Yes, I know this kinda question has been asked a bunch of times before, but Id like any help at all anyway. AMD Athlon XP 2000+ VIA KT4 Ultra Mobo Fan/heatsink that came with CPU (shrug) The CPU temp, according to the fuzzy logic and BIOS is 57 dg Celcius, even when just idle. Now, frankly, that seems like a bit much. Any suggestions on how to lower it, like what heatsinks/fans and prices? Again, I know this question has been asked repeatedly, but whats safe or acceptable temps if I wanted to overclock? If I wanted to overclock, should I change fsb or multiplier? Thanks in Advance

I'd go with a copper heatsink and keep the sound down with a lower rpm large fan on a bracket that comes with the zalman heatsinks. A nice sized case for good air flow with rounded and tied cables would be nice. You want 6 inches around all the case for good air flow, if you put it in a cubby hole in the desk the temp will go up because of a lack of air flow. try to keep the cpu around 50C when stressed or lower My setup is below: Using a full tower case with dual fan PSU 400 watt, 4-80mm fans (2 in, 2 out), pci slot cooler and my cpu info :) 1800xp chip Zalman copper heatsink installed using 75cfm fan from a volcano 9 32C cpu temp 22C mobo temp without any software running with cpuidle running I can get temps while surfing the net at 20C cpu, 19C mobo. I was thinking about turning my fans down since they are adjustable to make the sound not quite as loud. Its a low hum right now but I can make it virtually silent but I'll be around 45-50C. Thanks for your time :) Hope this was somewhat helpful. Good Luck!

Hmm that was actually very helpful, Gary, however I think I might have realized that my comp is rather strange. It has two slots on the SIDE and one slot on the front for fans. Now, having either an intake OR and outtake on the side seems strange, but since the slots on the side are near the bottom of the comp, should I assume that those fans are for intake? Secondly, on the back of my comp, there is what I think is a spot for a fan, but my 80mm wont fit; whats a smaller size, and how many RPMs would anyone suggest?

I believe the side fans are used for exhaust traditionally, but because they are placed so low it makes me wonder if they thought of them as intakes(that would make some sense). I heard that side fans can disrupt the vaccuum you want to create in your case for good air flow. Are those 60mm fan holes on your case? Traditionally better cases come with 80mm fan holes because bigger fans = lower rpms = less noise generally. If you're really serious about your cooling and you want to stay with air cooling I'd suggest a full tower case if you don't have one. My case is the CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower with Plastic Front Cover) Black w/acrylic window No Power Supply from Newegg.com. Has 2 fans included with it and options for two more on the front. Because of your comment on cpu heat: Yesterday I put the fan on that came with the zalman heatsink and turned all of my other fans off. The rise in tempature was up to 44-45C after stressing the cpu which is awesome considering the fan is going about 1 rpm per mhz on my cpu... roughly 1560 rpms which makes the case almost silent. Its pretty cold here right now so when the summer comes I might have to throw on all my other fans but its nice having silence right now. In response to your earlier question about overclocking I would recommend more research on your end. The easiest way to overclock is by bumping up the bus speed but to get better results you would want to unlock the cpu and change the multiplier in the bios. Good Luck Gary