CPU cooling- need help choosing a cooler
 

Hi all, First time poster here, looking for a little help with air cooling.

I'm building a new PC for myself...nothing top-of-the-line, just well beyond the junker I have now.This is the stats thus far:

CPU: Intel e6750 (Core 2 Duo, base clock speed 2.66gHz)
Mobo: ASUS P5N32-E SLI
Ram: 4gB OCZ Reaper PC6400 (800mHz) memory
Case: Ultra Aluminus full ATX
PSU: Ultra x2 SLI 750w

Graphics card: either an 8800GTS or 8600GTS, haven't decided how much I want to spend there.


The rest shouldn't matter, that at least gives you a good idea of what I'm working with.



I consider myself moderately intelligent when it comes to PC building
. I can throw it all together, make a working machine, and probably not kill myself. I also intend to overclock a little- nothing extreme, but I figure I'm capable enough to monkey with the CPU voltage a little. Squeak a bit more out.

So, here's my dilemna- Cooling! I'm looking for an affordable cooling solution (say under US $100) that will deliver well in the termperature department. I don't care TOO much about noise as long as it doesn't shriek at me. I'm leaning towards air cooling, though liquid is becoming an option even in that limited price range.

My real problem is that I've found a bajillion decent fans that I think would work well, all around the same price..and I can't for the life of me tell which is better. I've read reviews, and it's hard to judge by that. No two reviews use machines or situations that are even remotely similar, so I can't get a decent baseline to judge them all against.

Here's my list of suspects thus far:

Zalman CPNS9700 LED
Zalman CNPS9700 NT
Zalman CNPS8700 NT
ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120
Tuniq T-120-LFB 120mm
Scythe Ninja
Scythe Mugen
Thermaltake Blue Orb II

As far as aesthetics go, I'm not really too concerned.

Basically, I'm pretty sure I can squeeze any these on the mobo (with my huge memory a couple might be tricky though), and they all seem comparable. In anyone's experience, is any one of them superior? Would you recommend a different model instead? And what about TECs/water cooling? There are a few JUST over my price range...are the gains worth spending $50-100 more?

Thanks in advance for whatever help you can give.

Scythe Ninja for uber silence with very low RPM fan, but only if other PC components are equally quietly cooled, otherwise you're better of the the Mugen. if you can get the Tuniq at a good price, do go for it.

as it currently stands, water/tec cooling isn't worth the extra, you wont get noticeably OC increase nor decrease noise