Socket 775 and AM2 heatsink roundup

Mike D. 11 Dec, 2007 at 1:00am ET Article published in Tech

Scythe Ninja Mini

The Ninja Mini from Scythe looks dwarfed compared to the other coolers in this roundup due to its short stature and included 80mm fan. The Ninja Mini is designed with HTPC and small cases in mind. It stands at a mere 115mm high. Upon closer inspection, however, it is just a short version of the very popular full-size Ninja Plus. Scythe is confident that the Ninja Mini is capable of handling even the toasty Core2 Quad processors with “Quad Core Ready” printed on the packaging. Although this may not be a very fair comparison due to its size and smaller fan, it will be interesting to see just how it stacks up. One notable difference is the superior heatpipe spacing on the mini compared to the Ninja Plus. Aside from that it employs the same general shape and six “U shaped” heatpipes.

Interestingly, the Ninja Mini allows for mounting of 80mm, 92mm and even 120mm fans. Clips are included for both 80 and 92mm fans, and 120mm clips can be purchased separately. It appears that a 92mm fan may genuinely improve the cooling performance of the mini, but with a 120mm fan, there is so much overlap that it will likely benefit little from it. We’ll be testing the Ninja Mini with our 92mm reference fan.

Image courtesy of Scythe

My first impression of the Ninja Mini was its short but wide shape. It is almost as wide as it is tall. It is not an overly heavy heatsink at a fanless 580g, and it is not top-heavy. Most of the weight resides near the base. This makes it a very safe and LAN-party friendly heatsink.

Scythe Ninja Mini Specifications

From: www.scythe-usa.com

Dimensions: 110 x 110 x 115 mm
Weight: 580g
Material: Aluminum and Copper
Included Fan:
Dimensions: 80 x 80 x 25 mm
Noise Level: 24.4 dBA
Air Flow: 32.2 CFM
Speed: 2,300 rpm (±10%)
Bearing Type: Sleeve Bearing

As you can see, it is significantly shorter than its big brother, the Mugen. Our 92mm reference fan fit great and provided good coverage of all fins.

Base quality on the Ninja Mini is very good — perfectly flat and highly polished. It passed our glass pane test and our straight edge test with perfect marks.

Like the Mugen we looked at earlier, a full suite of accessories is included for just about any modern socket, including socket 478. The fan is a “Quiet” 80mm sleeve-bearing model.

Socket 775 Installation

The Ninja Mini relies upon OEM style pushpins for mounting. It was very easy to install. Because of its relatively lightweight, I was pleased with the sturdiness the mount provided.

As you can see, the Ninja Mini cleared all of the VRM components and the MOSFET heatsink without issue.

The real problem occurs when the fan is installed, unfortunately. Although the Ninja Mini is only 115mm tall, it is even wider than the Mugen, making RAM clearance an issue with our P5K-E. The RAM spacing on this mainboard is actually quite good, so I imagine other boards may have even more trouble. The fan can be installed on any of the four sides, but the orientation pictured is the most common, which usually provides the best results. It would have been best if Scythe trimmed down fin material to ensure adequate fan clearance.

One the other side, the northbridge heatsink is cleared without issue until the fan is installed. The clip rests on the heatsink. Thankfully, it does not interfere with the mount. A board with a higher profile northbridge heatsink would undoubtedly have an issue here.

Socket AM2 Installation

Installing the Ninja Mini on the DFI NF570-M2/G was not difficult. It mounts to the OEM retention module using metal clips. Because of the Ninja Mini’s huge footprint, it is much easier to install with the mainboard outside of the case.

RAM clearance was not an issue thanks to the height of the fins. I was worried about this as the ram is not far from the socket area on this board. Thankfully, we didn’t want to mount the fan on that side or it would have been a big problem.

Once the fan was mounted, the 8-pin CPU power connector was obstructed slightly.

Again, the monstrous width of the Ninja Mini makes it a very tight fit. Thankfully, we didn’t hit any brick walls, though it was close.

