XFX and EVGA 8800 GT

There was recently a revision done to the fan for cooling reasons.
I suspect that the EVGA card you were looking at employed the new cooler?

I have an XFX 8800GT XXX Alpha Dog Edition. With proper airflow and the fan at 35% (stock speed), I idle at 46C, and i have not seen it go above 55C in games. If I turn the fan up to about 40%-50%, you can barley hear the fan and it will keep it under 50C in games.

They run a little warm if you do not have proper case airflow. My case is set up for a negative pressure and has a vent over the pci slots, this contributes a lot to my low temps.

As for your dellema, you should get your 8800GT (EVGA or XFX) and see how the temps are. play around with fan settings and if the temps are too high for your liking, go ahead and get your cooler. If it is anything under 75C, I would not be too worried. In order to cause damage, temps must be extreemely high. 100C+ in some instances.

hope this helped, if you have any other 8800GT questions, feel free to ask!

Id go for a custom cooling solution anyway... lower temps and quieter.

High temps degrade performance.

The original stock cooler had a smaller fan than needed to be given the space they had to work with. The EVGA card comes with a modified stock cooler with a larger fan, thus providing more air and not being as loud.

Assuming all things are equal and they employ the same effective cooling, I'd recommend going with EVGA. You will not get better service in the market if you have any issues with your card and you'll have the 90 day step-up program to give you the option of stepping up to whatever is released between now and May.