|
Scythe Ninja Mini CPU Cooler
Installation
It's a real pleasure to install a Ninja heatsink without needing a few days recovery. The mounting brackets are much nicer than the first Ninja's clips or even the Revision B clips. Being shorter makes it easier to work around, too. The fins are sharp as ever, but they're easier to avoid. You have to pay a little more attention when installing a Mini than a Ninja. Because the fan sits lower on the heatsink, and the fact that there are fewer fins, the fan should be oriented to take advantage of the solid aluminum "auxiliary" fans on the heatsink's base. The retention brackets can be mounted in any direction with four small screws directly to the heatsink base, but the fan only works well on the two sides. The fan clips are straight-forward, but still a little delicate. Once they're installed, they hold great, but getting them both on in the first place can be frustrating. At 110mm wide on all sides, the Mini is still uncommonly fat. It will probably complicate RAM installation, as well as obstruct other parts of the motherboard near the CPU socket. The fins are high enough off the base of the heatsink that clearance isn't a likely issue, but it might pose an annoyance for swapping parts down the road. Test Setup The heatsinks were all tested using Arctic Silver 5 thermal interface material after a 24-hour burn-in. Each temperature measurement was taken after an hour of idle or load, and the heatsinks each used their included fans. The results are the difference between the idle temperatures and the load temperatures. A Zalman FanMate II was used to set the fans to their lowest speed. Motherboard: DFI Lan Party 590 SLI Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-800 2x1GB Video Card: Foxconn GeForce 8800GTS 320 Processor one: X2 3200+, 2.0GHz/2x512KB cache, 90nm, 62W TDP Processor two: X2 6000+, 3.0GHz/2x1024KB cache, 90nm, 125W TDP
AMD Athlon X2 3200+
(Show All Graphs)
13
19
19
28
35
37
0
CPU Temp. (Lower is better)
42.55
9
14
19
0
CPU Temp. (Lower is better)
42.55
AMD Athlon X2 6000+
(Show All Graphs)
26
38
40
0
CPU Temp. (Lower is better)
46
23
30
31
0
CPU Temp. (Lower is better)
46
Conclusion For a little while, at least, I had this idea that the Ninja Mini was going to do just as well as the big Ninja (since it's got all these little improvements), but after strapping it to the test bench, I learned otherwise. The extra height and greater surface area is missed. Not that I was disappointed. The Mini went toe-to-toe with one of Zalman's best, and in a smaller, much quieter package. The small, slow fan isn't silent (it will benefit from automatic throttling, that's for sure, but in the right case, it's probably not even needed). The heatsink performed well with the fan turned down, and if there's enough airflow in the chassis, it can be used passively. This is especially true in short home theater PC cases. If that's the kind of computer you're thinking about installing this in, then stop here and buy yourself a Ninja Mini. As far as the Ninja Revision B goes, I hope that Scythe takes the improvements they've made for their Mini and make a Revision C. And a Northbridge heatsink. And a GPU heatsink. And a chainsaw--I mean, case. Yeah. Pros  Affordable Superb performance for it's size Can be used passively Could be harder to installCons  Stock fan loud for a "silent" heatsink W i d e
Page 1: Introduction, First Looks, Specifications, Closer Look
Page 2: Installation, Testing, Conclusion Add Comment
0 User Comments Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
Recent Articles Editorials March 15, 2010
Editorials August 27, 2009
Editorials August 18, 2009
Editorials March 17, 2009
Recent News Jason Bradbury Mar. 19, 2010 - 10:52 pm
Rock Paper Shotgun Mar. 19, 2010 - 10:44 pm
joystiq Mar. 19, 2010 - 6:58 pm
Tom's Hardware Mar. 19, 2010 - 4:42 pm
Rock Paper Shotgun Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:58 pm
Fudzilla Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:57 pm
CVG Mar. 18, 2010 - 11:53 pm
Tech Radar Mar. 16, 2010 - 11:58 pm
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
