Premium Socket 939 Heatsink Round-Up

Reviews: Cooling

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Max Slowik
Kurtis
Sharka Corp
Aug. 29, 2006

Specifications

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Scythe Ninja Plus+

First Looks

The Scythe Ninja seems simple in contrast with the Zalman coolers. It's big, thick, and square. It also has an Iron Cross-looking design, accentuated with sharp hooks and a magnum-bore hole through the fins. The fins aren't dense at all, with big David Letterman tooth-gaps between them, and they bend easily. Its heatpipes are sandwiched between the copper base and an additional rough-cut aluminum heatsink set under the mass of the tower. The heatpipes themselves look like they were hammered out of leftover plumbing. So no, it's not good-looking.

Specifications

Dimensions (L X W X H): 110 X 110 X 150mm
Material: Pure copper and aluminum
Weight: 815g, 665g (no fan)
Bearing Type: Sleeve
Fan Speed: 1,200rpm
Air Flow: 46.5cfm
Noise: 23.5dB
Connector: 3-Pin

Taking a Closer Look

The heatpipes, woven across the thin, very flat base are packed tightly together because they have to be. The Ninja uses six pipes doubled over the bottom, for twelve total channels–double the number of pipes of the other towers–and these heatpipes are capped with well-fitted ends, not just crimped shut. The mounting hardware that's built right onto the small heatsink of the base is fixed tightly, and doesn't allow for any rotation. The square design makes it bi-directional and particularly idiot-proof.

Because the fins are spaced so far apart, the Ninja is base heavy, reducing the pressure against motherboards installed in tower cases. Without a fan, it weighs a scant 665 grams, making it the middleweight of this round-up. Scant for its size, anyway, as it's the largest heatsink of the lot.

The base is very flat, but could use a little love concerning the finish. It's about the same as the copper Zalman CNPS9500, which at least puts it in good company.

The Ninja comes with a small amount of mounting hardware, including a replacement backplate in case it's needed, which is good if the original mounting hardware has been lost or thrown out. The cooler's mounting clips are actually made for Socket 478 stock retention brackets, so all other sockets will need to have their retention brackets swapped out for the included hardware.

Install

This cooler is not the easiest to install. While the stock retention bracket needs to be removed, the Ninja's bracket just gets screwed into the stock backplate, so nothing has to get disassembled to make the swap, unless the motherboard has non-standard retention hardware. Push-pin brackets and backplates with oddly gauged screws will mean removing the motherboard and installing the rest of the Ninja's hardware, but again, that's uncommon.

The edges on this cooler are sharp, and it has a lot of edges. This isn't a curse-free install. Also, the cooler is big enough to hang over the first and maybe second RAM slots, but there is enough room to fit tall RAM under the fins, though very tall RAM with activity lights is probably a no-go. It is just a question of being able to add or remove the RAM if the heatsink is already installed. It's safe to say it's going to be a little complicated.

The cooler is so big that getting it to clip onto the retention bracket's catches is the hard part; it blocks out the view of its own mounting hardware. The best way is to clip two hooks at the rear end of the motherboard, leaning the tower over the MOSFETs (the power regulating bits around the CPU near the back panel) and with one hand, rock the tower straight up on CPU, make sure it's centered and that the two free hooks are on the outside of the mounting bracket, and with the other hand, push down hard on the cantilevered tabs.

After it's in place, the fan can be installed, using the two thin wires to hook into the screw holes of the fan, which then slip into the notches along the cooler's sides. This is a little annoying. Start by hooking one side of the fan to the side of the cooler, using the tabs as a shelf for the bottom of the fan, and then use the second wire to hold the other side in place.

In Use

Once all the blood has been let, (think of it as a sacrifice for otherworldly performance) the Ninja, simply put, kicks ass. Even with no fan it's guaranteed to match, and probably outperform, the stock AMD heatsinks.

The fan bundled with the Plus+ model Ninja is very, very quiet. In fact, it's inaudible over even quiet hard drives. Even with a slow-moving fan, it's at the top of the performance charts. A fan with an ounce more muscle makes it unparalleled. It's just amazing.

It also has a little modification potential, as a creative (or foolhardy) person could pretty easily attach a second, or third, or fourth fan to it.

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Page 6 of 12

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: An Overclocking Primer
Page 3: The Contenders & Testing Methodology
Page 4: Zalman CNPS9500
Page 5: Zalman CNPS9500AM2
Page 6: Scythe Ninja Plus+
Page 7: Scythe Mine
Page 8: Noctua NH-U12
Page 9: Thermaltake Sonic Tower
Page 10: Thermaltake Mini Typhoon
Page 11: Overclocking & Temperatures
Page 12: Conclusions & Final Recommendations

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