I had a Brother CS6000i and that was a pretty good little machine. I paid about $150 on Amazon for it. I "outgrew" it and gave it to my niece and nephew; they abuse the heck out of it and it still works! It's too small to really quilt on it (though I did quilt a Twin size on it) but for piecing it'd be just fine. Came with an extension table and a quarter-inch foot. Very light weight. I don't remember specifically how loud or quiet it was so probably about average noisiness would be my guess.