Also, choice of HDD will help the unit noise. I recently took Ronnie's advice and tried a pair of 3TB WD Red drives. These do seem to run cooler and quieter. Am testing the MD600 in the main cabinet in the living room. I only hear the fan running late at night as I turn everything off. With TV or music on then it is not a problem.

So, whilst out of room placement is best, in-room can be done. I would be tempted to ensure it was at least placed behind a chair which would block some of the fan noise.

PoIP plugs as Carl suggested will work also as long as you keep the network as simple as possible.

Rgds,
Nick