Introduction

This time we tested the Ninja3 CPU cooler from Scythe. It has a square heatsink with eight heatpipes and a 120 mm fan. Check it out!

The Ninja3 box is made of cardpaper, with no openings or transparent window.

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Figure 1: Packaging

In Figure 2, you can see the accessories that come with the cooler: fan, manual, installation hardware, and a small bag of thermal compound.

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Figure 2: Box contents

In Figure 3, you can see the Ninja3 heatsink.

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Figure 3: The Scythe Ninja3

In the next pages, you will see this cooler in detail.

The Scythe Ninja3

In Figure 4, you see the front of the heatsink. The fins are thick, firm, and well spaced.

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Figure 4: Front view

In Figure 5, you see the side of the cooler. The eight heatpipes are divided into two groups of four heatpipes and each group is installed perpendicular to each other.

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Figure 5: Side view

In Figure 6, you see the top of the cooler. The shape of the fins may make you think that the heatsink is divided into four pieces, but this isn't the case, as the fins are not independent. There is a nice tribal decoration on the top fin.

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Figure 6: Top view

The Scythe Ninja3 (Cont’d)

In Figure 7 you see how the eight heatpipes are distributed in the base of the cooler. As already explained, the eight heatpipes are divided in two groups with four heatpipes each, and each group is installed perpendicular to each other.

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Figure 7: Heatpipes

In Figure 8 you see the mirrored finish of the base of the cooler.

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Figure 8: Base

The fan that comes with Ninja3 have PWM automatic control, but it also has a potentiometer, where you can adjust the fan speed.

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Figure 9: Fan

In Figure 10, you can see the fan installed. It is held in place by two wire clips.

Installation

To install the Ninja3, first you need to attach two clips on the base of the cooler. You will need to install four nuts on those clips according to the socket used by your CPU. In Figure 11, you can see the Intel clips with the nuts installed for socket LGA1156.

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Figure 11: Base clips

The backplate, shown in Figure 12, is very solid in order to hold the weight of the cooler. To install the cooler, just hold it in place, put the backplate on the solder side of the motherboard, and then attach the four screws that hold the cooler in place.

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Figure 12: Backplate

In Figure 13, you can see the Ninja3 instaled in our case.

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Figure 13: Installed in our case

How We Tested

We tested the cooler with a Core i7-860 CPU (quad-core, 2.8 GHz), which is a socket LGA1156 processor with a 95 W TDP (Thermal Design Power). In order to get higher thermal dissipation, we overclocked it to 3.3 GHz (150 MHz base clock and 22x multiplier), keeping the standard core voltage (Vcore), which was the maximum stable overclock we could make with the stock cooler. Keep in mind that we could have raised the CPU clock more, but to include the stock cooler in our comparison, we needed to use this moderate overclock.

We measured noise and temperature with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to get 100% CPU usage in all threads, we ran Prime 95 25.11 (in this version, the software uses all available threads) with the "In-place Large FFTs" option.

We compared the tested cooler to the Intel stock cooler with a copper base (included with the CPU), as well as with other coolers. Note that in the past, we tested coolers with a socket LGA775 CPU, and we retested some "old" coolers with this new methodology. This means you can find different values in older reviews than the values you will read in the next page.

Room temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer. The core temperature was read with the SpeedFan program (available from the CPU thermal sensors), using an arithmetic average of the core temperature readings. During the tests, the left panel of the case was open.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the case and video board cooler fans so they wouldn't interfere with the results. This measurement is only for comparison purposes because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core i7-860
• Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD6
• Memory: 4 GB A-Data AX3U1333GB2G8-2G (DDR3-1333/PC3-10700 with 9-9-9-25 timings), configured at 1,200 MHz
• Hard disk: Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
• Video card: Zotac GeForce GTS 250
• Video resolution: 1680x1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem L-1100 T.REX Cool

Operating System Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Software Used

• Prime95
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 ^oC error margin, meaning temperature differences below 2 ^oC are considered irrelevant.

Our Tests

The table below presents the results of our measurements. We repeated the same test on all coolers listed below. Each measurement was taken with the CPU at idle and at full load. In the models with a fan supporting PWM, the motherboard controlled the fan speed according to core load and temperature. On coolers with an integrated fan controller, we set the fan at the minumum speed on the idle test and at full speed on the full load test.

		Idle Processor			Processor at Full Load
Cooler	Room Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.	Noise	Speed	Core Temp.
Intel stock (socket LGA1156)	14 °C	44 dBA	1700 rpm	46 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	90 °C
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 G1	14 °C	47 dBA	2050 rpm	33 °C	56 dBA	2900 rpm	62 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme	14 °C	45 dBA	1400 rpm	27 °C	53 dBA	1950 rpm	51 °C
Thermaltake Silent 1156	14 °C	44 dBA	1200 rpm	38> °C	49 dBA	1750 rpm	69 °C
Noctua NH-D14	14 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	27 °C	49 dBA	1250 rpm	53 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Performa	14 °C	46 dBA	1500 rpm	28 °C	52 dBA	1950 rpm	54 °C
Prolimatech Megahalems	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	50 °C
Thermaltake Frio	14 °C	46 dBA	1450 rpm	27 °C	60 dBA	2500 rpm	50 °C
Prolimatech Samuel 17	14 °C	40 dBA	750 rpm	40 °C	60 dBA	2550 rpm	63 °C
Zalman CNPS8000A	18 °C	43 dBA	1400 rpm	39 °C	54 dBA	2500 rpm	70 °C
Spire TherMax Eclipse II	14 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	28 °C	55 dBA	2200 rpm	53 °C
Scythe Ninja3	17 °C	39 dBA	700 rpm	32 °C	55 dBA	1800 rpm	57 °C

In the graph below, at full load you can see how many degrees Celsius hotter the CPU core is than the air outside the case. The lower this difference, the better is the performance of the cooler.

Main Specifications

The main features of the Scythe Ninja3 CPU cooler include:

• Application: Socket LGA775, 1156, 1366, AM3, AM2+, AM2, 940, 939 and 754 processors
• Fins: Aluminum
• Base: Nickel-plated copper
• Heat-pipes: Eight copper heat-pipes
• Fans: 120 mm, sleeve bearing
• Nominal fan speed: 1,900 rpm
• Fan air flow: 110 cfm
• Maximum power consumption: NA
• Nominal noise level: 37 dBA
• Weight: 2.29 lbs (1 Kg)
• More information: http://www.scythe-usa.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 40.00

* Researched at Amazon.com on the day we published this review.

Conclusions

The Scythe Ninja3 is a great CPU cooler. With its huge size and eight 8-mm heatpipes, it was able to present excellent performance in our tests with a relatively low noise level.

The combination of the PWM automatic control with a rear potentiometer was a great idea: you can let your system control the fan speed automatically, but if you need some extra silence you can manually reduce the fan speed.

And, the best part of it: the Ninja3 is not as expensive as competing top-notch CPU coolers.

With great cooling performance, good noise level, great looks, and an attractive price tag, the Scythe Ninja3 CPU cooler is one of the best options if you are looking for a big cooler to chill your CPU, and therefore deserves our Golden Award.