its actually a luck of the draw, most will get you up to 2.5-2.7 (somewhere in that range) on air
whether you cool it by air or liquid is your starting point
i am actually getting my 170 from monarch tomorrow, but my system won't be ready for another few weeks for the motherboards that i am interested (ATi 580 MB chipset) are not out yet, then i need a vid card and im all set.