I have decided to build my own pc and am in the planning phase of it. I have a few guides from online (one from this site!) and have one question. What is the difference between a heat sink and a cooling fan. Looking them up they seem to be the same to me. Any help is greatly appreciated. By the way I have little to no experience with this, felt I would give it a shot.

a heatsink is just a metal "block" which is quite big and has deep grooves in it:
this just absorbes the heat and relies on a cool case to keep that cool (if you know what i mean??)

a cooling fan is just a fan that sits on top of your processor (also usualy on top of a heatsink)



This cools the CPU down by blowing the warmth away from it which can then be taken out of the case by either a case fan or a vent


They both do the same job though

Thank you. After more research and trying to find 'compatible' products I felt that they essentially did the same job. Thanks for the feedback.

If you are going to run a high end CPU or Dual Core you might want to consider Liquid Cooling.

I just installed my first and it was not only easy but the results were phenomenal!

A 20° C difference in idle temp on a Prescott 3.2 hyper threaded.

This is what I used:

http://www.casecooler.com/thbicl.html

Plus this site has other ideas.