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Page 1
<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>:
<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.
<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>:
<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.
Page 2
<B>Testing</B>:
My test setup includes a P4 2.4C at 2400MHz and at 2800MHz. The heatsink was tested against the stock 2.4GHz Intel heatsink. Other components include a Radeon 9500 Pro, some Dual Corsair RAM and a Maxtor 120GB hard drive. Win2K with SP4 was the OS, if you care about that sort of thing. You can compare the numbers to the Kamakaze if you want, but I didn't see fit to compare the two since they are from the same company, you'll most likely buy this one anyway
.
I'll go into some brief details with my quarrels with this heatsink as well. I did have to do the tweaking to the tightness of the screws to get the maximum cooling efficiency from the heatsink. Making the heatsink sit flush with the CPU is important, over tightening can cause the heatsink to bow ever so slightly as to not make contact with the center portion of the CPU. I already had the experience with the Kamakaze, so I knew what to expect. Like before, I have the case closed and opened numbers.
Let's see about the idle numbers. This is at the default 2400MHz. Ambient was 25 - 26 C
Intel Stock: 31.5 C
Scythe Samurai Fast: 29.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to very near ambient)
Scythe Samurai Slow: 32.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 30 C)
And at load...
Intel Stock: 42 C
Scythe Samurai Fast: 40 C (But with the case open it dropped to 35 C)
Scythe Samurai Slow: 50 C (But with the case open it dropped to 45 C)
Now for 2800MHz (233MHz system bus) at idle.
Intel Stock: 32 C
Scythe Samurai Fast: 31.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 28 C)
Scythe Samurai Slow: 37 C (But with the case open it dropped to 32.5 C)
And loaded...
Intel Stock: 45 C
Scythe Samurai Fast: 44.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 37.5 C)
Scythe Samurai Slow: 57 C (But with the case open it dropped to 49.5 C)
This heatsink is a better heatsink than the previous Kamakaze, but not by much. In some cases with the lack of airflow, the heatsink performs worse that the other. I believe Aluminum releases heat better than copper, that could be a factor.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
<a href="http://ase.dealtime.com/dt-app/SE/KW-scythe+samurai/FD-0/linkin_id-3002062/NS-1/GS.html">This heatsink is only $29</a>. This unit is an all around better design that the previous one. The locking mechanism is better and the heatsink is pure copper. These are pluses that can't be overlooked in my opinion. I will give the recommendation to buy this product if you're looking for a cool and quiet heatsink. You can't go wrong with Scythe for that type of job.
<center><img src="http://images.aselabs.com/awards/recommended.jpg" alt="Recommended"></center>
I'd like to that Will from <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a> for sending the heatsink for review.
<B>Testing</B>:
My test setup includes a P4 2.4C at 2400MHz and at 2800MHz. The heatsink was tested against the stock 2.4GHz Intel heatsink. Other components include a Radeon 9500 Pro, some Dual Corsair RAM and a Maxtor 120GB hard drive. Win2K with SP4 was the OS, if you care about that sort of thing. You can compare the numbers to the Kamakaze if you want, but I didn't see fit to compare the two since they are from the same company, you'll most likely buy this one anyway
.I'll go into some brief details with my quarrels with this heatsink as well. I did have to do the tweaking to the tightness of the screws to get the maximum cooling efficiency from the heatsink. Making the heatsink sit flush with the CPU is important, over tightening can cause the heatsink to bow ever so slightly as to not make contact with the center portion of the CPU. I already had the experience with the Kamakaze, so I knew what to expect. Like before, I have the case closed and opened numbers.
Let's see about the idle numbers. This is at the default 2400MHz. Ambient was 25 - 26 C
Intel Stock: 31.5 C
Scythe Samurai Fast: 29.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to very near ambient)
Scythe Samurai Slow: 32.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 30 C)
And at load...
Intel Stock: 42 C
Scythe Samurai Fast: 40 C (But with the case open it dropped to 35 C)
Scythe Samurai Slow: 50 C (But with the case open it dropped to 45 C)
Now for 2800MHz (233MHz system bus) at idle.
Intel Stock: 32 C
Scythe Samurai Fast: 31.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 28 C)
Scythe Samurai Slow: 37 C (But with the case open it dropped to 32.5 C)
And loaded...
Intel Stock: 45 C
Scythe Samurai Fast: 44.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 37.5 C)
Scythe Samurai Slow: 57 C (But with the case open it dropped to 49.5 C)
This heatsink is a better heatsink than the previous Kamakaze, but not by much. In some cases with the lack of airflow, the heatsink performs worse that the other. I believe Aluminum releases heat better than copper, that could be a factor.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
<a href="http://ase.dealtime.com/dt-app/SE/KW-scythe+samurai/FD-0/linkin_id-3002062/NS-1/GS.html">This heatsink is only $29</a>. This unit is an all around better design that the previous one. The locking mechanism is better and the heatsink is pure copper. These are pluses that can't be overlooked in my opinion. I will give the recommendation to buy this product if you're looking for a cool and quiet heatsink. You can't go wrong with Scythe for that type of job.
<center><img src="http://images.aselabs.com/awards/recommended.jpg" alt="Recommended"></center>
I'd like to that Will from <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a> for sending the heatsink for review.