Here's a suggestion, which I didn't do, but wish I had: use insulated ducting, to dampen the sound of the fan. Even dialed down, mine is anything but silent. It's white noise and I'm used to it, not hard at all for me to tune out, but I should've used insulated ducting. Someday I'll get off my lazy ass and fix that!

I saw that cabinet that GreenFog posted a pic of a day or two ago. Really does look perfect for mothers/clones. Unfortunately for me, it's too tall for my sloped ceiling. Grr! Also, it's got cardboard backing, as do all of those cabinets I think, including the ones I mentioned. So when you get them, you will also want to stop by the lumber department at Lowe's or Home Depot and have them cut you some real backing for the cabs out of MDF or whatever. Figured I'd mention that now, and hopefully save you a trip back and forth when you discover cardboard backing sucks.

And nobody's rushin' you, dude! It's best to take your time and figure stuff out first, saves you a lot of unnecessary hassle. Hell, I probably spent most of a YEAR planning and figuring stuff out before I spent a dime.