best cooling for Athlon XP 2500+

[Starfury_2260]

I want a heatsink/fan that is quiet but provides good airflow. I may overclock some so I need one that can handle the extra heat.
What do you think of these ideas:
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu
Thermalright SLK-800A and Thermaltake smartfan 2

Also, whats a good thermal paste?

[jmichna]

The Thermalright SLK800 and SLK900 test out the best interms of cooling effectiveness (°C/W) of all the heat sink/fan types, and are on par with water cooling if you use a powerful enough fan (see Overclockers.com).

Overclocker's SLK800 results, for example, gave a value of 0.23°C/W. This means if you are running your CPU overclocked to the point where it puts out 85 watts of thermal energy at 100% CPU output (easy enough to calculate... PM with your email if you want a simple Excel tool to calculate this), then you can expect the SLK800 to keep the CPU temperature within .23°C X 85W = 19.6°C of ambient (case) temperature. If your case temp is at 26°C, then your CPU (at 100% output) would be at 45.4°C.

For paste, I like Arctic Silver III... others seem to like Arctic Silver Cer'amique http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_compounds.htm

[Starfury_2260]

people said ceramique is better because it's nonconductive
also, i see that the Asus A7N8X has mounting holes for a heatsink, so would it be better to get the SLK-800U since it uses these
i've heard it's hard to attach the heatsinks that use the clips

[jmichna]

Originally posted by Starfury_2260
...i've heard it's hard to attach the heatsinks that use the clips...

Thermalright's three lug clips aren't real hard to attach (my Thermalright AX-7s use them) but the spring-loaded screw mounts are definitely more secure, so, yeah, I'd use them. The only downside is that the mobo must be outside the case to get to the backside when mounting using these type of screws.

[Darthgary]

You can get the Thermalright SLK-800 on newegg for under $50 but it dont come with a fan.

[Starfury_2260]

hmm, i already know that

[Starfury_2260]

well having the motherboard outside the case wont be a problem since i'm building a system, not upgrading

[Gait_Keeper]

Originally posted by Starfury_2260
people said ceramique is better because it's nonconductive
also, i see that the Asus A7N8X has mounting holes for a heatsink, so would it be better to get the SLK-800U since it uses these
i've heard it's hard to attach the heatsinks that use the clips

any facts to support this?? anyone???????

[Starfury_2260]

well right now i think i'm going with an SLK-800U or 900U, a Thermaltake smart fan 2, and nanotherm pcm+.