List of water and air heatsinks sorted from best to worst cooling performance. Based from my analysis, the idle temperature for most aftermarket heatsink is approximately +8 degree Celsius of ambient temperature. However, for stock CPU cooler such as Intel or AMD, it would be approximately +16 degree Celsius, due to its small radiator and fan. Ambient Temperature tested for these heatsinks are 24 degree Celsius. Overclock is done with +1.15 GHz.

Temperature Stock (Idle/Load) – Overclock (Idle/Load) : Heatsink Brand and Name
26/50 – 30/70 : CORSAIR H100
29/52 – 32/74 : CORSAIR H80
29/52 – 34/75 : CORSAIR H70
31/51 – 37/73 : COOLER MASTER V6GT
31/51 – 38/73 : THERMALTAKE Frio
32/53 – 38/75 : PROLIMATECH Genesis (dual stock fan)
32/54 – 38/76 : NOCTUA NH-C14
32/54 – 38/76 : NOCTUA NH-D14
31/52 – 38/79 : EVGA M020-00-000234 Superclock CPU Cooler
31/57 – 38/80 : Coolink Corator DS
33/58 – 40/80 : COOLIT VANTAGE
33/58 – 40/81 : Gelid Tranquillo
32/57 – 41/83 : COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
33/58 – 40/84 : CORSAIR H60
33/58 – 43/85 : CORSAIR H50
34/62 – 40/85 : NOCTUA NH-C12P SE14
34/60 – 43/86 : COOLIT ECO
35/64 – 42/89 : NOCTUA NH-U9B SE
39/72 – 49/100 : INTEL/AMD CPU Cooler

Heatsinks Highlights

COOLITSYSTEMS.COM receives many bad reviews on their liquid CPU cooler as the coolant liquid leakes after +1 year usage. As a result, it damages the PC components, especially the graphic cards, motherboard and RAM. Most owners who bought from them avoided purchasing from this CPU Cooler manufacturer.

COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 Plus (H212+) is the best bang for buck CPU Air Cooler that performs 85% as good as a high-end air cooler similarly to NOCTUA NH-D14 at one third or less of the price! If you are performing +1 GHz overclocking, this CPU cooler is a great choice. However, for serious heavy overclockers, they might go with a little more expensive CPU coolers especially water CPU cooler such as Corsair H100 or large tower air cooler like Noctua NH-D14.