Scythe Ninja Copper CPU Cooler Review

Installation


The Scythe engineers really took the time to make installing the Ninja as user friendly and as painless as possible especially when one considers the massive size of this cooler. As with other heavyweight coolers, the Copper Ninja requires a backplate to be installed to help support its weight. This does mean that you have to remove the motherboard from your case and this is actually the most time consuming part of the installation process.

When one has the motherboard removed, you simply remove the paper covering from the backplate, insert the four screws into it and line up where the backplate should go. Then with a simple push you set the backplate into position, and since one side is completely covered in glue it stays in position and you do not need to waste time holding it there. This little tweak on the standard procedure is what makes this installation so enjoyable. Instead of having to worry about keeping the backplate lined up, it stays where you stick it, allowing you to concentrate on screwing in the two main retaining brackets. This of course is very easy and one simply has to screw through both the backplate and motherboard and into the threaded retaining holes in the retaining brackets.


When this stage is completed all one has left to do is apply a thin layer of TIM to the top of the CPU then clip in one side of the Copper Ninja by angling it into place. At this point you can let the Copper Ninja rest in place as two of its four retaining clips should be secured. Then by slightly bending the retaining arm on the opposite side with your thumb you can easily clip the third one in and then do the same thing for the final clip. The best procedure is to use your left hand’s thumb to bend the arm furthest away from you and use your right hand to fasten the clip. For the fourth one it is much easier if you rotate the motherboard 180 degrees so that the last clip is now furthest away from you and makes repeating the step much easier.


The final stage of installation involves the mounting of the included fan to the Copper Ninja. It was really disappointing that Scythe only included enough fans clips for mounting one fan since this unit can easily accommodate a second fan. The mounting of the fan is accomplished via the thin wire brackets that run the length of each side of the heatsink in their own little slot. Due to the fact that both the wire and slots are very small it can be very frustrating getting the second wire completely into its slot. Even worse was the fact that these thin wire clips are so thin that they have a tendency to bend all out of shape if you even look at them wrong, making a difficult situation that much worse. Quite honestly, this lack of quality really does stand out especially since this model is Scythe's Anniversary Edition. It is too bad Scythe did not go with a thicker, stiffer (i.e. more expensive) wire for their mounting system as it does mar an otherwise impressive design execution.


As mentioned before the mounting orientation of this cooler is not important since all 4 sides of the base have heatpipes coming from it and all 4 sides of the fin assembly have been designed to accept fan mounting. This does make mounting considerations both easier and more difficult than a more “normal” tower design. It is easier in that as long as the two mounting brackets that hold the cpu cooler to the motherboard can be installed you can have the fans blowing in any direction that you want…assuming the fan does not block or touch a surrounding part.


Which leads us to the biggest negative of this design: its size. The very fact that this unit is so big is usually the limiting factor when it comes to fan mounting orientation options. This cooler (unlike most towers which are wide but narrow) is tall, wide and deep; it has a tendency to overhang surrounding parts like motherboard heatsinks, RAM slots and nearly even the top edge of the motherboard. Unfortunately this width is made even worse when you add on another 25mm depth for the fan. In most cases, if you have the fan in a standard mounting direction of blowing from the front of the case to the back it may block your first set of RAM slots. Luckily Scythe took this into consideration and made the fin assembly high enough so as to not block or touch surrounding parts of most motherboard and you can mount the fan up even higher to get necessary clearance for most normal ram and heatsinks. However if you use higher than normal RAM like Corsair Dominator or OCZ Reaper sticks you may be limited to only two ram slots.


Overall it is a fairly intensive installation process that can be considered easy, depending on your motherboard and RAM choice. Total installation time, including removal of old heatsink TIM was about 8 minutes.