Installed one of these last week. Fantastic; just make sure you have that long screwdriver - the included "wrench" is useless, especially if you've already got the motherboard installed.

In the US these are pretty hard to buy. About the only place you can buy them is on Amazon

Amazon is currently charging $52.90
http://www.amazon.com/ThermalRight-HR-0 ... B005ERSN7G
(sold by an Amazon vendor with with a website (http://www.nansgaminggear.com/contactus.htm) but no obvious address or phone number.

You can get a Scythe Mugen 3 for $40.99 from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Scythe-MUGEN-3-He ... B005413NPO

Unless you are really planning to run without a fan, I think I prefer the Scythe Mugen 3.

I own both Mugen 3 (on the htpc build) and 2x HR02 (not the macho version, in the micro and mini mi builds), to me both are really good cpu coolers, personally i would give the edge to the HR02 in preformance, but the mugen on the fan, give that the TY140 is a great fan, it cant be drop down to sub 300rpm like the Scythe Slipstream included on the mugen 3. But if i had to chose one, the HR02 would be my pick.

When recently upgrading I opted to buy a second HR-02 Macho instead of moving the old one over, I find it to be such good value that it was worth the extra cost. Around here they compete on price with the Mugen 3 as well, which had been my second choice. It would have been perfect if the included fan would have been capable of downwards 500 RPM on PWM, but if manually voltage adjusted down below around 700 RPM I find it quiet in the position of a CPU cooler fan. When cooling something as gentle as even a slightly overclocked i5-3570K the minimum starting voltage of a smidgeon above 5V will do fine.

I haven't often used Thermalright coolers for my own system since they tend to be pricy, even if that could be justified by the fact that they are up there with the best when it comes to build quality. If they cut a corner here it's only about that long screwdriver requirement, but fortunately the center-ish hole is bigh enough for a cheap extension to a regular bit driver.

If the HR-02 Macho seems hard to find around where you live, looking closer at anyone listing the original HR-02 model might be worthwhile. When the Macho got out some suppliers may have confused the two and since the original didn't sell well at twice the price some retailers might simply have swapped the new for the old without properly updating descriptions. It happens.

wow, the price is seriously a high point, especially when compared to the competition.
I'm not convinced this can play the "passive" card well in quiet operations, which is a shame - I thought it would do well.

Comparing noise levels, if I am reading this correctly, at 12-14 dBA, the dual fan setup of the hr-02 macho makes the test CPU heat up to 40C.
Looking back at their older Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme Rev.C, at 12dBA, the CPU heats to 43C, but at 13dBA, it is at 40C.

So, even though the HR-02 uses a larger fan, am I right to conclude that in low noise operations, there are very little differences between the two (at least in this test setup)?

Maybe one day, when combining results, there should a "bar chart" comparing temperatures when fixed at a desired noise range.

Interesting. Price well it's not too bad in Europe I've seen worse.
As for passive obviously you're not going to want to put a beefy overclocked CPU under it. I see no reason why it could not handle a 95w bulldozer unless you OC it to hell. I've been testing some FX chips today and they undervolt rather well and..the 6 core version is running very cool in the mid 20's celcius and around 7 degrees less than a 95w PhII 840 at full load.

Obviously I would not bother with a 125w CPU for passive that's not likely to work.

Thanks for the review!
It's exciting to see a cooler potentially useful for a single moving part PC. Couple of points though, regarding the review:

1. Would you mind trying ducting the cooler to the rear exhaust? A simple cardboard channel might be all it takes to make it the semi-passive solution of choice. It is also shaped in a way that makes ducting very easy.
2. Wouldn't reversing the orientation of the rear fan (make it an intake) improve cooling performance? I remember Scythe recommending positive pressure for Ninja's passive operation.

Also:

and


Come on guys, the rep tells you to throw anything at their product and see how it performs, and you go easy on him? Test it with the hottest frying pan you got!

In the case that SPCR tested this cooler with in "passive mode" it would be a cooler and quieter system to have the "only fan" as the CPU fan, and if possible have it blowing upwards (if the cooler can be oriented this way without it interfering with other components) towards the large open twin 140mm grills, that would keep the CPU temps in check and would be quieter than having a fan on the CPU and one on the case, and even better from the perspective of temps vs noise as the fan on the CPU heatsink would likely be less audible than on on the case. If you then wanted to duct it you are welcome to try.



It would still be an inadequate cooler vs the noise it created. i.e. for it to cool well enough the case fan would have to spin faster, which in turn would make it noisier at a given level of cooling vs using the included CPU fan - a classic example of where more fans are quieter than fewer fans.



