Inside a PC, a stereo amplifier, or a smartphone, one red line runs through them all: The circuits inside generate heat, and something's got to keep things cool. The hardware used to keep PC components from overheating has undergone a revolution over the last decade, with once-rare liquid coolers now widely used in high-performance desktops and some cooling hardware playing a key cosmetic role in show-off gaming rigs and custom builds.
Both of these factors have vastly expanded the options available for keeping PCs and chips cool. And that explosion of gear has been great for experienced system builders, while creating some confusion for those new to the scene. In this article, we've combined a brief tutorial with a list of some of the best CPU coolers now available. You'll want to read closely to ensure you get one that will work in your system.
Before going any further, if you're a PC-building beginner, you'll want to read our deep-dive PC Cooling 101 guide to learn everything you need to know about CPU coolers. We'll summarize a few points from that article here, but won't be covering it in anywhere near the same depth.
Do I Need an Air Cooler, or a Liquid Cooler?
The processor cooling market is divided into two broad classes: air coolers and liquid coolers. Air coolers are the most common kind found in retail desktops; these are essentially metal heatsinks with fans that push air through their fins, accelerating the cooling process. Some of these are what are dubbed "stock coolers," cooling heatsink and fan assemblies provided by the two big chip makers (AMD and Intel) to complement their mainstream processors. (Most of AMD's stock line are dubbed Wraith coolers, while Intel's very newest stock coolers, on its 12th Generation "Alder Lake" chips, are dubbed the Laminar line.)
Note: Stock air coolers are the coolers that will come in the box with an AMD or Intel CPU, though not all CPUs bundle one. Also, sometimes, if you buy a prebuilt desktop PC, the system maker may use a cooler of its own design or sourcing, and not the AMD or Intel stock model.
More exotic are water coolers, also known as closed-loop liquid coolers or all-in-one (AIO) CPU coolers. (An even more elite class of liquid coolers is custom-designed by each tube and joint rather than being a prefilled, premade system; we won't be covering that kind of advanced custom cooling hardware here.) AIO coolers, too, feature large metal constructs with fans, but those are actually radiators, mounted to the PC's case, through which the liquid flows in a circuit. The whole works differs significantly from an air cooler by using liquid-filled tubes and a pump to convey heat away from the CPU's "water block" (the assembly that sits atop the CPU and draws heat away), through the radiator for cooling, and back again in a loop flow.
It's a common mistake to assume that any water cooler is inherently better than any air cooler. Liquid coolers do have some undeniable advantages, but a specific cooler's design is critically important, and some air coolers perform better than some water coolers. Generally speaking, you can expect bigger coolers of either design to outperform smaller ones, simply because larger coolers generally have more metal within to spread out absorbed heat and can typically mount more or bigger fans. Both of these factors contribute to more efficient cooling.\
Sizing Up CPU Coolers: Will My Cooler Fit?
The size of your desktop system will end up playing a decisive role when picking a CPU cooler. For everyday use, the stock cooler or a slightly stepped-up air cooler will suffice, unless the CPU maker flat-out recommends a liquid cooling solution. (This is rare, and mostly applies only to upper-end chips like Intel's top Core i9 models and AMD's Ryzen 9 and Threadripper chips.)
For the best performance, but especially for system tweakers and CPU overclockers, you'll likely want the largest cooler that will fit inside your case, whether you go with an air or water solution. It's also worth noting that air coolers tend to benefit more from having extra case fans and strong ventilation to supplement the cooling action of the heatsink and the fan or fans mounted on the cooler. Water coolers have their radiators mounted to one of the case walls, and the radiator fans vent or pull air in or out of the system through the radiator, boosting case-wide ventilation and making these cooling systems less reliant on supplemental case fans.
These differences give the two types of coolers notable advantages in different types of systems. Air coolers, in general, perform best in large cases with lots of airflow. Water coolers can perform well in systems like this, but they tend to surpass air coolers in smaller cases that are more congested with restricted airflow. Many very small chassis, however, lack room to add a water cooler, forcing you to rely on a low-profile air cooler even if the PC doesn't allow for great internal airflow.
What CPU Sockets Does a Given Cooler Support?
