Oldfart,
I used the same zalman NB Heatsink that you have, and I used the thermal adhesive, since there are no holes, only clips, for the other methood. I know it's a permanent solution now, and I'm willing to live with that. I was also using speedfan before to lower the RPM's, but now I don't need to bother.
I also replaced the 92mm fan that came with the 6500-cu with a 120mm one, and it blows air on both the CPU HS and the NB HS, so I'm pretty sure I'm covered there. I did check temps before and after, and my temps are a about 5 degrees lower now then before. I only have one intake fan (A Silencer from pcpowerandcooling.com) and my Zalman PSU.
Mu computer sits on the hardwood floor next to my desk, next to a file cabinet, so there is nothing to dampen any of the sound. I'm probably going to get a small carpet to put under it along with some type of shelf to go between the desk and cabinet (low 2-drawer type) to block some more sound.
Jaeger and eastvillager:
You must load the driver during install if you will be using the SATA ports either for your install target or the source media. There are ways to add the driver to a WinXP source without having to load via floppy, usually involving using the unattend.txt file and automating the install. It's beyond the scope here, but the resource kit has some good info on it if you are interested.