Hopefully this will be helpful: Benchmark Reviews published an article called Best CPU Cooler Performance - Q1 2008 (benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=1) that offered a comparison of the top coolers in their stock form (not lapped or modified). The same fan was used on all of the coolers to isolate performance, so your own results may be different. From the article, it appears that the Heat-pipe Direct Touch coolers are all at the top of the list, with some of the others keeping very close in performance.