I just got an e7300 with stock 2.66GHz that I plan on mildly overclocking. This is an entry/budget build and I am not interested in extreme overclocking, just trying to coax a little better performance out of it. This is going into a RAIDMax Smilodon, which has excellent (and silent, too!) air flow.
My question is simple: What's the best cooler I can get for about $25? I know I don't need a giant thing that can cool a quad extreme, just a good cooler.
Also, the stock intel HSF actually did perform well in the super roundup, keeping the quad under its shutdown frequencies. Noting that the 45nm procs use so much less power, can I just stick with the stock HSF even for mild OCing?
Thanks for your time guys, and I look forward to contributing to this community more in the future.

For a mild OC under $25 just stick with the stock cooler. Anything else for that price will only perform slightly better if at all. You could probably hit 3.0ghz if you don't mind higher temps.

That's what I was thinking, but what does "higher temps" mean?

Use what you have, see how far you get, and buy something fun with heatpipes later if you want.

45 nm means if you get anything that is satisfactory with quad core, it will excel on your dual core.

get some cheap Arctic Silver 5 or OCZ FreeZe

be prepared with thermal paste at hand... whats the thermal envelope of these chips? when will it start to scale down Ghz to cool down?

If I use the stock HSF I am going to use the stock thermal paste. If you go back and read http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 784-8.html you will see that the stock HSFs performed better with the stock thermal paste.
The thermal specification is 74.1*C, per http://processorfinder.intel.com/D [...] Spec=SLAPB

err, WTF! ANY cooler with better thermal paste will perform better if it is correctly applied! what's the bet the people in that guide put the whole tube on?

AS5 has "settling in" time. You will get slightly higher temps with it at first but after a bit your temps will go down. This is normal and proven in testing. Also, I have never heard of or heard recommend, that paste they used in the link they posted. V3NOM is right, better paste will yield better performance always.

As for "higher temps" that just means higher temperatures.