I have the Thule as well. The snowboard rack is not too loud. When you are not hauling your boards Monday -Friday, rotate the rack 90 degrees so it is inline with the cross bar. That seems to lessen the noise even more. In the summer, I mount the bike rack and that is really loud.

I heard bad things about the OEM rack. It sits pretty tall on the vehicle, so clearance may be an issue if you are in and out of parking garages. I also heard that the straps you tie the board down with are rubber and hard to stretch in the cold.