Before we dig into the coolers we've chosen, it's vitally important to mention cooler compatibility. Every motherboard is designed to support a certain type of processor, with a CPU socket designed for that purpose. Each of these sockets also has a customized mounting platform with a set of holes or brackets onto which you attach the CPU cooler. You need to make sure that a cooler supports the socket of the motherboard you're using; otherwise it simply won't work. Indeed, you can damage your PC's hardware by trying to force a cooler to mount on an incompatible motherboard.
The chart below presents a list of modern CPU sockets, as well as the processors and chipsets they correspond with, which should help make figuring out your supported hardware a little easier.
Several of the coolers recommended below support many of the sockets on the list above (and older ones, too), while others support many sockets out of the box but may have optional mounting brackets sold separately to support others. This is commonplace, especially in the case of newer CPUs and CPU sockets; the easiest way for cooler manufacturers to support new platforms is by releasing a new mounting bracket sold separately from the original-issue cooler. Fortunately, cooler vendors are very good about listing which sockets their products support on their website product pages. You should double-check this information before buying any CPU cooler.
With a firm handle on your system's size, case design, and motherboard and socket type, you're ready to choose a cooler. Here are the quick dozen we recommend, selected for the most common cooling scenarios.
Best Budget 120mm Water Cooler
EVGA CLC 120 CL11
Supported AMD Sockets: None
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1700, 1200, 20xx, 1366, 115x
EVGA's CLC 120mm water cooler is a no-frills thermal solution that's about as basic as it gets: just a 120mm radiator and a pair of tubes connecting it to a copper mounting plate and a pump. The cooler has a single 120mm fan that can push air at a rate of 58.9 cubic feet per minute. EVGA rates the fan as producing between 20dBA and 32dBA of noise while in operation, with the water pump contributing up to an additional 20dBA. Don't look for RGB lights or anything else to make this solution stand out, but it's one of the lowest-cost water coolers you can buy, tempting for any budget build.
Best High-End 120mm Water Cooler
Thermaltake TH120 ARGB
Supported AMD Sockets: AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2, FM1
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1700, 1200, 115x
Thermaltake's more premium TH120 ARGB 120mm water cooler packs a considerable amount of flair into a relatively small cooling device. For bling buffs, the system combines an addressable RGB (ARGB) fan with additional ARGB lights over the water block to illuminate the inside of your case and show off your hard-earned components. Noise production is rated at 28.2dBA, which makes it fairly quiet overall. The single fan is rated to move air at a rate of 59.3 cubic feet per minute. The big draw here, however, is the programmable lighting on the fan and block alike, which you can sync up with the rest of a custom build.
Best Budget 240mm Water Cooler
NZXT Kraken X53
Supported AMD Sockets: AM4, sTRX4 and TR4 (bracket sold separately)
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1200, 20xx, 1366, 115x (LGA 1700 bracket sold separately)
NZXT took a balanced approach when designing its Kraken X53. This 240mm cooler has a RGB "infinity mirror" embedded in the water block portion that creates an optical illusion of a bottomless abyss regressing down into the core of your PC. This adds a bit of surreal flair to your system, but the fans included with this cooler are more earthbound: just two standard 120mm fans without any LED illumination. The company offers a slightly more expensive version that includes RGB LEDs, but the unlit model is a more tempting option if you're just after a quality piece of thermal hardware.
The non-RGB Aer P radiator fans pictured here are built with fluid dynamic bearings that help keep the cooler relatively quiet while still providing strong airflow. The cooler as a whole is rated to produce between 21dBA and 26dBA of noise when in use, while the two fans work together to push air at a rate of 73.1 cubic feet per minute at full blast.
Best High-End 240mm Water Cooler
Corsair iCUE H100i Elite Capellix
Supported AMD Sockets: AM4, sTRX4, TR4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1200, 20xx, 1366, 115x (LGA 1700 bracket sold separately)
Not only does Corsair's iCUE H100i Elite Capellix cooler have an enticing aesthetic design, it also has one of the lowest-rated noise production levels that we've seen on a CPU water cooler. To be fair, the cooler can get a bit loud when the fans and pump are operating at full speed—when everything's revved up, Corsair says, the noise can climb to 37dBA. At ideal temperatures, however, the Elite Capellix is rated for as little as 10dBA, which is practically inaudible assuming the number holds in your specific build.
