Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme or HR-02 macho

[vibratingdonkey]

I currently have the original ultra 120 eXtreme on my e8400. Since im upgrading to a 3770k i need to know if i should pick up a HR-02 macho or buy a mounting kit so 120 fits the new socket. The fan on the 120 runs at 800rpms since my goal is best cooling possible at extremely quiet levels of noise. no overclocking plans for the time being but maybe mild to moderate overclocks in the future.

Would the HR-02 be an improvement over my current heatsink? i would be running the fan at low rpm even when gaming.

 

[lehtv]

HR-02 is probably slightly better. The reviews show slightly different results and I can't find a direct comparison to your cooler, but here you can see the heatsink is toe-to-toe with Noctua D14 when using the same fans: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermalright-hr02_5.html. You can also see it improving the lower the RPM gets, which is indicative of the fact that it was originally designed for passive operation.

However if you can get a mounting kit for your current cooler without much hassle or cost, and you're not really looking to OC much, stick with your Ultra 120 eXtreme

 

[SZLiao214]

The hr-02 would be a pretty large jump in performance compared to your ultra. The heat sink is massive on the hr-02 macho and the fan is very quiet. Make sure your case has space for the cooler.

 

[vibratingdonkey]

alright so i plan to get a asus maximus V gene since my case is matx. the hr-02 will fit my case fine but i have a question about the heatsink and first slot. the space between heatsink and video card is incredibly small, like a few mm. is there any reason for concern with this or is mainly just a pain in the ass to install stuff? if the heatsink touches the back of the video card it cant short it out can it?

 

[Rvenger]

If you are looking into the macho also look into the Thermalright truespirit 140.

 

[vibratingdonkey]

If you are looking into the macho also look into the Thermalright truespirit 140.

in canada the only place that i can find selling it wants $160. so nope.

alright so i plan to get a asus maximus V gene since my case is matx. the hr-02 will fit my case fine but i have a question about the heatsink and first slot. the space between heatsink and video card is incredibly small, like a few mm. is there any reason for concern with this or is mainly just a pain in the ass to install stuff? if the heatsink touches the back of the video card it cant short it out can it?

anyone?

 

[cmdrdredd]

This is a Noctua NH-D14 on an Asus M5G and as you can see it rests right up against the video card in the top slot. You would be advised to use electrical tape to cover any metal that might contact the back of the PCB on the video card. I used a bit to prevent the fan clips from shorting out the card.

The Noctua NH-D14 measures
Height (with fan) 160 mm
Width (with fan) 140 mm
Depth (with fan) 158 mm

According to thermalright the HR-02 is L160mm x H140mm x W26.5mm

found a quick summary that says

There’s only 1.2cm space between video card PCB and Thermalright HR-02

That is enough space provided you insulate the video card from the HSF with electrical tape or maybe cut some foam or something to fit between.

p.s. ignore the wiring, I threw this together to get a few test benches in before I took it down and did a little work.