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budget Am3 cooler

Go with the Cooler Master Hyper 212+. If you have a Micro Center near ya, they are going for around $24 right now from there.

By far the best bang for the buck cooler right now in that price range.

-D
 
If you can't find the 212 in your price range, look at the Arctic Cooling freezer pro 64. Not nearly as good, but often cheaper and they've been around so long might be able to find a used one for cheapy cheap.
 
At that price range, if you can't get the 212+ from microcenter, I'd recommend the stock quad heatpipe cooler that ships with the higher-wattage chips. It's noisy, but it cools pretty well.

You will not find many comparable HSFs in the stated price range. In fact, most aftermarket HSFs in the stated price range will be worse than the stock AM3 HSF.

edit: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2541&page=4

The one to look for is the AVC Z7U7414001 (stock AM2). Look at what it beats, according to Frostytech:

OCZ Vendetta (high)
Coolermaster Hyper 212 (not the plus)
Enzotech Ultra-X (high)
Noctua NH-U12
Noctua NH-U12P
Coolermaster Hyper TX3
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro

etc.

Of course, it makes 60 dBA worth of noise, so take that for what it's worth.
 
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