Final words and conclusion

Final Words

I hate having to write conclusions like the one I am about to. I think Rajintek have made a decent unit here, I really do. First up, the positives. It looks utterly fantastic, and absolutely nobody can deny that. Black fins, if appropriate for the product, should be an industry standard. They look excellent and add a real touch of class onto a unit like this. For how much this costs, I really applaud Rajintek for the aesthetics. To go on from that, the price is another truly great point. 30-40 EUR/GBP nets you a dual fan, LED lit, and extremely well-built product with excellent mounting options and documentation.

Quality and Use

To be clear, I am well aware of my issues with the initial mounting of this unit. That, however, I am not 100% convinced is the fault of Raijintek, as not only did no other review site seem to have this issue, but the mere fact that I had to use a combination of AM4 and legacy AMD socket holes meant that something wasn't entirely all well with either my particular unit, or just the motherboard that I happen to use! With that out of the way, is this cooler worth it?

Well, do you own an Intel i7 8700k? Or, alternatively, a Ryzen 7 'X' series CPU? If so, please move on. This is not the cooler for you. Do you, however, happen to own an Intel Core i5 CPU, or AMD Ryzen 1700, R5 series chip, or even a newer Raven Ridge APU? Do you? Excellent, line up. I think you will like this cooler. What I would certainly be interested in testing, however, is whether this cooler could actually handle an older 4 core/8 thread i7 such as the 6700k or 7700k. Whilst it is clear that modern hex-core i7's and R7 'X' chips will overwhelm the Leto Pro when putting it through the proverbial wringer (i.e. an overclock), those are not the kinds of chips that this unit should be cooling. This is why I feel bad, as naturally, we have to put the cooler 'up against it,' like any other review outlet would, but it also doesn't paint this cooler (or any other budget unit, for that matter) in the best light.

The not so good

If I had to pick holes not related to inappropriate use case, however, I would mention the following. The first should be fairly obvious, the install process. Whilst I am willing to give Rajintek the benefit of the doubt when it comes to my specific issue, the install is fairly 'bitty,' and could do with a lot of refinement in order to cut down on the number of bolts, screws, nuts, and other parts that become necessary to mount this cooler. Take the brass standoffs, for example. Why not just attach four metal threaded posts to the same positions where you would normally bolt in the standoffs? This seems like a wasted 'stage,' as it were. That is, I appreciate, being very nitpicky, however.

What else? Well, I will not complain about the performance, and I have explained why beforehand. If it performed like that on an overclocked R3 or R5 CPU, then I would have cause for annoyance. As it is, it's more of a PSA. However, I do have to take an issue with the supplied fans. Those in the know will be well aware that fans of any size eventually reach a point at which they produce their own unique 'tone.' This can be a buzz, a hum, or even a whir. The fans supplied with the Leto, sadly, make a very distracting 'buzz' when they reach speeds beyond 75% or so. I wouldn't mind this, but other fan manufacturers like Noctua, BeQuiet!, and Fractal, have proven that a 120mm fan can spin at max. RPM without making a din. It's also not as though these fans spin especially fast, either, only going up to 1800rpm (+10%, according to my BIOS fan readouts). If these little fans were going above 2500rpm, I would understand more.

That is really it in terms of gripes, however. I guess you could say that the fan noise is by far the more prevalent problem, and it would certainly ward me off buying a cooler if I knew it was especially noisy, even if it performed well. That said, please remember that this cooler was never intended for this use case, and it provided itself more than ok to tame a 1700X at stock settings with all cores loaded in a torture test. With a lower core count chip, I think it would be fine. Ultimately, however, this boils down to 'can I recommend the Leto Pro RGB?' Well, yes, with a fairly significant caveat. Remember that this would also apply to pretty much any other budget-minded cooler in this price bracket. It will be able to handle a 6 core Ryzen. It should be able to handle an older 4 core i7. It will certainly be able to tame anything below that, to a degree. This comes down to, fundamentally, what you both want and expect out of a 30-40 EUR/GBP cooler? You shouldn't expect miracles, but for that amount of money, you do get a clearly capable unit with good build quality, fantastic aesthetics, and reasonably easy installation. If you do decide to invest in this cooler, pair it with an appropriate CPU, and you're home dry. 

Conclusion

I think I've been fairly clear in what I think of the Leto Pro RGB. Performance wise it's fairly clear that whilst not entirely out of its depth with an overclocked 8 core CPU, it was reaching a limit. If nothing else, this was indicated by the fans having to work relatively hard to keep the CPU below the 60C barrier. Above, I said I would recommend this cooler, with a caveat. That remains true, of course. My thoughts on this product remain nearly wholly positive, marred only by a single main problem I had with the unit, i.e. the fan noise. With that aside, I think the Leto is a very solid cooler. Does it, however, do enough to be considered in the wider scheme of things? Potentially, yes, though please keep the appropriate use case in mind. I think this unit would provide excellent price to performance if paired with a more appropriate CPU, especially as not only would the temps be cooler, but the cost of the CPU would fall as well, leading to a better ratio of money spent vs. temperature attained. All in all, it's a decent unit. Not stellar, but certainly with enough positives that I can begin recommending it to people using appropriate hardware. Look forward to another cooler review shortly, where I will be putting Raijintek's relatively new Orcus 240 AIO through its paces.

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