Computational experiments were carried out on flow and heat transfer in four new microchannel heat sink (MCHS) configurations to compare their performance with the conventional MCHS. The new microchannel heat sinks simulated consist of four compartments with separate coolant inlet and outlet plenum for each compartment. The presence of several regions of developing flow in new designs result in higher Nusselt number and heat transfer rates. The substrate temperature gradients in new configurations are lower than that in conventional MCHS due to better distribution of coolant and recirculation. At the same pumping power, thermal resistances in the new designs are lower than the thermal resistances in conventional MCHS. The design may be further optimized by varying channel dimensions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.