still, with the kind of overclocks you're looking for, stock HS/F just isn't gonna cut it. That's a 45% overclock you're looking at, and while the retail fans are adequate for moderate overclocking, I think we can agree that 45% is not very moderate. Either you need to 1) adjust your goals, maybe going for 2.2GHz (still over a 20% overclock) or 2) get some better cooling, maybe a thermalright XP-90 or something. Personally, I'm gonna get the Thermaltake Venus 12, I know it's not the best out there, but it's substantially better than retail, and only costs $30 including the fan. Get some Arctic Siver 5 no matter what you do, that will help overclocking a lot. As for the retail versus OEM, go OEM, since you'd obviously void the warranty pretty soon, and if you get a lemon out of the box, you can still exchange it.
Also, with that kind of overclocking, you're gonna need some serious memory, power supply, and a good mobo. My recommendations: memory - 2x512MB Crucial Ballistix PC3200 - rated at 2-3-2-6, but can run at 2-2-2-5 all the way up to DDR438, overclock well, and have exceptionally good timings on an A64, especially at DDR500. They will cost under $250 direct from crucial's site, shipped free. Power supply - I don't know what the absolute best is, a lot of people will tell you Antec, or OCZ, or Zalman, or whatever, and they are good power supplies, just a bit expensive for me. I'm personally looking at the Thermaltake 480W Silent Purepower, and the Allied 500W PSU. Both are around $50, and provide adequate performance. I've read lots of reviews of them, they seem to be pretty good for the price, the only people who seem to say otherwise are those people who tell everybody they need to spend $100 or more on a power supply. For the mobo, I'd wait for the nforce4 Ultra, particularly Gigabyte's new mobo. It's got great performance, outstanding features, and its FSB goes all the way to 350MHz, so it's got plenty of room to overclock. It's supposed to be available this week or next.
