Installation

Installing the MACS MA-7121 is really no more difficult in theory as installing a standard heatsink and CDROM drive. In practice, we did encounter one hitch which we'll get into in a moment. Depending on your heatsink retention backplate, motherboard removal may not be necessary. If the backplate is AMD standard, and you can access the retention screw holes after removing the heatsink retention plate, you will not need to remove your motherboard. If the backplate is from an aftermarket heatsink, it may be necessary to remove the board and use the one included with the MACS cooler.

Once you've removed the heatsink retention plate, install the MACS retention plate in it's place. Orientation isn't important as each side of the plate is uniform. Use the two included screws and secure the retention plate to the backplate. Install the CPU (if it isn't already done so) and apply a thin layer of thermal paste.

Place the MACS cooler into the retention plate and snap the clip into the two hooks. This is where we had some difficulty in the installation as the clip didn't have a whole lot of give and it took a bit of elbow grease to snap the clips into place. Kind of reminds us of the Globawin cooler days... Once the clips are secured, flip the lever to lock the MACS in place.

Since the MACS cooler is tapered, we didn't run into any clearance issues on our ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, even with Corsair ProSeries ram in place. Last step here is to plug the fan into a free three-pin connection on the motherboard.

Once the cooler is installed, you'll need to run a couple wires from the cooler to the 5.25" control panel (MA-7121 model only) which installs into a free 5.25" external bay in your case.

Operation and Performance

Those of you with case windows and into the bling will definitely get a kick out of this combo. The fan has four green LEDs that shine quite brightly and the control panel has a multitude of coloured backgrounds to choose from (this can be changed by pressing a button called "Color" on the front of the control panel). Celsius and Fahrenheit options are also available, and the display panel also shows the total run time of the system which is useful for those of you who, erm, care about these things.

Test Setup: ASUS A8N-SLI: Athlon 3500+ (Clocked at 11x220), 1GB Corsair ProSeries PC3200, 2 x NVIDIA 6800GT, 120GB Seagate Barracuda V.

Comparison Hardware: Koolance EXOS-Al, Swiftech MCX6400-V, Cooler Master Hyper 6, AMD Stock cooler (AVC).

Editor Notes: All cooling results tested with a Lian-Li V1000 enclosure (both 120mm fans enabled, case closed), OCZ Modstream PSU, and Arctic Silver 5 (set in for 48 hours prior to testing). Prime95 was run for 20 minutes, and we fired up PiFast with a 100k calculation during the last five minutes and collected the cooling results through the ASUS Probe software. Ambient room temperature was maintained at 23°C/74°F.

The packaging claims are pretty bold, guaranteeing a 10°C improvement in temperature over traditional coolers. Well, I'm not too sure how old the AMD coolers they used as a baseline were, but against the stock cooler which is about 18 months old tech-wise, the MACS didn't do too well, let alone against the rest of the competition. Simply put, the load temperatures of 56°C is not what we were expecting, and based on some other reviews around the 'net, it seems our results are not unique.

On a bright note, the idle temperatures are really good, on par with a much more expensive water-cooling solution. A shame that it still doesn't look like a great bargain since AMD includes a better cooler for "free".

Noise was minimal, with the fan only kicking in at 30°C. While that may sound good in theory, in practice, the fan pretty much turns itself on no matter if the PC is idle or under load as it hits 30°C pretty quick. We did find the colour options for the 5.25" panel was nice, but wouldn't additional fan speed options be a better choice? We'd like to think so.

Final Words

Hubert's $0.02

With words like "thermoelectric cooling", and "air-conditioning" on a box of a CPU cooler, I was expecting some great things from the MACS cooler. The product will look good for those of you interested in LEDs and animated icons, as well as quiet cooling (the MACS is not quite silent, but it isn't disruptive either), but in terms of performance, the MACS fails to deliver.

As mentioned earlier, the idle performance is close to 10°C than AMD's stock cooler, but considering most of us do more than just turning on a PC and taking a vacation for half a year, we just cannot recommend this product to our readers. Considering the cost of this product, we suggest looking into a performance air cooler for half the price.

Scott's $0.02

The MACS Kooler is not a new idea but is a new attempt at the premise of a low power TEC in the base of a HSF assembly. We have an included bay unit to read temperatures and power the TEC, we have different face plates to accommodate black and silver cases, we have the ability to change colours of the LCD and so blend in with your current lighting scheme (if any). The HSF itself is of all aluminium construction and is basic until you look at the top and bottom; the top sporting a clear bladed 92mm fan with 4 LED's and the bottom containing a 40mm TEC to reduce temperatures further than a HSF alone could do. Everything you could need aside from a screwdriver is included in the box, the construction feels very solid and the overall appearance is a pretty good one, 'gadgety' if a little 'gimmicky'.

However, when you consider the price of this unit against its performance under load, it is quite hard to justify the cost unless you simply want it for its flashy appearance; you can get similar performance from a non TEC based HSF and it will cost half as much as the MACS Kooler. Anyone who likes gadgets and gimmicks will like the MACS Kooler for its 'flashy' appearance, but don't buy this because you believe it will drop your temperatures dramatically; despite the TEC, it won't.

Pros: Good packaging and packing, Bay unit has interchangeable face plates, 7 colours for the LCD, 4 LED's on the fan, simple installation, no mess, no water, no insulation, everything included that you could need (except tools).

Cons: Performance is the same as an HSF of half the price.

Bottom Line: The MACS Kooler utilizes a low powered TEC to aid in cooling however the performance, like other coolers that have attempted to use a low powered TEC, doesn't show much improvement over a standard HSF under load.

If you have any questions or comments about this article or other articles here at Viperlair, please feel free to discuss them in our Forums.

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