Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu CPU Cooler

Pros: Quiet, effective, inexpensive, cool looking
Cons: Not as effective as pure copper CPU coolers

Background I recently purchased a custom built PC, and one of the stipulations I had before ordering the PC was that I be able to choose the components used in the system. I had done quite a bit of research prior to ordering the system, and the ...

Pros: Low cost Better than AMD "boxed" cooler External fan speed controller
Cons: Doesn't lower the noise enough

I bought this one to cool my AMD Athlon64 3000+.
It's much more effective than the AMDs "boxed" cooling, but doesn't offer dramatic noise cut-down.
Along the package comes a external controller that is for adjusting the fan speed (increasing/decreasing the voltage). Controller is really useful, as it's stepless and with normal voltage the fan is quite noisy.
I recommend you check your motherboard socket and size compatibility from Zalmans website before purchase - even though this cooler isn't as massive as modern "silent" coolers around.
If you have room and some extra dollars to spend to your cpu cooling, I recommend Zalmans full copper (CNPS7000B-Cu) version of this cooler, as it is a bit more efficient.