The PC air cooling market is getting some stiff competition from liquid cooling products.. Liquid cooling products are becoming more and more inexpensive while shrinking in size, which is giving air coolers a run for their money. Scythe began its operation and business in November of 2002 as is a distributor and manufacturer of PC parts & gaming devices for “DIY PC Experts!”. Scythe became recognized as the leading CPU cooler supplier in Japan’s Akihabara Electric Town. Due to popular demand, Scythe began exporting products all over the world shortly thereafter. Scythe USA began in Northern California, and moved to LA to work closer to and with the manufacturers to streamline logistics to better serve their US-based partners.
Scythe has since released several very impressive products for both CPU cooling and VGU cooling. Today we will have the chance to check out one of their newest copper Heatsinks, The Katana Cu.
Specifications
- Dimensions: 92 x 92 x 25mm
- Speed: 1200~2500rpm±10% (controller)
- Noise Level: 15.00~31.65dBA
- Air Flow: 23.92~50.31CFM
- Weight: 590g (1.30lbs)
Scythe Katana Cu Key Features
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The Katana Cu is nicely packaged in a colorful multilingual box. The packaging is completely proudly adorned with specifications and details on all sides, including product photos, warranty and compatibility information.
Package Contents
The Katana is packed on its side toward the back, with all the mounting hardware and other hardware located in the front. One thing that impressed me was the choice of mounting options available, which make this one of the most versatile heatsinks on the market. This heatsink can be mounted on practically anything. The package contained everything to mount the cooler on a socket 775, 940/939/754, 478, 370, and Socket A (462).
Because there are so many mounting options, needless to say there is a LOT of hardware in this package. Along with generic white thermal paste is a 4-pin Molex power adapter (for those who choose not to power the fan from the motherboard). Also there are 2 sets of instructions for the different installation methods. This does look rather difficult to install on the AMD 940/939/754 sockets, due to the assembly involved.
Inspection
The heatsink and fan feels fairly light, but both of the heat pipes are positioned ¼ of the way out off center. Heat pipes are apparently the latest buzzword these days, but the presentation of them is also important. All four ends of the heat pipes are professionally covered with cap nuts. The base is also one of the best finishes that I have ever seen on an air cooling heat sink. The smooth surface is flawless and reflects like a magical bronze mirror! Even most water-cooling blocks still have some sort of machining marks in them, but this air cooler’s finish is almost perfect. We should see some good results!
Ok we are going to test this on my spare rig for the fact it would take me 4 times as long to install this on my SLI DR due to the fact of the water-cooling equipment in the way.
Test system:
- AMD XP 2500+ Barton (unlocked) clocked at 2.2 GHz
- DFI INFINITY NF2 ULTRA
- THERMALTAKE PUREPOWER 480W
- WESTERN DIGITAL 80GB IDE133
- 1 GB VALUE RAM
- THERMALTAKE VOLCANO 7
- THERMALTAKE PIPE 101 WITH SILENT 92 MM FAN
- SCYTHE KATANA CU
- Arctic Silver Ceramique
This heatsink and fan installation in a large case would be fairly simple, having the room around the socket and the power supply. Unfortunately for me, I am installing it in an Aspire turbo mid tower, which you can tell from the pictures is rather cramped with the minimal clearance with the power supply. In a larger full tower or a server case this would be an easier install. With the HSF installed, you can see on the AMD socket A, a CPU shim would be a wise investment with this HSF. The directions do have the proper install pic’s and the ones that are wrong. The instructions over all are easy to understand and are in multiple languages.
(All tests were conducted with case side on and after one day of installation to allow the Arctic Silver Ceramique to set up. The ambient room temperature was 71.6*F. 100% load was applied using PRIME 95.)
Conclusion
All things considered the external fan controller in an open pci slot it is fairly decent to use. Even with the fan running at full power, I could barely hear a whisper.
The Scythe Katana Cu Heatsink is very versatile, and cost effective. For around $30 this is a very good investment for a quiet, efficient heatsink. There are key features that make this a very good Heatsink. First the quality of the construction and the efficiency. Both of wich will make this a excelent purchase vrs some of the older competitors.
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