You have multiple choices for your situation.
1.) A new heatsink, a Zalman series heatsink or a Swiftech MCX 400 heatsink with a quieter fan.
2.) Lap the stock Intel Heatsink Fan Unit with 600grit up to 1500 grit wet/dry sand paper on a flat surface such as a mirror. Lap the heatsink to get it perfectly flat against the CPU to prevent the microscopic air gaps.
3.) Lap the CPU processor with 1000, then 1500 to 2000 grit sand paper until a little copper is showing but not too much. (Ideally the CPU has to be perfectly flat and used with minimal arctic silver 3 once the lapping process is completed. You can wetsand the processor carefully but on a flat mirror surface with the wet/dry sandpaper taped on the mirror.
4.) Go to
www.overclockers.com under forums, you will see stuff about the 1.6a and some more advanced techniques on it. The 1.6a is the very popular processor, the first batch of the favorite Northwood chips.
5.) Also, you can check out
www.hardocp.com under their forums too.
6.) Increase the voltage on that CPU but NO MORE THAN 1.7v. The TH7II does undervolt just a tad.
7.) You can put BGA heatsinks on the mosfets near the power capacitors on your motherboard to increase the life of your CPU over time.
Overclockers.com has info on this.
8.)You may have different Direct Rambus Clock Generator chips... which are located near the Rambus slots themselves, small black rectangular chip that say ICS on them, mine are 03's. Some people have done voltage modifcations since these chips have .pdf documentation with max allowable voltage. Also voltage mods have been done to powersupplies to allow more voltage to these DRCG's. Even some people have went ahead and gone with some TI Texas Instruments 533 DRCG's and had them implanted from a good electronics shop.
9.) Please do go to overclockers.com under the forums and go to motherboards, then go to Abit Motherboards listed as a subsection, then you will see a ton of stuff on the TH7-II, do a search on it in the forums, and you will BE SUPRISED HOW MUCH TH7 II shows up.
10.) Some people have tried 40ns Rambus Samsung PC 800 ram instead of the 45ns PC 800 Ram. I have PC 800 45ns Ram and it works better than the Kingston stuff which is Samsung in some cases. You may have bunk ram, or the system case temp needs to be brought down with addition of more fans and better air flow by arrangement of some inside case compenets (Cables etc.)
11.) Not to offend anandtech admins by redirecting you to other sites, but revise your search in these forums on TH7 II.
I have a TH7 II that I bought in Feb. 2002 and I love it along with my P 1.6a at 2530 mhz x3 multiplier and 1.675 volts, but in is actually 1.66 due to the undervolting.