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Page 1
<B>Intro</B>:
In the past, I have reviewed two heatsinks from <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a>. The company produces excellent cooling products that are efficient, yet quiet. The original Kamakaze was nice, but the Samurai out cooled its lower brother. Step in the Kamakaze 2 and it does provide better cooling. Let's move forward.
<B>Packaging</B>:
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</center>
Scythe packaging is usually dark and black with red tones. Branding is big for marketing. On to the meat of the review...
<B>Parts</B>:
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</center>
Here we see the parts all laid out. Included are the P4 and Athlon brackets, the heatsink and fan, a set of screws, and the manual. This heatsink can mount on pretty much anything you can buy at the moment, except the newest LGA775 type chips from Intel. The heatsink comes preinstalled with the Athlon bracket attached, I removed it to put the P4 bracket on. Unlike the original Kamakaze, there isn't a piece that falls off when you remove the bracket.
Disaster strikes. The screws for the P4 bracket did not fit in the screw holes! It turns out it was a manufacturing defect with the bracket, the screws were the correct size. Scythe sent another heatsink and that was fine. Something to think about when you buy a product from a company, do they stand by it?
<B>More on the Heatsink</B>:
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</center>
The Kamakaze line doesn't provide fins for the heat dissipation, instead opting for the oval shaped pins. There are 490 pins total, spread over the surface of the heatsink. They alternate in their positioning, the rows do not line up, this should provide for better surface area on the heatsink, allowing for more pins to be placed. Each pin is 2x1.5mm in an oval shape.
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There are no welding points on the corners of the fan shroud. The look of the heatsink is very important to some people (not me, I personally don't care as long as it works). Instead of welds, there are two tiny punches made in each corner. This does not take away from the look.
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</center>
One thing that is good about having aluminum fins is that aluminum dissipates heat faster that copper does (although copper is a better conductor leading to better heat absorption). This is why the base of the heatsink is a copper core and the remaining parts are aluminum. The fan controller is still manual speed, I would love to see a temperature controlled fan in future models, I usually just leave the thing on fast or near fast.
<center>
</center>
The base of the heatsink is indeed copper. It is pretty well lapped, but you should use some alcohol or lighter fluid to clean the surface. Damn finger prints. Remember that the more impurities are on the surface, the worse the cooling will be.
Let's move on to the testing.
<B>Intro</B>:
In the past, I have reviewed two heatsinks from <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a>. The company produces excellent cooling products that are efficient, yet quiet. The original Kamakaze was nice, but the Samurai out cooled its lower brother. Step in the Kamakaze 2 and it does provide better cooling. Let's move forward.
<B>Packaging</B>:
<center>
</center>Scythe packaging is usually dark and black with red tones. Branding is big for marketing. On to the meat of the review...
<B>Parts</B>:
<center>
</center>Here we see the parts all laid out. Included are the P4 and Athlon brackets, the heatsink and fan, a set of screws, and the manual. This heatsink can mount on pretty much anything you can buy at the moment, except the newest LGA775 type chips from Intel. The heatsink comes preinstalled with the Athlon bracket attached, I removed it to put the P4 bracket on. Unlike the original Kamakaze, there isn't a piece that falls off when you remove the bracket.
Disaster strikes. The screws for the P4 bracket did not fit in the screw holes! It turns out it was a manufacturing defect with the bracket, the screws were the correct size. Scythe sent another heatsink and that was fine. Something to think about when you buy a product from a company, do they stand by it?
<B>More on the Heatsink</B>:
<center>
</center>The Kamakaze line doesn't provide fins for the heat dissipation, instead opting for the oval shaped pins. There are 490 pins total, spread over the surface of the heatsink. They alternate in their positioning, the rows do not line up, this should provide for better surface area on the heatsink, allowing for more pins to be placed. Each pin is 2x1.5mm in an oval shape.
<center>
</center>There are no welding points on the corners of the fan shroud. The look of the heatsink is very important to some people (not me, I personally don't care as long as it works). Instead of welds, there are two tiny punches made in each corner. This does not take away from the look.