With the CPU temp fast approaching 90C you don't want to add another 20% of CPU heat to the mix unless you don't mind frying an expensive component.


Andy

"All comers" means all the competition -- not any CPU. I don't recall him saying which CPU they'd tried... but I have to say we tried the 1366 platform briefly and the CPU temp rose >90C, as with other HS we've experimented with in the past. The high thermal density and power of the 1366 and 2011 CPUs are simply much for current heatsinks to tackle without direct airflow.

Mugen 3 doesn't come with free shipping. It's almost 8 bucks from Directron (from your link) making the Mugen a more comparable ~$49. I think it's a toss-up, personally. Mach on the performance, Mugen on the sound.

What kind of a "fanless test" has a fan right next to the cooler? Redo the test using a build alike http://www.sweclockers.com/galleri/8105 ... -itx-bygge please, this "fanless test" was not helpful at all.

From page 6 of the review:
"The HR-02 is marketed in part for its fanless cooling potential. In Taipei last month, Chris Lee of Thermalright urged SPCR Editor Mike Chin to test the Macho without direct cooling in a case equpped with an exhaust fan."

This kind of fanless test

Can anyone compare this to the True Spirit 140?

Has anyone other than mkk used this on Ivy Bridge?

I just installed this on a stock i5-3570k yesterday. Temps are pretty much the same as in the article and a huge improvement over the stock Intel heatsink. At full load, I'm seeing 60C core temps vs 80C on the intel heatsink, both at full 12V.

What has happened to all the Thermalright stock ? On Newegg (.Ca and .Com) they are listed as out of stock and deactivated for MONTHS now, or close to a year. On NCIX, they are not being restocked, and models are one by one discontinued. Is the company going under ?

I noticed that too. Seems only Amazon is selling Thermalright products at the moment? Over here in Europe Thermalright products are still available at many shops. Luckily I might add, because they make excellent stuff. But it does seem Noctua has taken place of most popular cooler, despite (or due?) to their even higher prices.

I just looked around and Thermalright is getting scarce here in Sweden too, with for instance the HR-02 Macho all but gone from stores and nobody restocking. Silver Arrow SB-E can be found here and there, but more likely because it probably just doesn't sell. What's up with Thermalright?

Ok, I'll narrow my 'Europe' down to 'The Netherlands'. I also too a bit closer look and of the stores selling Thermalright about half of them has stock (or rather their supplier has stock) and the other half does not. Hard to tell what's going on exactly, but I did notice normal HR-02 at very low price of 30-35 euro's. Also, none of the shops/suppliers has the topmodels Archon or Silver Arrow SB-E in stock. Budget models True Spirit 120 and 140 on the other hand are available at 10 shops and Macho at 4.

Well, I won't be pleased to see them go. But it does seem competition is hardening in the cooling market. Looking at US it appears Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo is by far most popular. Reason obviously being its low price while offering acceptable performance. Those who want more seem to skip right to the NH-D14 in most cases. Here in Holland the Scythe Mugen 2 used to be the most popular cooler and it was pretty cheap at around 30-35 euro. I always had the idea they were being sold with very slim profit or even a loss, and the fact the Mugen 3 weighs less confirms that. Then there's the competition from the closed loop water coolers. Personally I don't understand the hype but they do seem to give many people a happy feeling.

Thank you SPCR for this review. I have the Noctua NH-P12 that is 5-6 years old now. It still works good but if i were to change coolers today i would buy the HR-02 Macho because of the better cooling effects when equipped with a lower air flow fan. The wider fin spacing is a winner for low noise people of SPCR.

I read this review and because of it I bought a Macho. I like it very much

I ordered it from caseking.de 1 month ago and when I read your posts here about the stock situation
I checked on caseking again. The Macho is no longer listed there. I think that's strange because this
is a relatively new cooler and caseking doesn't remove products just because they're backordered. Guess
we'll see what's happening.

I'm curious if anyone is running this cooler with two fans as it seemed to get excellent results in the review with such a setup. What made me curious though was whether that would be practical in the real world... with the heat fins offset towards the rear of the case it would already be awfully close to the case's exhaust fan. I was thinking about building a duct around the cooler linking it up with the rear exhaust fan as KadazanPL was asking about instead of purchasing the extra fan mounts and another fan. I'm hoping to run it on an i7 920 overclocked to 3.8 ghz or so.

If the HS fins are close -- say ~1" -- then a duct isn't necessary, the case exhaust fan will then continue to help cool motherboard components a bit.

The specs link points to BeQuiet's Dark Rock 2. Correct link for the Macho reviewed is: http://www.thermalright.com/products/index.php?act=data&cat_id=35&id=178 (note copper-coloured heatpipes)