| Soleron said: The HSF that comes with the CPU is sufficient, unless you plan to overclock. |
Even then, stock HSFs can handle mild OCing if you replace the stock thermal goop with some nice Arctic Cooling paste. I did just that and my Athlon II x3 435 at stock tops out at 36C under full load.
Anyway, I see that someone's already directed you to my thread, but at 1680x1050 I'd highly recommend going with the AMD sweet spot (Athlon II x3 440) plus a Radeon 4850. Those two parts are dirt-cheap, costing less than $200USD together here in the States (not sure about AU$), and will be able to handle most anything at 1680x1050. Then just upgrade the card to mid-range again in 1.5-2 years. For the rest of the parts, just look at the recommendations in my thread.
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
