did anyone tried replacing a stock cpu fan(amd 2500+) with a case fan ? if yes, how far can you overclock a 2500+ ? thanks.

What would be the purpose of that? The 2500+ quite easily overclocks to 3200+ simply by changing the FSB from 166mhz to 200mhz. Usually, no other changes are necessary & no outstanding cooling measures are required. However, your board would have to support 200mhz FSB & you'd need PC3200 RAM.

you point out the stupidity of 60mm fans. The stock sink has a loud low flow 60mm fan which fits easily into all motherboards. All aftermarket sinks which use 80mm fans have high flow with less noise but may not fit on your mobo (though odds are 99% that they do). Since 99% is not good enough for cpu makers neither atx nor btx mobo specs have stepped up to forcing 80mm cpu fans onto all mobos. Noise pollution is yet undiscovered. If noise were air its like its 1964 in L.A. and nobody can see long term. As though a world of yelling computers is not worse than a world of quiet computers. What idiots we are.

Most overclockers over 25 will go with 80 or 92mm fan with low noise/low RPM setting, using SLK series or MCX462-V. Most AMD stock cooler nowadays are 70mm. Some 2500+ Barton will go up to 3200+ area without Vcore increase, but some will need 1.8V to make it work. And, when you do, the stock cooling gets marginal. The current A64 AMDs are running as part as P4. Here is an interesting article. http://www.linuxhardware.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/16/1722243&mode=thread The trend is that 80mm fan will become Stock Fan. I will just mention my review on Water Cooling again. http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lazyman/data/The%20Water%20Cooling%20Attraction.htm

I agree with johnoh that a 60mm 5400rpm screaming fan that moves little air has no place in a modern pc. "Most overclockers over 25 will go with 80 or 92mm fan with low noise/low RPM setting, using SLK series or MCX462-V." Yup, because they work. Don't bother with the 60mm to 80mm fan adapters. Skip

I was always against the adapters too until a guy asked me to quiet his machine for the price of a burger and I put one of his case fans onto a $2 60>80 adapter and his temps held constant but the overall noise went down since the 60mm fan had been the loudest component. So since replacing a heatsink is not the best idea for everyone to try, I now think the adapters have their place. Not really for cooling, but for quiet on the cheap.

Oh, I don't disagree with that...it's not much different than me throwing away the stock 60mm entirely and using the 80mm booster fan in the Chill Vent. I haven't tried this with a XP (currently run a duron), and I didn't feel comfortable with a solution that wasn't overkill for dave's 2500+. I have an adapter and I'll try it and the Chill Vent with no processor fan later this month on a 2400+. It's been 85° here all month and I should get some valid results. Skip