If you are going to be running your P4 at specified speeds or even a slight overclock then stick with stock Intel cooling.
Seriously, the HSF that comes with the P4 CPU's is excellent, keeps things very cool and is a pretty quiet fan to boot.
My Original P4 1.8 was nicely cooled with stock cooling and my new P4 2.26Ghz is also under the Intel HSF.

My Nortwood 1.6GHz is running at 2.4GHz with a stock unit as well, it's just *that* good of a design. I also used Artic Silver for my compound on this unit though, and that always helps.
 
If you want more data on all kinds of coolers, check out Dan's Data:
 
http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htm
 
This is his ultra-mega cooler comparison that he constantly updates.

clutch said it all. Keep the retail HSF, but if you want something better, check out that link at Dan's Data. It's arguably the best out there.

Yeah, the stock hs does infact rule And so quiet, interesting to note that the NW stock hs is even smaller than the wilamette 1

Quote:
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/guides/top_ten.htm

Another decent "Top 10" list to look at maybe for you...

*

APK Yeah, very interesting - I clicked the link, it opened an IE window, I went to maximise the window & XP told me thet it [iE] was not responding. As this doesn't normally happen to me I think I'll blame the website.

Yeah...thanks alot Al Gore.
 
BTW, the link worked fine for me and it's been at least a week since I had a reboot.

From experience I can tell you that the Intel retail heatsink/fan will suffice for a safe o/c of an 1.8A. I have this CPU on a Asus P4S533 board and I can push it to 2.4GHz by enabling VEN1 and upping the Vcore +0.025. Perfectly stable, temps between 43C idle and 49C under load. I also don't have any case fans, except the intake/outtake duals on my Enermax PSU. Case temp is around 37C max.
I also don't have Arctic Silver or such applied on the CPU, so if u do that it will shave a few deg. as well...

Man but that rotates at 7000rpm, compared to 3000max for the Intel retail combo. I am very pleased with this setup, going from an AMD Athlon 1.33GHz (temps 49 and more idle, LOL) with an Alpha PAL6045 (at 5k rpm i think). I say the OEM heatsink/fan do a great job for "cheap" and quiet combo. It is within a few deg. of the mighty AVC Sunflower on moderate overclocks, coupled with ArcticSilver III. Can't beat that.
 
Overall with my new system:
 
P4 1.8A Boxed
Asus P4S533
Hercules 3D Prophet 8500LE (ATI Radeon 8500LE w/128 MB)
Aopen 32x/12x/48x
SB Live 1024 XGamer Value
Seagate Barracuda ATAIV 60GB 7200rpm (damn quiet too!)
Enermax EG365AX-VE ActivePFC
 
 
I was a bit scared to dump the NVidia bandwagon for the Radeon8500, but I must stress that I have absolutely NO problems with both Hercules retail drivers, or with the new ATI Catalyst series. Somehow I have the feeling that the textures in games look better on the Radeon than on any Nvidia I had (except GF4).
 
 
I had of course problems with the new rig, like the speed of the CDRW, it is too fast, LOL. It sounds like a plane taking off when it reads at full 48x! I am using a proggy (CD Bremse) that limits the max read speed (thus loudness), and I limit read speed at 32x.
Other than that...a weird buzz coming out of the Enermax 350W PSU at regular intervals, sometimes it doesn't do it for hours.
 
System could be faster than now, cos Im still using an "old" PC2100 DDR Samsung stick. The board supports DDR333 and DDR400 (unoficially, but the ratio is there), but the prices are kinda high for my liking right now.