To say that the modern CPUs run warm would be something of an understatement. While the Athlon 64/FX keeps the heat in check, it does get fairly warm under the collar. For Intel, well, air cooling is rarely an acceptable solution these days.

The retail CPUs include what I would call acceptable cooling solutions for a typical consumer, but for enthusiasts, these heatsink and fan combinations just won't cut it since they'll be looking into overclocking the processors. Even at stock speeds, these CPUs run hotter than I'm personally comfortable with.

We have seen a number of high-end air coolers come through our labs, and some of them are well suited to cool the latest from AMD and Intel down. We've had some good success with Zalman and asetek, but since our readers have asked for it, today we'll be looking at the Scythe Ninja CPU Cooler SCNJ-1000. This is the first air cooler we've seen where the manufacturer tells you you can run a CPU without a fan using their air cooler.

The Scythe Ninja CPU Cooler SCNJ-1000

While the Zalman CNPS9500, Thermaltake Big Typhoon and asetek VapoChill Micro were large coolers, the Scythe Ninja CPU Cooler SCNJ-1000 is simply huge, measuring close to six inches in height. The great thing about having a huge cooler such as this is that there is the potential for some good cooling performance but the downside is not everyone is going to be able to use it. The Ninja itself does not overtake much surrounding area, but the height will pose problems in some cases such as those with fan ducts or low profile HTPC type cases.

Despite the large size, the Scythe Ninja is not terribly heavy. This is due to the fact that the majority of the construction, namely the fins, are aluminum based. Those of you familiar with the dynamics of aluminum and copper for heatsinks will know that aluminum does not absorb as much heat, but dissipates it faster than copper. Copper on the otherhand absorbs more, but takes longer to dissipate it.

It's for this reason we see many coolers, including this one use a copper base. This will allow the heatsink to better handle that initial blast of heat when a PC is turned on. The base isn't polished to a mirror finish, but it's quite smooth and lapping probably isn't needed.

The heat moves from the base (we have a small heatsink to draw off the initial blast of heat) and into six copper heatpipes. These heatpipes run through all four sides of the base and into the aluminum fins. Basically, the heatpipes are filled with a liquid that evaporates and moves up the pipe. Once it reaches the top, it condenses and flows back down to the bottom. The heat is dissipated at the top of the cooler, and the cycle repeats.

The Scythe Ninja is a universal heatsink, meaning it can work with a number of different CPUs. There's a number of parts included for various CPU installs, though only the Pentium 4 Socket 478 does not require motherboard removal. Actually, that isn't true. Depending on the supporting backplate used on your Athlon 64 motherboard, you may be able to get away without removing the board there.

A custom heatsink retention bracket (not needed for Socket 478) is used for all installations. While it might be a hassle to remove the motherboard, the heatsink installation itself is a quick and painless affair.

Always read the fine print is something you all need to be aware of. While Scythe says you can run without a fan, they recommend not doing so for high end CPUs. We can tell you that do not even try to attempt this with any Intel CPU, regardless of socket, clocked in excess of 3.0GHz. You may be able to get away with no fan on an Athlon 64 3200+, but we needed one on our 4000+ when we put the CPU under load for more than 5 minutes.

Speaking of fans, none is included with the Scythe Ninja. The cooler requires a 120mm fan, so unless you do not already have one, factor the cost of that into the purchase. Otherwise, everything else required for installation is included.

Test Setup

MSI P4N Diamond: Intel P4 3.73 Extreme Edition, 2 x 512MB Corsair TWINX PC5400 Pro, ATI X850 PE, 160GB Seagate SATA 7200.7.

MSI K8N: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (Socket-939), 2 x 512MB Corsair TWINX PC3200XL, ATI X850 PE, 160GB Seagate SATA 7200.7.

We'll be testing both AMD and Intel setups with near identical hardware save the CPU and motherboard. We will be comparing the Scythe Ninja against the stock coolers, as well as performance air coolers such as the asetek VapoChill Micro (High), Zalman CPNS9500 and Thermaltake Big Typhoon. The Scythe Ninja CPU Cooler SCNJ-1000 will be armed with the same fan as the Thermaltake. All of the fans were configured to run at their maximum rated speed. Arctic Silver 5 was the thermal paste used for all the setups.

Prime95 was run for nine hours, with Folding @ Home running in the background everyday for four days to load the system and allow the thermal paste to even out. During the actual tests, we ran SiSoft Sandra's CPU Burn for 15 minutes, with Folding @ Home running in the background. Ambient room temperature was maintained at 23°C/74°F.

No surprises here with the stock coolers finishing dead last. All four performance coolers do very well, finishing mere degrees within one another. We think the Zalman and asetek coolers are better engineered as they finished on top using smaller fans, but still a good showing for Scythe.

Final Words

Overall, we were pretty happy with the performance of the Scythe Ninja CPU cooler. With a 120mm fan in place, it finished among the top of all air coolers tested here at VL. For those looking for absolute silence, Scythe claims you can run without a fan in some scenarios. While we feel this is possible for sub-$250 CPUs (aka, the slower ones), how effective is the Scythe Ninja without a fan for faster processors? We unhooked the fan from the unit and loaded up our test CPUs to see.

A stable setup means no crashes. If there was a crash, we are reporting what was the last temperature we saw before the lockup.

	Stable	Temperature
AMD	No	68
Intel	No	74

Neither of our setups were stable without any active cooling. The AMD system ran the longest at 15 minutes but the Intel crashed in under 5 minutes. We definitely do not recommend running your system without a fan on the Scythe Ninja.

Installation is very easy for all platforms, but motherboard removal is very likely in most cases, and mandatory for Pentium LGA775 installations. The only platform to get a free pass here is the Pentium 4 Socket 478 which will not require removal.

The Scythe Ninja is not without it's share of problems though. While the cooler is well priced, no fan is included. The large size will also cause installation problems in cases where there is a CPU fan duct present, or low profile cases.

Looking past that, this is a very good cooler and one we'd definitely put on our short list if we're thinking about building a silent, low powered PC.

Thanks to our sponsors at Crazy PC for making this review possible.

Pros: Good performance, very quiet and potentially silent.

Cons: Silent mode not suitable for high-end CPUs, large size may cause installation issues with some cases.

Bottom Line: The Scythe Ninja is a solid and good performing cooler that will do the job for all CPUs. You will need to pick up a fan for anything faster than an Athlon 3200+ or P4 3.0 GHz. Those building lower powered HTPC type rigs will want to give this a look so long as your case has a clearance of at least 6 inches.

If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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