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Comments

16 Dec 2007 ~ 11:22pm shwaip hmm...the orders of the heatsinks on the graphs change...it's a little confusing. It would be easier to compare if the order was always the same, IMO.
16 Dec 2007 ~ 11:33pm Leonardo Thanks for well-done review. Information I can use. It was easy to read and digest.
17 Dec 2007 ~ 3:51am TheLostSwede Excellent review and ver well written Mike. I actually like the way you had the graphs written. The best one on top.
17 Dec 2007 ~ 6:04am Thelemech This article has perfect timing(in my world ), as it will help me to build my next machine. Great work Mike D and cheers for the editing Thrax!
17 Dec 2007 ~ 10:21am QCH Holy cow... that's one massive roundup. Very good job and I was amazed at the variety of the heatsink designs.

Also... where DID you get that fancy AMD heatsink.
17 Dec 2007 ~ 6:20pm lemonlime Thanks for the kind words all. It was a lot of work but I was pleased with the end result. I've already got two more heatsinks on the way that will be running through the same methodology.

QCH2002 wrote:

Also... where DID you get that fancy AMD heatsink.

Thanks again, Q!

Keebler wrote:

Also, big ups to brudda' Thrax for helping out with some serious editing business to get it marked up for the new CMS.

Thrax: Thanks very much for [strike]fixing my terrible grammar[/strike] tagging everything! really appreciate it.
17 Dec 2007 ~ 6:24pm lemonlime Also, didn't bother including this in the review but for anyone interested:

Ambient readings for all of the tests:
17 Dec 2007 ~ 7:18pm Leonardo Deviation from the mean ambient temperature did not exceed 0.5C. That's very good. I have nowhere in my house where I could accomplish that. I suppose I could in the garage on a sub-zero night if I were to open the garage doors and leave them open. But, I'd have to just leave my hands in my parka's pockets and just look at the computer parts, not actually doing anything with them.
18 Dec 2007 ~ 1:03am Garg That was one incredibly thorough and informative review, LL!

It was especially nice for me, since I stay comfortably behind the curve on hardware, and the SLK-900 was the last heatsink I used (before switching to equally antiquated water cooling systems, that is ).

Kudos! Great photography in tight places, too.
20 Dec 2007 ~ 1:56pm Snarkasm I've been meaning to ask: is the Mugen essentially just a rebrand of the Scythe Infinity, or is there some difference I'm not seeing? That's exactly what my Infinity looks like.
20 Dec 2007 ~ 4:17pm BuddyJ Same heatsink, different fans.
20 Dec 2007 ~ 7:10pm Snarkasm Thank you, sir. I replaced the fan anyway with a pair of higher-CFM ones. Great sink all the same.
20 Dec 2007 ~ 8:04pm Nightwolf Very helpful review!
23 Dec 2007 ~ 12:34am muddocktor Nice review, Mike. Too bad you didn't have an U-120 eXtreme and a regular U-120 to test too though as both of those are stellar performers, if you get them with a decent base. As for the Tuniq, you called it exactly right about the AM2 mount being an afterthought. Tuniq developed the TT120 before AM2 was on the market and the original versions (including mine) didn't have any way to mount to AM2 included at all. They cobbled together the AM2 mount some time after AM2 came to market. That's why the mounting for LGA775 and socket 754/939/940 is soooooo much better. BTW, try that TT120 out on a socket 939 Opty or X2 system and watch how well it works.
29 Dec 2007 ~ 8:39pm Ultra-Nexus Great article, specially the simple, but effective way of testing base flatness!
Thank you!
29 Dec 2007 ~ 9:53pm Leonardo Oh yes, I want to reiterate what Ultra stated about flatness testing. I used that test a week ago when I decided to lap CPUs and heatsinks. It saved me time, indicating which were not flat and which did not need servicing. As it turns out, the only truly flat heatsink base among my Q6600 rigs was the Zalman 9700 NT. BTW, the Zalman's base is nickel coated.