Is Heat Sink Better than Water Cooling?

If you budget is 65$.....then i think.." Heat Sink Better than Water Cooling"...lol

Air cooling will always be better at that price-point. It's not until you start getting into custom loops that have a whole lot more radiator that you see water cooling overtake traditional HSF combos. This is usually within the $250-300 price range. At this point, there is nothing that can match water cooling unless you go to phase-change (roughly $700-1000). That is why even the LN2 crowd keeps a WC box on the side for their everyday operations.

The water systems like the cool it and corsair are around equal to the high end air coolers...Agree with ortoklaz if $65 is your budget go with air cooling, there are MANY air coolers you can get for $65 and less...

I'd say that depends:

1- Depends of budget
2- Depends of overclock that you want do, 400MHz or 600MHz overclock doesn't justify a $300+ LCS
3- Case and components.

Of the self-contained liquid coolers, the ones you mentioned are the worst in terms of reliability and performance. The H70 would be a better choice than any of those listed...and at it's price point, you'd be better off getting the XSPC Rasa watercooling kit...an actual beginner's kit for WC that will perform like watercooling.

Those coolers you've mentioned...perform about as well as high-end air coolers costing about 1/2 the price.

Easy

Top of the line: LCS above $300 for only CPU, you need add GPU and SB/NB water block.
Not expensive: Coolermaster Hyper 212+

Saint has the right idea, here.

For less than $100, you'll want high-end air coolers.

You could consider the XSPC Rasa for ~$129 for CPU only...great intro kit for watercooling. Consider that the 'gateway drug' to watercooling.
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/11743/ex-wat-159/XSPC_Rasa_750_RS240_Universal_CPU_Water_Cooling_Kit_Hot_Item.html

No real need to water cool the chipset, memory, drives or CPU MOSFETs. These components are designed to run at a much higher temperature in the first place. As long as you have good heatsinks and a good case fan, and heat spreaders on your memory and MOSFETs, you shouldn't need to water cool anything but the CPU and GPUs. Trust me, I have done it both ways and to be completely honest, it doesn't really make a difference.

Good kit for entry level, but I mean to something much better: Swiftech H20-220-APEX ULTIMA CPU only for CPU, you need add the GPU waterblock.

@Houndsteeth: Agree, chipsets and MOSFEST doesn't need LC, but if you want a good LCS rig you will need cooling that with liquid too, and trust me, exist a big difference between air and liquid.

@OP:
For your budget and needs, the Titan Fenrir, CM V6GT, Tuniq Tower, Megahalems or Thermalright Venomous X can do an excellent job.

RASA 750 is better choice in my opinion and with extra $ you could add GPU block and call it custom   it will come at the same price (if you add 105$ for gpu block),last time i check,MCP 655b was like 65$ on sell

watercooling isnt worth it in my opinion, temps can only go as low as room temp, for overclocking you barely gain 100-200mhz for such an expensive cooling setup, and the regs on mainboards sometimes rely on fans to cool etc

Everyone is entitled to his/hers opinion and no, LC is not for everyone ,if you just plan on LC your CPU and don't care about the noise.. NO it's NOT worth it.
On the other hand if you end up building high end system with the plan on OC/overvolting your CPU/GPU/s and running it 24/7..YES it's WORTH every penny,have my CPU/GPU oc/overvolted running like " Johnny be good"-2 feet away from my head and i can hear my wall clock 6 feet away ticking  
Does't provide better cooling ?..........overall /CPU MAX temp. under load is 45C (ambien 74F),GPU~ GTX570(880/1760/2000) max 38C

If you are going to run a CPU/GPU loop, then yes, the Swiftech Apex kit is a better choice to start with; you get a more powerful pump in the MCP655.

The Rasa has a decently powered pump, but even with the Rasa 750, you' need to add another radiator to the loop if you ran a CPU+GPU. The lower rates of the pump would almost mandate the addition of another 220 rad.

@Apache...your argument is just begging for a flame-war, but there are some accuracies and inaccuracies in your statements. I understand your stance, but somewhat disagree.

Whatever the choice of the OP, the decision for watercooling is that of the individual...as well as their choice on what to spend. I watercool as a hobby and for the the moderate overclocks. Not everyone strives for squeezing out every last Mhz, even those of us that watercool. There is much more to it than that.

It is true watercooling can only be as low as room temp which isn't much. Probably an extra 100mhz but it isn't about the Mhz.

My watercooling setup can keep my system at a 40C load, running on the very lowest fan settings producing almost no noise.

Air cooling on the other hand can probably get similar clocks but you would have fans running at 70% - 100% just to get something like 70C. Its loud and performance is lousy, but it is cheap.

There is also the bling. I like my computer with its glowing UV orange tubes everywhere. I change the color of the tubing from time to time.

This thread is funny, all the experts go back and forth. Save your time. Look at the budget numbers.

The OP has no idea real WC is so much money, so why spend the time debating for the regular users of this forums to discuss, meaning no help to the OP.

Any WC unless he has a HUGE SANTA discount is beyond his reach, even the H70 which we experianced folks grudgingly have to call watercooling.

Back to the normal programming folks............. Save your breath.

Best reply................