| Thermalright Macho HR-02 CPU Cooler |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | |
| Written by David Ramsey | |
| Saturday, 09 July 2011 | |
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Thermalright Macho HR-02 CPU Cooler
Manufacturer: Thermalright Inc. Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Thermalright. If you're overclocking your CPU, you're going to need a better cooler than the one that shipped with your CPU. There are many aftermarket alternatives, but enthusiasts know that Thermalright's products should always be on their short list. The problem is the high-performance coolers can cost quite a lot, with prices of more than $75 for top-end air coolers and well over $100 for good all-in-one water coolers. Thermalright tries to address this problem with the Macho HR-02 cooler, which they pitch as their "mainstream enthusiast" product. At an MSRP of $39.95, it comes in well under most high performance coolers, but will its performance match theirs? Benchmark Reviews puts this product to the test. As CPU design migrates to a 32nm process (such as Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors and AMD's forthcoming Bulldozer CPUs), power consumption and heat production go down, and the need for monster cooling systems decreases. But there are still a lot of very hot CPUs out there, such as the overclocked and overvolted Core i7-950 I use in my heat sink test machine.
Any CPU cooler's primary task is to cool the CPU. Since retail CPUs come with perfectly adequate coolers, the main reason to buy an aftermarket cooler is for conditions that the stock cooler can't handle...namely, overclocking. Air coolers aimed at overclockers can cost more than $75, and with the Macho HR02, Thermalright's trying to bring this level of performance to a lower price point. Thermalright Macho HR-02 Specifications
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Comments
Noise is a performance feature.
Personally I always make a choice based on noise and cooling power.
I dont care if a cooling system can get the cpu an extra 5 degree c cooler
IF it sounds like an aeroplane taking off
or like an industrial pump empting a swimming pool.
Noise benchmarks matter.
** Also , benchmarks would greatly benefit if they encompassed a wider range of products.
Eg... comparing Sandybridge cpu with latest AMD phenom.. ok a direct comparison.
BUT
compare them both to an older P4 and AMD Athlon , and a few laptop based cpu's.
Reviews comparing green paint with another shade of green paint are boring. And useless as far peripheral vision of the whole landscape is concerned.
In your apple to apple comparison you use a high rpm Delta. How is that relevant for this kind of product?
I'd use any of those fans, really. I'd probably pick the cheapest one, since they are all cooling at or below 75C. Thanks for your efforts.
Some heatsinks perform much better at low rpms. Expressing a judgement after just one particular situation, which doesn't really suit all needs or products, is a bit wrong.
How long does it take to test with a low rpm fan?
I cannot say this is true since I don't know all the details and equations, but those are some of the usual explanations. This is rather complex science, where common sense may not be applicable, and a strong background in the physics of this is necessary to truly provide an accurate analysis.
There are two ways (that come to mind) to increase the mass flow rate of the air. One is to move the air through the heatsink faster, the other way is to make the air moving through the heatsink denser (increased static pressure?).
Presumably the low-rpm fans that have a reputation for quiet operation and good cooling are fans that have a noticeable effect in terms of increasing the pressure (aka density) of the air they output.
It'd be enormously educational if they ran a 3rd fan trial using some fan known for high static-pressure and low rpm (like an Air Penetrator? I'm not actually even sure what fans have this quality...), but I personally doubt that 120mm fans can provide a wide enough range of performance that they increase air density appreciably based on any other factor but fan speed. Also that would be a whole extra test on every heatsink - lots of time invested for a result that isn't likely to change any performance orders (and won't increase performance) compared to a high speed fan test.
they have released AP121 series: ##silverstonetek.com/product_fan.php?tno=0&case=c_120&area=usa
maybe you can compare it with some standard 120mm fans with similar speed, so we can see the effect of the directed airflow...
also maybe you can include some of the corsair H-whatever coolers to see if it helps on the radiator side.
thanks in advance :)
The result of these differing patterns of air flow when the fans are used with a CPU cooler could be inconsistent volumes of air passing across all the fins of the cooler. The diffuse pattern fans would seem to have less air moved across the center of the heat sink, and more to each side. The focused air flow fans would seem by common sense to be superior in this application.
All subjective, non-scientific impressions and conclusions, which IMO seem to make sense, but only real testing would reveal any difference.
AP120 pull CM R4 push = 29c idle and 52c loaded
CM R4 pull AP120 push = 25c idle and 49c loaded
You had both HR-02 and HR-02 Macho in the test. You did start with "horizontal pipes", but then measured "vertical pipes" for Macho and had the difference.
How about the original HR-02? Do you know whether it suffers too?
What if I had both original and Macho and would swap the towers, attaching the original with Macho's bracket to AM3 in FT-02, and then place the Macho tower in recommended orientation to regular case with original's bracket on LGA1155? Both with TY-140.
So yes, it worked better with the heat sink oriented horizontally, blowing out the rear of the case.
Now hopefully these things actually start to become available for purchase and I'll be all over it. :)
thermalright told me to work out what was wrong myself - 1 was the design - 2nd was screw length. couldn't even confirm proper screw length to me.
When sockets are changing yearly Thermalrights refusal to support, and the inability to send out proper parts to support expensive coolers is totally unforgiveable.
thermalright clearly have no environmental concern, and want customers to throw their coolers away and just buy another regardless of the total waste. Supporters of this company are ignorant of the environmental damage boutique companies cause the planet with its planned obsolescence, which is totally avoidable.
if you perform just 1 green act this year buy yourself a different cooler from a different company that supports its coolers, and enable reuse - o hand you'll save money too!
What you're describing is the linearity of a temperature sensor - unless you've sighted the data plots for the specific sensor on a chip, you're simplifying (and misleading) on this point.
The idea is that I would put the noctua on the push side because the focused flow is designed for more concentrated pressure and the included fan on the pull side.
Anyone have any ideas?
I am currently running a zalman 9700nt on a phenom II x4 940 at 3.4 gh. While the 9700nt holds the temp at 45c the fan kicks in to full and is pretty loud at its rated 36 db. I was thinking that these two fans (even together) will be quieter than that is.
I also have the antec 300 case with 3 antec 120 tricools set to medium as intake and the included 120 and 140 fans set to low for exhaust for some positive air pressure in the case.
Anyway... the macho and the ram come tomorrow so I can start installing. I am trying to decide on whether to open the noctua focused flow or not. I am kind of set on 2 quiet fans in push-pull because I think it will be quieter than a single high power fan.
Any advice or stories of previous experience would be appreciated. Thanks.