Scythe Ninja Copper

Scythe Ninja Copper

Manufacturer: Scythe
UK Price (as reviewed): £43.35 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $58.95 (ex. Tax)

Weight (with fan): 1130g
Size (with fan): 110mm(W) x 120mm(D) x 150mm (H)
Fan Size: 120mm
Fan Speed: 800rpm
Noise Level: 10.70 dBA
Bearing type: Sleeve bearing
Warranty: Two years

Introduction

When you need to use your chin to fit a CPU cooler, something has gone very wrong indeed. I don’t really like starting on such a negative point when reviewing a product, but in the case of the Scythe Ninja Copper, it’s sadly true. We'll no doubt talk more about the chin fitting difficulty in a few pages, but let’s start out by looking at its background.

Scythe is a company well known for making the coolers other manufacturers couldn’t or shouldn’t build. Typically using a brute force design ethic, by building coolers with more heat pipes and fins than the cooling solution for a nuclear power station, Scythe has made some classic coolers over the last few years, one of which was this heatsink’s predecessor; the original Ninja.

Scythe also produces (although is less well known for) very low noise PSUs, PC cases and cooling fans, and dabbles in fan controllers and other cooling accessories. One thing's for sure: it has a formidable reputation in the enthusiast community, especially when it comes to passive and low noise coolers, so let’s see if the Ninja Copper can live up to the Scythe name.

What’s in the Box?

The box is a fairly standard affair, and is fairly informative about the specifications of the cooler. However, we were surprised to see under the warranty information that when in fan-less operation, the Ninja Copper is designed only for low CPU load applications like Email and spreadsheets, and that that it is not designed for data encoding / decoding or the use of benchmark software. As the fan is included, we’ll be benchmarking the Ninja with it fitted, but this is a disappointment to see, especially as elsewhere on the box Scythe claims that the Ninja Copper “Supports Fanless Mode!” and that it’s “Designed to optimize the performance under fanless usage.”


Inside the box, the cooler is well packed, with cardboard supports for the base and top of the cooler to stop it bouncing around in the box. There's a separate box at the bottom, which contains the mounting brackets, and back plate, including fittings for S775, AM2 and S478 sockets, as well as a small packet of silver thermal interface material and the wire fan mounts.