X-bit labs

New Coolers from Scythe: Katana II and Kama Cross Review (page 3)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 07/02/2007 | 03:58 PM ]

The cooler’s sole is flat and superbly finished as is typical of Scythe’s products.

The copper plate of the base is 3.5-4 millimeters thick. The contact between the heat pipes and the copper plate is established by means of soldering.

By default the Scythe Katana II is equipped with a 100mm fan from Kaze Jyu (the SY1025SL12M model) running on a slide bearing with a constant speed of 1500rpm, creating an airflow of 42.69CFM and generating 22dBA of noise.

The fan is very quiet, subjectively. Its exact level of noise will be measured in the appropriate section of the review.

The fan is fastened with one clamping screw in the bottom part of the heatsink:

This fastening mechanism allows replacing the stock 100mm fan with a higher-performance 100mm or a 120mm one. The only requirement is that the fan is no more than 25 millimeters thick, too.

Installation Tips

It is easy to mount the Scythe Katana II on any mainboard. You secure an appropriate fastening frame on the cooler’s sole with four screws and then install the cooler on your mainboard. You don’t have to take the mainboard out of the system case and the cooler can be oriented in any direction you choose thanks to its symmetrical fastener. The pressure force is high and the mainboard bends a little under it.

Installed on a mainboard inside a system case the Scythe Katana II looks like follows:

As you can see, the cooler is compact. The distance from its bottommost rib to the mainboard is just over 20 millimeters, so the mainboard’s components are unlikely to get in the cooler’s way.

The Katana II has a recommended price of $32.