Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT

[Assimilator]

But typically the Noctua and Thermalright options are on par however what little wins one has over the other is a bit of a wash as thermalpaste I use is pretty crap aka cheapest of cheap.

Why not use the paste that comes with the cooler itself, like 99% of all buyers will do? Bad paste could make a great cooler just good, good paste could make a mediocre cooler great... etc. I understand using the same paste makes for a more fair comparison, but IMO it's more useful to test the cooler in the way most people will use it.

 

[PLAfiller]

Now make something that beats NH L9i in the same size and doesn't cost ~40 EUR

 

[newbsandwich]

Nice job CrazyEyes, thanks for the great review. The heatsink might be big, but sounds worth it for such good performance and low noise levels. Would be interesting to see it tested with 2 fans...

 

[Vayra86]

Why not use the paste that comes with the cooler itself, like 99% of all buyers will do? Bad paste could make a great cooler just good, good paste could make a mediocre cooler great... etc. I understand using the same paste makes for a more fair comparison, but IMO it's more useful to test the cooler in the way most people will use it.

I disagree. We are talking high end air cooling here. I can imagine the buyers of these coolers are sensitive to these small differences and look for the best cooler for the money or the job. At that point I would also say they will likely use the paste they deem best, not necessarily the one offered with the cooler. After one or two builds you DO have spare paste lying around, so there's that. I think its much better to have the relative performance charts based on the exact same conditions, that way you're truly comparing coolers, and not cooler packages with paste.

With regards to 'judging' the paste offered with the coolers, I would say that warrants a separate review and it will probably produce interesting results, too.

 

[Keullo-e]

Weird thing that it doesn't come with clips to attach a second fan, since my cheaper Macho Direct did have those on the retail box.

Also, did you find the screwdriver?

 

[Farmer Boe]

Great review for a great product. I'd like to replace my NH-D14 with this just for aesthetics.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Sorry I had to ask.
I never heard of H7 Universal before and because there is no H7 Universal in Cryorig site so I thought it was a typo.
I did not know it was H7 with custom fan.

When it first came out it was marketed as Universal because its small size and offset meant no ram compatibility or gpu compatiblity issues regardless of AMD / Intel. However they eventually dropped it from the looks considering I last looked at the cooler it was over a year ago.

Why not use the paste that comes with the cooler itself, like 99% of all buyers will do? Bad paste could make a great cooler just good, good paste could make a mediocre cooler great... etc. I understand using the same paste makes for a more fair comparison, but IMO it's more useful to test the cooler in the way most people will use it.

Really? Ask the people on this forum what TIM they use. Guess what 99% of the time its not the stock paste. No matter which way i test to be honest not everyone is going to be happy.

Weird thing that it doesn't come with clips to attach a second fan, since my cheaper Macho Direct did have those on the retail box.

Also, did you find the screwdriver?

Yes i did find it it had rolled back under the desk where thankfully the cat found it which allowed me to find it. Love Thermalright screwdrivers. perfect for installing all coolers hell use it in most builds I do too.

 

[sutyi]

Macho, macho fan,
I gotta be a macho FAN!
Macho macho fan,
I gotta be a macho!

 

[thebluebumblebee]

what you gonna do now Noctua ?

Oh, just continue to warranty products for six years (verses one year), include extra fan clips, and provide, free of charge, updated mounting brackets when needed.

 

[the54thvoid]

@crazyeyesreaper - did you get to keep the cooler? I cannot for the life of me buy one, even in Europe - every single supplier on their 'where to buy' list is out of stock. Gold dust.....

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

sitting on a shelf @the54thvoid

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Are you sure that Le Grand Macho RT isn't a misprint? The RT part? Is it supposed to be Le Grand Macho ™? It's now listed on Amazon, but no RT in the name.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

At the time of review @thebluebumblebee yes it was correct.

On Thermalright's website the Le Grand Macho = passive Le Grand Macho RT = includes fan I would verify http://www.thermalright.de/kuehler/56/le-grand-macho-rt?c=5

 

[Vario]

At the time of review @thebluebumblebee yes it was correct.

On Thermalright's website the Le Grand Macho = passive Le Grand Macho RT = includes fan I would verify http://www.thermalright.de/kuehler/56/le-grand-macho-rt?c=5

Road & Track edition

 

[CNex]

Is it really possible to mount a second fan on the back? From the pictures it looks like the aio armor might be in the way for a 140mm fan. Thanks in advance for the reply

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Is it really possible to mount a second fan on the back? From the pictures it looks like the aio armor might be in the way for a 140mm fan. Thanks in advance for the reply

Is it possible sure but their are a lot of caveats. Likely compatibility issues depending on case due to motherboard heatsinks. etc. If you want better cooling adding a 120 would be possible but fan clips for such would have to be custom made. That or use zipties, eitherway its likely not worth it the it already out performs every other air cooler I have tested thus far. Its likely adding a fan will offer 0-1C different at best. At least on mainstream sockets. 6950k yeah might drop a few more degrees but likely not worth the effort.

 

[CNex]

Thanks, I was just curious about it

 

[blackreaper7]

i loved this cooler the moment i saw the review. but does it fit in the nzxt s340 elite case?? the case clearance for cooler height is 161cm. the problem is that in thermalight's site says the cooler height is 159cm but in the manual it's 162.15cm. thanks in advance.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Measuring from base to the top of the heatpipes i got roughly 158 mm fan height depending on how its set can raise the height somewhat.

 

[blackreaper7]

thanks for the quick reply.
http://www.thermalright.de/en/cooler/56/le-grand-macho-rt#prettyPhoto
if you go at the official site and open the manual the measurements in the last picture are 162.15cm

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

its 159 mm I am getting around 158 roughly so looks like they rounded up to 159.

 

[blackreaper7]

http://www.thermalright.de/media/pdf/hr-02-eng.pdf
i mean about this manual which is at the bottom of the le grand macho product page

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

i have the damn cooler sitting in front of me i measured it with a tape measure i got 158.75 rounded up thats 159

Stood it up place level across top. measure from desk to level. rough measurement 6.25 inches or 158.75mm.

 

[blackreaper7]

ok thank you and sorry i just want to be sure if im gonna buy it or not

 

[thebluebumblebee]

fan height depending on how its set can raise the height somewhat.

So it's very likely that the 162.15 figure is actually with the fan.
@blackreaper7 , if you can buy it without the fan, then I'd suggest getting a 120mm fan to put on it instead of the stock 140mm fan. Or be prepared to swap fans.