Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) CPU Cooler Review

Thermalright's products have never been reviewed by eTeknix before. I am quite excited to get started with Thermalright products as they are one of the most recognised CPU cooler brands for high performance air cooling alongside Noctua and Phanteks. Thermalright only operate in the performance segment of the market and the majority of the CPU coolers are what you might call enthusiast class - even the smaller form factor ones. They are certainly not beginners having been in the industry since 2001 and their claim to historical fame is they were the first company to start manufacturing copper based CPU coolers all the way back in 2001 whilst everyone else was still stuck on aluminium designs. The Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) CPU cooler we have here to today certainly isn't a new one, but it is a nice product for us to get started with and is still a popular choice for many system builders. It features a single 140mm fan, six 6mm heat pipes and an enormous aluminium heatsink - expect impressive performance figures for a product priced at around £40. Detailed specifications can be found here if you are interested. Thermalright have certainly kept the packaging simple, clearly they expect the product to speak for itself as the front of the box contains very little information. The back is too very simple, not enough going on to really comment. Some brief specifications and award summary information is located on the sides but if you want more information definitely visit the website here. Thermalright have mastered the art of a perfectly mirror-finish nickel plated copper base. Those six copper heat pipes look extremely sturdy and for anyone wondering about the "random" hole in heatsink, that is to allow a screwdriver (which is provided!) access so you can mount the product. From the top we can see those six 6mm heat pipes more closely. You can also see an extra set of fan clip holes on the other side should you wish to do push-pull, but unfortunately additional fan clips are not included with the product although they can be purchases separately for a few pounds. The spacing between the fins is wide which means it won't struggle with the limited airflow of only one fan. The included fan is a large 140mm low RPM fan. In theory the use of a 140mm fan should provide more airflow with lower noise output than a 120mm, which is a win-win for everyone. The Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) is huge heatsink, as you can see it dominates the majority of the LGA 1155 socket area. The heatsink is raised up enough to not conflict with any motherboard heatsinks and it isn't wide enough to block any PCI Express lanes (although it is pretty tight with the first PCI Express 1X slot) - which is all good but generally what you would expect from a tower heatsink CPU cooler. Amazingly there was 100% RAM compatibility due to the slanted nature of the CPU cooler. Top marks to Thermalright for this design innovation as it will be appreciated by consumers, no one wants to have to change their RAM heatsinks or RAM to use a CPU cooler and with the Thermalright Macho you won't have to. We always use the same test system with CPU coolers that we compare against each other. The full specifications of our test system are as follows: Test system: ASUS P8Z77-V Intel Core i5 3570K with Gelid GC Extreme under the IHS 16GB Kingston HyperX 1866MHz DDR3 AMD Radeon HD 5870 128GB Kingston SSDnow V100 (Boot Drive) and Samsung F3 1TB (storage) Antec High Current Gamer 620W Cooler Master Test Bench v1.0 We’d like to say a big thank you to ASUS, Antec, Kingston, Cooler Master and Intel for providing components that makes this testing possible. Testing Methodology: We always use Gelid GC Extreme thermal paste to make sure testing reveals the efficiency of the tested coolers, not the efficiency of the bundled thermal paste. Prime 95 is run for 10 minutes and then the average maximum temperatures as recorded by CPUID HWMonitor are noted The system is left in idle for 10 minutes on the desktop and then the average minimum temperatures as recorded by CPUID HWMonitor are noted Fans are always left to operate at PWM speeds, if this is not supported then 100% fan speed is used (and a low noise adapter for 3 pins if provided) Delta temperatures are always used (Observed temperature minus ambient temperature) and we keep the ambient at 22 (+/- 1) degrees for all testing although Delta temperatures correct for the changing ambient anyway The average temperature across the four cores is taken on our quad core Intel processor Acoustic measurements are taken 10cm away from the CPU cooler with the VGA fan disabled The cooling performance tests are run at stock 3.4GHz (with Intel Turbo up to 3.8GHz and stock voltage) and overclocked 4.5GHz (1.3 volts) settings All other coolers in the graphs have been tested under identical settings Each test is repeated 3 times for consistency of results There is approximately a 1 degree celsius margin of error in our temperature recording software There is approximately a 1dBA margin of error with our decibel meter Software Used CPUID HWMonitor Prime 95 CPU-Z Stock CPU temperatures were very good as it comes near the top. However, stock configurations are unlikely to even stress this cooler in the slightest, so lets see how it performs with some overclocking and get a gauge of its true performance. The Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) cooler performed fantastic with overclocking, falling just shy of the much more expensive Dark Rock Pro 2 and the exceptional Scythe Mugen 3. Clearly the six heat pipes and mammoth heatsink are doing a brilliant job even with just 1 fan. I can only imagine how good the temperatures would be with dual 140mm fans at higher RPMs. Total silence is the only thing you'll be hearing with a Thermalright Macho Rev.A. The stock figures make it the joint quietest cooler we've tested at stock speeds. More heat causes all the other coolers to get a lot louder. However the Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) didn't even break into a sweat. It was by the far the quietest cooler, successfully managing to maintain the same acoustic output through every single test and still delivering excellent temperatures. Every now and then a product comes along which just turns the CPU cooler market upside down in terms of price to performance offerings. When I first reviewed the Scythe Mugen 3 a few months ago I didn't realise how amazing it was until and I had tested several more CPU coolers to get relative results, the same applies for the Cooler Master Hyper 412 Slim. Now you might be thinking what relevance does this have to the Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW)? Well, now another product has just come along and done that all again, except this time we have a much more complete picture of the CPU cooler market with 16 coolers in our database. The Thermalright Macho is one of those exceptional products that just makes you rethink your entire definition of what is good value for money. At £39.23 the Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) offers up a tonne of performance, falling just shy of the £60 Dark Rock Pro 2 masterpiece from Be Quiet. Thermalright have also perfected the art of silence with the Thermalright Macho and silence specialists like Be Quiet and Noctua should be wary of the stiff competition Thermalright are providing here. It is also worth nothing Thermalright have gone one step further than most with the design. The mammoth Thermalright Macho heatsink doesn't block a single RAM slot thanks to its off-centred design, this means enthusiasts can get top-class cooling performance and still keep their high profile RAM kits like the G.Skill Trident X, Corsair Vengeance and Kingston HyperX Predator. My only concern with the Thermalright Macho is very minor. Disappointingly, Thermalright didn't include an additional set of fan clips so users can add another 140mm fan themselves. They go as far to offer a high quality magnetic screwdriver to help you with installation yet they don't include a couple of extra cheap metal fan clips! Adding an extra 140mm fan to this behemoth of a heatsink would surely give an additional boost to performance that is likely to make this one of the most potent air coolers on the market. Stupendously good value for money, perfect acoustics, great build quality and a smart design make the Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) one of the best CPU coolers we have ever tested. It excels as an extreme air CPU cooler, the market segment which we believe it to be situated in, and as a result we have no hesistation in awarding this product the eTeknix Editor's choice award.