CPU Air Cooler Mega Test

Cost Vs Performance

We brought this graph together initially to help us see which coolers represented the best value.  Having done so we thought it might just help you guys in making your purchasing decisions.  What you’re essentially looking at below is a graph that illustrates both the cost of the cooler and how it performs relative to the others in the test.  The red bars represent the performance figure and the white bars represent the cost of the cooler.  What you’re looking for then is a cooler with a small red bar (low temps) and a white bar that is also as small as possible (lower price).  From the off it’s easy to see that on the whole you get what you pay for, with the more expensive coolers garnering better performance results, but there are a few stand outs here.  Cast your eyes down to the Noctua NH-U14S.  It’s only 1.5 degrees off the pace of the top cooler and a full £20 cheaper.  In the same way it’s also good at helping to identify those that don’t perform too well and cost a lot of money.  Take for example the SilverStone HE01 and the bequiet Dark RockTF and Dark Rock Pro3.  Anyways, we’ll let you pick your way through and see what you make of it.