The Artic 7 is no longer the best bang for the buck so to speak. In the past year it has gone up in price while much better (and often overkill) coolers have come down. The average price of the AC7 is now in the $30 range for N. America and it doesnt come with a top grade thermal grease. You have to spring an extra $7 to $14 bucks for that. That puts the deal in the $50 range (unless you already own some good grease). In the $50 range you can get teh Tower 120, Extreme 120 or 9700 LED/NT and they all come with high end grease. They perform on a level that would warrant the xtra few dollars and should last through the life of the 775 socket. Height wise the AC7 is about the same as these, a tad smaller, but not by much. About 20mm or 3/4" at most. It's not quite that much as the CPU block is about 1/4 thicker on the AC7 so it site higher than most of the thinner blocked big boys. At all pretty much agerages out in the end. It's the width that gies the AC7 and advantage in smaller cases.
To the OP, since you have already built this rig consider staying at stock if you dont plan to go over 3.0 GHz. Your temps arent that bad for a Q6600 underload and OC'ed to 3.GHz. If you plan to buy an after market cooler (say you want more than 3GHz) then go with one of the bigger coolers if you can fit it in your case. If your going to tear down your mobo to attach a new fansink then spend the extra $10 to $15 to the best. The AC7 was an excellent deal last year. It was almost always on sale for about $20 while the others were going for $70 to $80. Considering how well it cooled for the price it simply couldint be beat. Thats simply not the case anymore for N. America. Just consider how much time you will put into taking out your motherboard, placeing your support bracket on the back of the CPU and reinstalling everything for the new cooler. Then consider the fact that the better coolers give eay more temp headroom for just a few dollars more and tend to come with high end grease. Personaly I've still an Artic Silver fan as I know how long it lasts over time. Others have yet to prove they can last for years, but they do indeed offer better thermal transfer. Another year or two and I will change my mind.
Also, you use of the term paste is bad. No I'm not trying to be a grammer cop here. There is thermal paste and thermal grease. They do similar things, but are used for different reasons. Incorrect use of the wrong term could lead you into buying the wrong thing. Thermal paste is used for making a strong mechanical connection between a hetasink and chip. It doesnt cool near as well (but it gets the job dont) and it's considered a permanent solution as it hardens like glue. You must ues special solvents to remove it all if you need to change something. Thermal grease offers no permanent connection at all (maybe surface tension if you count that), but offers much better thermal transfer than paste. It is rare that one would ever want to use thermal paste on a CPU. The link you asked about is a fine thermal grease and if your so inclined, go for it. It will get the job done.
As a personal recomendation I'm still a fan of the Zalman 9700 NT/LED fansinks. They can be had for about $50, come with a high grade grease in an easy to apply bottle with a brush, and offer one of the best quality packin controller on the market. The Tower 120 and Extreme 120 are slitghtly better (and I stress the word slightly), yet both have had the problem with their height on smaller, mid towers. Just look over some reviews and decide that way.
Check out http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm as a good starting place and go from there. Good luck.
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