I have an ASUS drive and it was £25 (or about 55 US Dollars) and I have never been more satisfied with any other DVD Writer I have had. Quieter than the ones in the past and matches (if not beats) read and write speeds.
Anyway I have a Relatively new, (1 year and a half now) SeaGate Baracudda 7200.11 320GB Drive, and you can still hear it access, unlike the drive I had before that, which was a maxtor 160GB, it was completely silent, however unfortunately died after 13 months of use :(
Anyway, responding to your original question, I think you can get a 5.25" Bay Hard drive cooler, which uses heatpipes to cool it down, and to fit the hard drive itself it fits into like a sponge, and when you screw it in, you use these anti-vibration pads to put over the screws.
Hope this helps