Scythe Mine and Pentagram NXC-100Cu coolers
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Date: 25.04.2006
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Scythe Mine, Tt Mini Typhoon, and Pentagram NXC-100Cu
Today we are testing the most fresh and interesting coolers that have (or are about to) appeared on the retail shelves. They all reflect different approaches of manufacturers to creating cooling systems. For instance, Scythe keeps using the concept of a massive aluminum radiator (made up of a great number of thin fins) that runs through several heat pipes. ThermalTake, on the contrary, has presented the compact model Mini Typhoon with a copper radiator and again the same heat pipes. Only Pentagram (Poland) hasn't presented anything but just another close of Zalman (Korea).
Note that all the coolers offer a universal fastening system which allows fitting them on all the popular platforms. There is another fine point: in a couple of months AMD is announcing their new processor socket AM2 the cooler for which has a somehow modified scheme of fastening. So in choosing a cooler in spring 2006 we should keep the possibility of future upgrade to AM2.
Scythe Mine
The cooler is packed into a cardboard box with a transparent window through which the buyer can see the major trait of Mine: the fan is inside the radiator.
Inside it, apart from the cooler itself, we found a kit of fasteners for AMD and Intel motherboards, a power supply adapter, a pack of thermo paste, as well as brief setup guide.
Unlike the very effective radiator of Scythe Ninja, the Mine cooler sells with an already installed fan. At the same time, we note very quiet and noiseless operation of the fan. According to the data of the manufacturer, the noise level does not exceed 22 dBa at the rotational speed 1500 RPM. At the same time, the 100 mm nominal radiator provides air flow = 42.69 CFM.
It is important to note that engineers at Scythe provided the possibility of fan replacement. 100 mm fans are quite rare guests in the retail, so the user has a possibility of installing a fan of a different size (in particular, the following dimensions are supported: within 60 to 140 mm). The major limitation is the "thickness" of the fan, which should not exceed 25 mm. As a result, Scythe allows the buyer to choose either the performance-mode fan (noisy) or confine to a low-speed quiet fan.
To replace the fan, the user has to remove two screws in the upper part of the base, install a new fan and fasten the screws back in place. That's very simple!
As we have already noted, the fan is in the middle of the radiator (such a design resembles a sandwich), where air is sucked in through one half of the fins and is release through the other half. As a result, the efficiency of the cooler rises as compared to traditional coolers.
The quite a massive base is some sort of a "heat receiver".
From this base there come out 6 heat pipes which run through the radiator upwards.
Of note is the ideal processing quality of the base:
The radiator is of quite massive dimensions. It is 109 mm in length, 105 mm in width, and 150 mm in height. As a result, its installation may cause various issues with blocking of other system components (e.g., memory modules, a fan on the chipset or a video card). Despite the impressive size, the overall weight of the cooler is relatively small and amounts to 560 mm (with a nominal fan). Remember that the weight of a Scythe Ninja radiator alone is 665 g.
The fan can be installed on any of the 4 sides of the radiator, which allows the user to avoid conflicts.
It's just this radiator layout (shown on the photo) that allowed to improve the efficiency by 1.5 C (can't explain why so).
We are pleased to note that engineers at Scythe have re-worked the system of fastening the cooler to a motherboard. This has essentially improved the installation convenience as compared to the previous products of the company (e.g., Scythe Ninja). The only minor complaint was about the inconvenience of removal the cooler from an LGA775 motherboard. While doing that I burned my fingers by the chipset radiator and the radiator on the power supply module (I mean the ASUS P5WD2 Premium motherboard built on the i955X chipset). By the way, that point tells that the Mine cooler does not generate sufficient air flow to cool important components around the processor socket.
Pros:
- Excellent efficiency of the cooler;
- Compatibility to all the popular platforms.
Cons:
- Large overall dimensions;
- Insufficient blowing of the chipset and power supply module of the motherboard.
We will make final conclusions regarding the Scythe Mine cooler on the last page of the review where we examine the prices and efficiency.
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Content: |
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- Scythe Mine
- Pentagram NXC-100Cu
- Tt Mini Typhoon
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Cooling efficiency and conclusions
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MoBo:
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VGA Card:
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CPU & Memory:
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