CPU heatsink/fan recomendations X48 DQ6

[Lancerz]

I'm trying to find a good heatsink/fan for my E8400 that will fit on this mb. I have the stock cooler on there now and it sucks pretty bad. I like the zalman 9700 style plus it screws to the mb, but it looks very big and i dont know if it would fit properly. I have a thermaltake tsunami case so i think that wont be a problem. Any help is appreciated.

[Psycho101]

The Zalman 9xxx range is ancient now, about 4+ years old. HSF's have moved on. If a person already has one and wants to over clock with it, that's fine, but I'd not recommend anyone buy one now.

The top 3 HSF's IMO are:

Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120
Prolimatech Megahalems
Noctua 120mm fan range, either the top down or the tower, depending on case size. Noctua.at - sound-optimised premium components "Designed in Austria"!

Many are under the false impression that the 9700 is a good cooler because it's made of copper, but HSF design and engineering is more important than whether the fins are copper or aluminium. On all of those coolers listed, the base plates and heat pipes are copper and the fins are aluminium. Expect load temperatures of 10c less or more with one of those coolers compared to a Zalman 9700.

Edit** All the coolers I listed will fit on your board perfectly. They also all come with propper retaining kits, meaning they're screwed/bolted down with a backplate and mounting bracket combo, rather than push-pins.

[Lancerz]

Ah cool, the main thing i wanted was to get rid of the push pin type heatsink and to make sure that those would clear the heat pipes/NB on the mb. Ill have a look at those you suggested, thanks.

[Chike]

Those Psycho101 mentioned and a few others, one is CNPS990.
Prolimatech Megahalems and 12 Other Coolers for Intel Core i7 Overclocking - X-bit labs

[Lancerz]

So after looking at all these coolers i went to the local Microcenter, and im glad i did. Man...those coolers look like mini monsters, the prolimatech megahelms would have never fit in my case without removing the side fan, and it probably still wouldn't have. Then the noctua...it was extremely large, it wouldnt have fit either. So i went with the Zalman 9700 and im glad i did...it barely fit in my case with the side fan. But it does what its supposed to do. All my temps went down, video card dropped -8c and now my cpu idles at 34C and under load running prime 95 for 6 hours it only hit 50c with fan on the lowest setting. With stock cooler while playing games cpu would rise to 75-80c in a few seconds so im happy, thanks all.