This cooler is mostly white, with RGB LEDs packed into the two fans and the water block. The latter is particularly colorful, with an optional translucent top that makes the water block look like one large RGB light field. The two fans employ magnetic levitation bearings and the cooler comes with Corsair's iCUE Commander Core fan and light controller for extra control over these devices in your PC.
Best Budget 360mm Water Cooler
Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360
Supported AMD Sockets: AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2, FM1
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1200, 20xx, 115x (LGA 1700 bracket sold separately)
For a large 360mm water cooler, Cooler Master's Master Liquid ML360 is surprisingly affordable at around $100 depending on reseller. This makes it an even better buy than our budget 240mm cooler option, despite packing a larger 360mm radiator and three 120mm fans. The fans are designated as "SickleFlow 120" models and don't have any LED illumination. They're rated to push air at 62 cubic feet per minute and generate between 8dBA and 27dBA of noise in operation. The pump is rated as exceptionally quiet (under 10dBA), which promises to make the cooler relatively hushed overall.
You do get some ARGB illumination in the cooler's water block, which (like that of the NZXT Kraken cooler above) features an ARGB infinity mirror optical-illusion panel. This gives some much-needed flair to an otherwise rather bland piece of kit.
Best High-End 360mm Water Cooler
Asus ROG Ryujin II
Supported AMD Sockets: AM4, TR4
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1700, 1200, 20xx, 115x
Asus' ROG Ryujin II water cooler is—by dint of its wild-looking water block—the most far-out cooler in this collection, and arguably the biggest lust item for PC modders reading this guide. And though it's the priciest cooler of this lot, surprise, surprise: It doesn't have any RGB LEDs on it.
But who needs dinky little lights when you have a full-blown, customizable 3.5-inch LCD panel built into your CPU cooler? Mounted atop the cooler block, the Ryujin II's mini-display can show a short video loop of your choosing. If that's not enough system personalization for you, the panel can also show system information such as CPU temperature, utilization, voltage, and clock speed in real time.
The cooler also contains four fans instead of the three found in most 360mm coolers. Three of these are Noctua IndustrialPPC fans, which are mounted on the radiator portion as you'd expect. They're designed to push air at a rate of 71.6 cubic feet per minute while generating up to 29.7dBA. But the Asus cooler also has a small 60mm fan embedded in the water block. Its job is to push air directly onto the heat collector, spreading airflow over other important components nearby including the motherboard's VRMs.
Best Budget Air Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO V2
Supported AMD Sockets: AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1200, 20xx, 1366, 115x
Cooler Height: 154mm
Cooler Master's Hyper 212 series of coolers have been around for a long time and established a reputation as well-known value options. They provide solid performance at an affordable price, a step up from stock fans. Probably as a result, you'll see many coolers from other makers that are designed similar to this one, but few with the widespread recognition that the Hyper 212 name carries.
This particular recommended model is the Hyper 212 Evo V2. It features four copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the CPU's surface. These pipes also snake their way through a bulky aluminum heatsink, which is actively cooled by a Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 V2 PWM fan. The fan can push air at a rate of 62 cubic feet per minute.
Best High-End Air Cooler
Noctua NH-D15
Supported AMD Sockets: AM5, AM4, sTRX4, sWRX8, TR4, SP3
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1700, 1200, 20xx, 3647, 4189, 1366, 115x, 775
Cooler Height: 165mm
Noctua's background is in industrial and commercial fans, and its familiar maroon and beige fans for PC builders have long been a mark of quality for modders and upgraders in the know. The company's NH-D15 is well-known as one of the best-performing air coolers money can buy. This big, hulking cooler has two aluminum heatsinks perforated by six heat pipes, helping to spread out heat evenly from the CPU base plate. It's an ideal air cooling solution for a large PC case with a lot of vertical clearance.
Two 140mm Noctua NF-A15 fans are included with this cooler. You mount them around the heatsinks, with one set between the two heatsink towers and one on the exterior of one of the heatsinks according to the airflow path you desire. This configuration helps to push and draw air through both heatsinks and cool them even more quickly.
Best Budget RGB Air Cooler
Alseye DR900
Supported AMD Sockets: AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2, FM1
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 20xx, 1366, 115x, 775
Cooler Height: 117mm
This air cooler is an unusual entry in our list—the only one not built by a familiar industry leader. The Alseye DR900 is the lowest-priced cooler in this group, but its features and value make it an enticing option if you're working on a budget build for which you want equal parts bling and cooling. The former flair comes in the form of three standard 90mm PWM fans with RGB LED lighting.
