X-bit labs

Battle of the Titans: Super Coolers from Scythe, Thermaltake and Zalman Face to Face (page 17)

Category: Coolers

by Doors4ever

[ 10/21/2005 | 11:44 AM ]

The assembled cooler looks even prettier than the previous model when in the system case:

The installation manual for all CPU sockets can be downloaded here (1.9MB, PDF file).

I took a 120mm 1600rpm fan from the Shogun since the fan for the Ninja is to be purchased optionally. The Idle temperature of the CPU was 46-47°C ; it grew to 59.5-60.5°C under load.

The Ninja comes without a fan, only with fan fastenings, but I also had such fastenings from the Shogun cooler. As an experiment, I put a second 120mm fan on the opposite side of the cooler coaxially with the first one to take air from the cooler. I slowed its speed down to 1600rpm and repeated the thermal chamber tests.

The temperature seems to have gone down, but the minimum and maximum points have remained the same, only the CPU temperature now less frequently exceeds 60°C. The Scythe Ninja was developed with passive operation in mind; its ribs are placed at a rather wide distance from each other and are blown out well with a single fan. There’s no sense in installing a second fan. The option of fanless (i.e. completely noiseless) cooling is very appealing, but I obviously couldn’t make use of it in my tests, with a 4GHz Prescott processor.