Page 1: Intro, Parts
<B>Intro</B>:
The Samurai is what I consider the bigger brother of the <a href="http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=133">Kamakaze</a>. Since we already have seen the quality of the <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a> brand in the previous review, I won't delve to deep into what you already know. As a refresher, <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a> makes cool and quiet heatsinks. They do a good job of it as well. The Samurai doesn't disappoint, let's get right into it...
<B>Packaging</B>:
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</center>
The colorful packaging displays some useful info such as the ability to work with pretty much all current socketed platforms. The only one seemed to not be supported is the new 939 socket from AMD. Since I seem to have mostly Pentium 4s, this isn't a problem. Check your system specs to make sure this heatsink will work for you.
<B>Parts</B>:
<center>
</center>
This is pretty much what is included with the unit. The manual was sent outside the packaging for some reason, so I forgot to throw that in. Rest assured it is included with the heatsink (and you'll want to read it). I had to disassemble the heatsink (again). Like the Kamakaze, this one didn't come pre-assembled for Pentium 4s. It was Athlon ready, but this was much easier to take apart and put back together. There isn't an extra piece on each side that falls off when you take the screws off. The P4 bracket is on the heatsink, resting on the Athlon one, in case you're wondering.
<B>The Heatsink</B>:
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</center>
A more in depth inspection of the heatsink shows that there aren't any visible spot welds on the corners. This looks much better than the Kamakaze, which had the metal eaten away at the weld points. You'll notice that the Athlon bracket has a nice Scythe logo on it, etched in all its glory. Since I'm using the P4 bracket, it doesn't say anything.
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</center>
The entire heatsink is made of copper. Copper conducts heatsink better than Aluminum. Scythe says that the entire heatsink is made from a 100% solid block of copper meaning that there is no weld or solder points. This means that the fins and the base are of one piece of metal. This increases the heat conduction (and release) much better than sticking two piece of metal together. The other problem when sticking two pieces of dissimilar metal together is that a voltage is creates between the two pieces of metal when their heated at different temperatures (thermocouple). Now that I taught you something, lets move on.
<center>
</center>
I mentioned this before and I'll say it again; I hate screw type locking mechanisms. Actually though, this heatsink was much easier to install than the previous Kamakaze. The locks fit in better and there was more 'feel' to the screws than before. I could tell when I was over tightening them, though I still needed to make fine adjustments while the unit was on.
<center>
</center>
I also noticed that the brackets are now stronger than before, they bowed much less, practically not at all. The fan is still sucking air through the heatsink, and in my case, this proved to be a worse cooling method that blowing air into it. I swapped the fan around and the heatsink was better than ever.
<center>
</center>
The bottom of the heatsink was polished enough for a mass produced product. I recommend that you wiped it down with some Alcohol or other cleaning substance to get rid of the grim left from the plastic cover, or your fingers if you touched the bottom (oops). Without anymore stuff to ramble on about, we'll get down to the testing.
The Samurai is what I consider the bigger brother of the <a href="http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=133">Kamakaze</a>. Since we already have seen the quality of the <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a> brand in the previous review, I won't delve to deep into what you already know. As a refresher, <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a> makes cool and quiet heatsinks. They do a good job of it as well. The Samurai doesn't disappoint, let's get right into it...
<B>Packaging</B>:
<center>
</center>The colorful packaging displays some useful info such as the ability to work with pretty much all current socketed platforms. The only one seemed to not be supported is the new 939 socket from AMD. Since I seem to have mostly Pentium 4s, this isn't a problem. Check your system specs to make sure this heatsink will work for you.
<B>Parts</B>:
<center>
</center>This is pretty much what is included with the unit. The manual was sent outside the packaging for some reason, so I forgot to throw that in. Rest assured it is included with the heatsink (and you'll want to read it). I had to disassemble the heatsink (again). Like the Kamakaze, this one didn't come pre-assembled for Pentium 4s. It was Athlon ready, but this was much easier to take apart and put back together. There isn't an extra piece on each side that falls off when you take the screws off. The P4 bracket is on the heatsink, resting on the Athlon one, in case you're wondering.
<B>The Heatsink</B>:
<center>
</center>A more in depth inspection of the heatsink shows that there aren't any visible spot welds on the corners. This looks much better than the Kamakaze, which had the metal eaten away at the weld points. You'll notice that the Athlon bracket has a nice Scythe logo on it, etched in all its glory. Since I'm using the P4 bracket, it doesn't say anything.
<center>
</center>The entire heatsink is made of copper. Copper conducts heatsink better than Aluminum. Scythe says that the entire heatsink is made from a 100% solid block of copper meaning that there is no weld or solder points. This means that the fins and the base are of one piece of metal. This increases the heat conduction (and release) much better than sticking two piece of metal together. The other problem when sticking two pieces of dissimilar metal together is that a voltage is creates between the two pieces of metal when their heated at different temperatures (thermocouple). Now that I taught you something, lets move on.
<center>
</center>I mentioned this before and I'll say it again; I hate screw type locking mechanisms. Actually though, this heatsink was much easier to install than the previous Kamakaze. The locks fit in better and there was more 'feel' to the screws than before. I could tell when I was over tightening them, though I still needed to make fine adjustments while the unit was on.
<center>
</center>I also noticed that the brackets are now stronger than before, they bowed much less, practically not at all. The fan is still sucking air through the heatsink, and in my case, this proved to be a worse cooling method that blowing air into it. I swapped the fan around and the heatsink was better than ever.
<center>
</center>The bottom of the heatsink was polished enough for a mass produced product. I recommend that you wiped it down with some Alcohol or other cleaning substance to get rid of the grim left from the plastic cover, or your fingers if you touched the bottom (oops). Without anymore stuff to ramble on about, we'll get down to the testing.