The DR900 looks like it should perform reasonably well at its main job, too. You can tell a lot about a cooler from its design, and this model boasts six heat pipes that run through two aluminum heatsinks, not unlike the high-end Noctua NH-D15. The three illuminated fans stack the heatsinks between them like a triple-decker sandwich, and they work to push air at a reported rate of up to 34.5 cubic feet per minute per fan.
Now, the fans are a great deal smaller than the 120mm spinners of the NH-D15, so don't expect this budget model to perform as well. But that has an upside, too: The Alseye cooler measures a mere 135mm tall versus 165mm for the Noctua. The shorter design will let this cooler fit in many cases for which a big beast like the NH-D15 is simply too large. Even with the smallish fans, it should handily outperform a stock cooler, and you'll be hard pressed to find another CPU cooler with three RGB fans at this price.
Best Passive Cooler
Noctua NH-P1
Supported AMD Sockets: AM5, AM4
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1700, 1200, 20xx, 115x
Cooler Height: 158mm
If you're looking to build a PC that's as quiet as possible, Noctua's NH-P1 is one of the few modern CPU coolers designed to be entirely passive. The device comprises an enormous aluminum heatsink with six copper heat pipes and a nickel-plated copper base plate. As passive coolers are rare, you'll want to think carefully about your system's other hardware before buying it—it's not a suitable solution for power-hungry processors or for overclocking. The NH-P1 is best suited for CPUs designed to be more energy-efficient, as any chip that runs too hot will encounter performance issues.
To boost performance, it would be beneficial to pair this cooler with some case fans or a third-party fan. Of course, that would somewhat defeat the purpose of buying a passive cooler. But because you can shop for and hunt down the quietest fans on the market, the Noctua still has a lot of potential if you're planning an ultra-quiet build.
Best Low-Profile Air Cooler
Scythe Shuriken 2
Supported AMD Sockets: AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1
Supported Intel Sockets: LGA 1200, 1366, 115x, 775
Cooler Height: 58mm
When building a PC in a small-form-factor chassis such as compact Mini-ITX case, your CPU cooling options are significantly limited compared to those of a tower-style desktop. If you're creating or upgrading such a system and the case doesn't have room to add a water cooler, you might be tempted to give up and just rely on the stock cooler that your CPU came with. But even in these tight spaces, you can find better options. Thermal solutions built for this purpose are known as low-profile coolers, and Scythe's Shuriken 2 is an excellent one.
Measuring just 58mm tall, the Shuriken 2 is roughly the same size as one of AMD's or Intel's stock coolers, but it features a solid copper base plate and four heat pipes that help to transfer heat through its aluminum heatsink for better cooling performance. With its 92mm fan installed, the cooler has a relatively small physical footprint on the motherboard, too, as it was designed not to overhang the RAM slots on most boards. That's something many other air coolers struggle with. Its strictly trimmed dimensions keep the Scythe cooler out of the way when installing RAM and other components near the CPU socket.
Best Air Cooler for AMD Ryzen Threadripper
Cooler Master Wraith Ripper
Supported AMD Sockets: TR4, sTRX4
Supported Intel Sockets: None
Cooler Height: 160mm
Cooling high-power, high-end-desktop (HEDT) processors like Intel's Core X series or AMD's Ryzen Threadrippers with an air cooler is a formidable task. Typically, cooler manufacturers will increase the size of an air cooler to boost its performance and the overall amount of heat it can handle. But the finite amount of space and overhead clearance inside a PC case sets limits on how large an extreme air cooler can be. Given the larger die size and ample power consumption of today's HEDT processors, there simply isn't much room for HEDT air coolers to grow much bigger.
That said, a few companies do produce coolers for HEDT processors. One of our favorites is made specially for the AMD Threadripper line—Cooler Master's Wraith Ripper. This gargantuan cooler, among the largest air coolers we've ever seen, is designed to work only with AMD's older TR4 and newer sTRX4 Threadripper sockets and their giant CPU dies. The Wraith Ripper comprises seven heat pipes that pierce two bulky heatsinks, with a 120mm fan sandwiched between them. If you're determined to build an AMD Threadripper desktop without using a liquid cooler, then this is the product for you.
