I've got a 75G outside our mbr with 2 Eheim 2217's. Quiet as mice. Can't hear them from 5 feet away sitting at the computer. The big canisters have room for lots of media (mine came with all of it), and the hoses have separate attachments but have quick releases with inline valves so you can remove it easily for cleaning.
Also, I have a 29G isolation tank I'm cycling in the garage. It came with a Penguin 150 from the previous owner who had 3 goldfish in it. I bought an AC50 because I liked the idea of flexible media areas. I've had the Penguin running since I brought it home a couple weeks ago, and set the AC50 up just tonight. Noticeably louder vibration/rattle noise from the AC50. Surprisingly so. It's in my garage, so I don't care all that much, but I was a little taken aback. Maybe it will smooth out over the first few days. I'll let you know if it does. I like the media flex and the siphon setup/adjustable outflow of the AC50, but the silence and the surface flow of the penguin is pretty nice, although I dislike the filter cartidges. Good idea above, to cut the sponge off one of the plastic frames and then attach your own sponge/filter floss or bio.
If it were me (and no fiscal constraints), I'd probably go for a small canister like the Eheim 2213 or one of the small cascade or aquatops. Maybe a small penguin or AC30 for support filtering as a second filter. The HOB filters seem to have better "suction range" at the intake than my Eheims do in the big tank. Purely subjective and observational based opinion on that.