which pretty much only I occupy most of the time (occasionally maybe my fiance does some masters homework in there lol) so if there is a lot of noise and heat, I am the only one for it to bother haha. My next home improvement project is going to have to be to build a ventilation system!
I actually lucked out with the static ip, most ISP's in the US here also usually won't give out a static ip on a residential line. I live in a more rural state (South Dakota, home of Mount Rushmore and not much else) so some ISP's can be a little more lenient if you find the right person to ask a favor, and I stumbled into the right person. :)