Silent, but Deadly?

For testing the Scythe Ninja Copper, we followed our recently outlined new heatsink testing methodology to the letter, using our now default testing methodology and setup.

This includes running our full gamut of tests three times, including fully re-fitting the heatsink to ensure we eliminated any potentially erroneous results caused by variables in the mounting process. These could include differences in the tension of the mounting bracket, consistency and amount of thermal paste, or improper mounting.

We used the results from the three separate runs and created average temperatures - that's exactly what you're seeing here in our results tables.

Results

Thermally, the Scythe Ninja Copper is pretty disappointing, and even with its low RPM fan fitted, it sits at the bottom of our heatsink performance chart. Remember, this result is an average, generated from three separate fittings to our testing setup, so can be considered fairly accurate under the extreme circumstances of our 130W TDP processor. A DeltaT value of 31°C under load is certainly a disappointment, considering the high weight and cost of the Ninja Copper.

I was also interested to see if the cooler could fulfil its claims of fanless operation, and despite the warranty warnings on the box, decided to run the risk of a thermal test without the low noise cooling fan fitted.


The Ninja Copper was indeed capable of ambient cooling even with our worst case scenario processor, albeit with two 120mm intakes, one 120mm and one 135mm exhaust. The heatsink’s thermal performance predictably suffered, recording a DeltaT value of 42°C, but it was able to handle the heat without crashing under heavy load and that's fairly impressive in its own right.

However, while the Ninja Copper was able to fanless cool our processor within its safe temperature limits, there could be problems in higher ambient temperatures as the processor starts to near its thermal envelope. We also noticed when removing the heatsink after the ambient run that the motherboard’s PWM and chipset coolers were very hot to the touch, much more so than normal. This is certainly of concern, as if either were to overheat; system stability would suffer enormously, not to mention shorten the lifespan of the motherboard.

Unsurprisingly, where the Scythe Ninja really excels is its noise level, where it was comfortably quieter than other heatsinks tested in our new setup. To say that the ultra low RPM fan is whisper quiet would be an understatement; it was utterly inaudible over the test case’s cooling fans, and easily quieter than any other 120mm fan I’ve ever used, although this has to be considered alongside its very low RPM value.