<center>
</center>One thing that is good about having aluminum fins is that aluminum dissipates heat faster that copper does (although copper is a better conductor leading to better heat absorption). This is why the base of the heatsink is a copper core and the remaining parts are aluminum. The fan controller is still manual speed, I would love to see a temperature controlled fan in future models, I usually just leave the thing on fast or near fast.
<center>
</center>The base of the heatsink is indeed copper. It is pretty well lapped, but you should use some alcohol or lighter fluid to clean the surface. Damn finger prints. Remember that the more impurities are on the surface, the worse the cooling will be.
Let's move on to the testing.
Page 2
<B>Testing</B>:
Like previous heatsinks, 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 previous two heatsinks if you want, but I didn't see fit to compare the two since they are from the same company. If you have a new setup, you'll want to purchase this heatsink out of the rest of them.
As before, I did do some messing with the screws and the fan orientation. In this setup, the stock configuration worked fine, even with the case all put together. The heatsink seemed to work ideally with the stock configuration, so the only part that needs to be fine tuned is the pressure on the CPU (by tightening the screws).
Let's see about the idle numbers. This is at the default 2400MHz. Ambient was 25 - 26 C
Intel Stock: 31.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Fast: 27.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Slow: 33 C
And at load...
Intel Stock: 42 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Fast: 33.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Slow: 47.5 C
Now for 2800MHz (233MHz system bus) at idle.
Intel Stock: 32 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Fast: 29 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Slow: 36.5 C
And loaded...
Intel Stock: 45 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Fast: 37.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Slow: 52.5 C
I think the numbers speak for themselves. This is a great heatsink all around. You'll want to find a sweet spot for the fan speed, at the maximum speed, I could just about hear it over my case fans.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
<a href="http://ase.dealtime.com/dt-app/SE/KW-scythe+kamakaze+2/FD-0/linkin_id-3002062/NS-1/GS.html">At a very reasonable price of $28, you can purchase this heatsink</a>. If you don't already have a heatsink, or are looking at building a new setup, this is the Scythe heatsink that I recommend above all others.
<center><img src="http://images.aselabs.com/awards/recommended.jpg" alt="Recommended"></center>
I'd like to that Sawa from <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a> for sending the heatsink for review.
<B>Testing</B>:
Like previous heatsinks, 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 previous two heatsinks if you want, but I didn't see fit to compare the two since they are from the same company. If you have a new setup, you'll want to purchase this heatsink out of the rest of them.
As before, I did do some messing with the screws and the fan orientation. In this setup, the stock configuration worked fine, even with the case all put together. The heatsink seemed to work ideally with the stock configuration, so the only part that needs to be fine tuned is the pressure on the CPU (by tightening the screws).
Let's see about the idle numbers. This is at the default 2400MHz. Ambient was 25 - 26 C
Intel Stock: 31.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Fast: 27.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Slow: 33 C
And at load...
Intel Stock: 42 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Fast: 33.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Slow: 47.5 C
Now for 2800MHz (233MHz system bus) at idle.
Intel Stock: 32 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Fast: 29 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Slow: 36.5 C
And loaded...
Intel Stock: 45 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Fast: 37.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze 2 Slow: 52.5 C
I think the numbers speak for themselves. This is a great heatsink all around. You'll want to find a sweet spot for the fan speed, at the maximum speed, I could just about hear it over my case fans.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
<a href="http://ase.dealtime.com/dt-app/SE/KW-scythe+kamakaze+2/FD-0/linkin_id-3002062/NS-1/GS.html">At a very reasonable price of $28, you can purchase this heatsink</a>. If you don't already have a heatsink, or are looking at building a new setup, this is the Scythe heatsink that I recommend above all others.
<center><img src="http://images.aselabs.com/awards/recommended.jpg" alt="Recommended"></center>
I'd like to that Sawa from <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com/">Scythe</a> for sending the heatsink for review.