Originally posted by SNGX1275
Thermal Pads are also an option but you'll find a strong opposition to them on these boards. Anyway I just find it difficult to believe that your processor was running that high unless the heatsink was applied incorrectly.
Thermal pads are good, but not great. Thermal pastes (like Arctic Silver) are the best but only for people who want to deal with applying it, which is difficult, to say the least. With thermal pads you just stick them on, and they work fine.
That Altech site you posted, El_Smee, looks like a good store but has crap for heatsink selection. If you want, any of those Zalman coolers (for Socket A of course) would be great for cooling, especially if you want your computer to be really quiet, but it's at an extra cost, which by preferring a $12 heatsink over one that costs 5x as much I assume you want to avoid.
Here's some good heatsinks I would reccomend, that I found at some Australian online retailers.
CoolerMaster CP5-6J31C -
Price: $21.50 ASD ($16.55 USD) - Rated for AthlonXP 3200+ and up
Retailer link
Manufacturer link, for a picture and specs
This is probably the heatsink you should get, it's rated for a 3200+ and it's only $5 USD more than the Kingwin I posted. Plus it probably cools better, and I trust Cooler Master more than Kingwin.
Thermaltake Volcano 10+ -
Price: $29 ASD ($22.33 USD) - Rated for Athlon XP 3400+ and up
Retailer link
Manufacturer link
This heatsink is a little more expensive, but it would be a great cooler, Thermaltake makes some awesome heatsinks, not that Cooler Master doesn't, but Thermaltake is just awesome. Plus this heatsink looks alot better if you're gonna put a window on your case or get one w/ a window pre-installed.
Cooler Master Aero 7 LITE -
Price: $29 ASD ($22.33 USD) - Rated for Athlon XP 3200+ and up
Retailer link
Manufacturer link
Get this heatsink if you wanted a more expensive heatsink but you didn't like how the Thermaltake looked or something. This one is another straight shot, but I dunno how good it performs against the Thermaltake. The Thermaltake would be a better choice IMHO, but I dunno some people are wierd and need different choices
And what kind of thermal paste did you get? You said it was expensive, I just hope you didn't get ripped off, it's easy with stuff like thermal paste. I'd only reccomend Arctic Silver. Be sure to put the same thermal paste on a new heatsink if you were to get one, they usually come with pads already installed.
And don't worry about the whole different-heatsink-voided-warranty deal, if your processor went bad and you returned I highly doubt they could tell you used a different heatsink on it.