Of the two reference heatsinks, it is the Cooler master that came closest to matching the performance of the Superorb. The difference was about 4 degrees, which is significant enough considering that the cooler master retails for about $10 more than the Superorb and is also significanlty harder to track down. The Superob's can be found at just about any decent computer store.

Also the Superorb has a much easier clip to operate than either of the two other heatsinks, which were quite stiff and would have been nearly impossible to latch down with out some type of tool. Contrasting this, the Superorb has a clip made for fingers to use and is fairly simple to attach, unlike its' rotational predecessors.

All being said and done the Super Orb managed to hold back our synthetic test apparatus to about a 23 degree rise in temperature above the ambient when mounted upon the larger celeron-like copper die template. As will all the heatsinks, performance on the smaller copper die template (which replicates a Socket processor like a Duron) was much less impressive. In this case the Superorb was able to cool well enough so that only a 34.5 degree rise above the ambient occurred. The heat pipe Coolermaster came in about 4 degrees warmer, and the much smaller Thermal Buster almost 10 degrees warmer. While the last comparison is a significant difference, the Thermal buster is a much lighter and smaller heatsink.

Bottom line, if you have the space in you case to fit a Super Orb you will be pleasantly delighted in the fact that it has the best price/performance ratio of just about any heatsink we've tested!