So I am getting a Q6600 and I was wondering what are some good aftermarket heatsinks for it. Case is a Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS and mobo is EVGA 680i A1. Also, which is better? Artic Silver 5, Ceramique, or Alumina?

Check the overclocking guide for core2duo by WUSY..... That thread have a list of top aftermarket coolers. I personally would choose zalman 7900LED for the look or tuniq tower 120 for cooling. Both HSF are very large, might not fit your system. Arctic silver 5 is very popular, but i've seen a large number of people saying Arctic Silver ceramique is better than Arctic Silver5. I'm not sure about Alumina since i haven't seen people use it. Maybe it's not good since nobody use it.

Using an Ultra-120 Extreme on my Q6600 o/ced to 9x333.

Be warned that all C2D and quad C2D chip are known to have irregularly shaped IHS (internal heat spreaders) meaning good contact between the HS and core can be difficult. You can consider lapping both the base of the HS and the IHS on your chip to give better temps. I knocked 7 °C off my load temps from the coolest core and over 10 °C off my load temps from the hottest core by lapping both the IHS on the Q6600 and the base of the ultra-120 extreme. See pics and temp graphs in those two threads.

Ultra Extreme would be nice if any stores had it in stock, I will probably go Zalman 9700 if I can't find one. I would lap the CPU but dont really have the confidence for it. Split down the middle between AS5 and Ceramique though...both seem like decent choices.

Some other considerations I would perhaps look into:

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU Heatsink - Out of Stock ATM

Thermalright Ultra-120 Universal CPU Heatsink

Tuniq Tower 120 Ultra Silent Universal CPU Cooler

Edit:

. o O (over looked that you guys mentioned the Ultra-120 )

Got lucky on newegg and got the Ultra 120 eXtreme with a Scythe S-flex fan and AS5. Seems like a good deal but is there anything specific I should know when installing this heatsink on my mobo?

Nothing specific. Read the instruction that come with it and read the instructions for applying AS5 from their website. Don't listen to people in here that tell you otherwise.

One tip: do a dry run mount, i.e. leave the cpu out of the MB and make sure you know where the u-120 x will sit over the cpu such that it is centered. It is possible to mount it off-center on a P5B-Del which gives higher temps.

The best air coolers hands down are Thermalright.
The TIM that comes with the coolers is fine and 1/2C less with another brand is not worth the extra money.

The Thermalright coolers are also about as FLAT corner-to-corner as you could hope for and trying to lap one without custom tools will only make then less so.
The person who did his and the CPU would have had the same (or better) results from just laping the CPU.

[quote="ZOldDude"]

That's me, and your statement is not accurate at all. Yes, TR makes a great cooler, but they are not flat corner-to-corner at all. There are numerous threads that agree with my result. Look at the pics in my thread. You can clearly see this HS was convex.

WTF is a Tuniq Tower 120 Ultra?

WTF is a Tuniq Tower 120 Ultra?

8O . o O ( you askin me?)

Ummmm..

Guess they have the weally weally quiet version? . o O (its on frozen cpu's website)

How About Cooler Master Hyper TX? Is it cool enough? :?:

Eh, it's pretty much just a rebranded Freezer 7 Pro with a plastic shroud. The Freezer 7 tends to be cheaper too.

If you can afford get a Tuniq Tower or Ultra 120, do it. Seriously, they're both MILES ahead of the Freezer 7 and Hyper TX.

Imagine the stock hsf as a fly, the Freezer 7 as a pigeon, the Tuniq Tower and Ultra 120 as supersonic jets, water cooling as a hypersonic jet, cascade coolers, phase change systems, TECs, ect., as the speed of light, and dry ice/LN2 cooling as some crazy space ship capable of FTL travel. Oh, and for reference, no hsf, just the bare chip, as moving backwards, and absolute zero as Warp 10 (infinite speed). Now put all of 'em in a race to the center of the universe.

ahem... back to the subject...

Hey, he asked about the Hyper TX, that's the best way I could think of to compare them. Now that I think about it a little more, benchmarks may have been slightly more effective, but still. Scramjet.

Tuniq Tower VS Ultra 120
Freezer 7 Pro, similar setup

The Freezer 7 (as I said before, the Hyper TX