Note that recommendation are based on price/performance ratio, please read reviews of them.
Arctic Cooling AcceleroS1 (revA) + any 80/92/120mm of your choice.
This cooler is dirt cheap. While it is somewhat ginourmous for a cooler the price and performance offered at this pricerange is simply something that must not be overlooked. The cooler works efficiently, just note you will need moving air as it is a passive cooler. Any cheap low RPM fan can do the job, or a set of turbo modules which cost less than $10 most cases. I’d recommend this for all the 8 and 9 series (except the 8800GTX/8800GTS 640/320 of course…) Priced @ around $30 @ Newegg, $40 ish if you add the TMs
Personal comment: If you are able to add a 120mm fan that sits after the HDDs and before the GPU or already have one, like in the antec sonata III, you won’t need to add any TMs/extra fans on the cooler. I’d grab a set of ramsinks for the VRM phases as well.
Thermalright HR-03GT + 92mm fan – Performance… it wins hands down. Very pricey however-around a VF1000. Can’t find decent pricing for it…Ironically even though Thermalright is based in the US, Newegg doesn’t stock their full array of products. Boo.
Thermalright V2 + 80mm fan.
Really small cooler, that costs around a VF900CU, doesn’t ship with a fan unfortunately. However the performance bests the VF1000, according to some reviews. I’d chuck on a half height 80mm fan to make use of the extremely thin profile of it. same story as above…
Zalman VF1000
Great cooler, problem is the price-its almost two times more expensive than an acceleroS1. However needed if you have a 8800GTX/Older GTS320/640. Priced @ around $50, @ Newegg. Expect prices to be higher elsewhere.
VF900CU
This is somewhat pushing it, not much better than the VF830 that ships with a large number of 8800GTs. Only put it here since it’s a popular cooler, performance is nowhere near the others and it costs more than the Accelero@ $35 for the LED version @ newegg.