Scythe Ninja --> Scythe Ninja Copper

[vinister]

I went from a Ninja rev. B to a Ninja Copper, took some before and after #'s, thought I would share. I made no changes other than the cooler. Same clock, same Vcore, same thermal paste, same fan.

First some pics, then performance graphs. The graphs say it all, the ninja copper knocked 6 degrees off my load temps. Idle temps are the same, 36 degrees.

Some things to note: I had to modify my motherboard's cooling to get the original Ninja to fit, but the copper would have fit just fine with no modifications. The heatpipes do not protrude sideways as much. The big difference is how the heatpipes spread into the fins. Notice on the copper how they fan out to distribute heat evenly, whereas on the Rev.B they are grouped together in groups of 3.

The nickel-plated copper base on the ninja copper is obviously much better than the Rev.B. The Rev.B used to be even worse than that before I polished it.

[low351]

Woah, Mirror finish, at first I thought, "Why did he put two stickers on top of the HS base?". Then I realized it was the reflection.

Nice Macro shots btw, it's nice to get such a close look.

[Mr. Cipher]

Nice to know that it does in fact do a better job. Thanks for the pics and the report!

Love the black PCB by the way. I have to admit I am not a fan of my light blue one.

[vinister]

I like copppeeeeerrrrrr

[CMetaphor]

Can't say im very surprised by this result, beening using pure copper blocks as often as i can ever since i started building pcs. Its a simple fact that copper is better at getting rid of heat than aluminium. I used to use the TT tower 112 (with 2x 92mm fans) as my primary cooler until i got my TRUE. Copper is the best baby!

[vinister]

Ya its just good to see that there are actual performance increases and it doesnt just look better. Boy does it ever look better, though!

What I don't get, is that if copper is so good, why doesnt thermalright start using it on their cpu coolers? If they have the best cooler right now, and its aluminum, would it not be even better out of copper? Or at the least, it would not have to be as big?

Also I learned in physics that a matte finish will always disperse heat better than an equivalent polished finish. So why are all our heatsink fins polished??

[CMetaphor]

Originally Posted by vinister

What I don't get, is that if copper is so good, why doesnt thermalright start using it on their cpu coolers? If they have the best cooler right now, and its aluminum, would it not be even better out of copper? Or at the least, it would not have to be as big?

#1 - copper is much heavier than aluminum. So a pure copper version of a TRUE (thermalright ultra 120 extreme) would weigh easily in excess of 1kg (the aluminum version already weighs close to that much). So it would simply be too heavy for the motherboard to support it and/or the processor to bear the weight without cracking.

#2 - Copper is also more expensive to get/work with (from what im told) so a huge copper heatsink would probably be much more expensive and then wouldnt sell as well.

[vinister]

It is much more expensive for sure, more than double what it was just a few years ago. But honestly now, if you could buy an all-copper true that better'd the original by this much margin, for double the price, you probably would! The thermalrite heatsinks have way more fins than the ninja's, and I have no doubt that's why they work so much better. But they are heavier, bigger, and fug man they just aren't copper! I just love the look of nice pure copper heatsinks. I have 2 thermalrite V2 100% copper GPU heatsinks, and I just love them. I am certain I could turn off all my fans and bench and still be stable. hmmm, maybe should try that!

[crazyazn]

Nice results! I'm using a Ninja myself! How does the Ninja Copper stack up against the TRUE?

Does lapping the base of the Ninja Rev.B help a lot? Cuz I'm getting like 70 degrees on load right now...

[Prof. Dr. Silver]

Originally Posted by low351

Nice Macro shots btw, it's nice to get such a close look.

Like Low351 said....amazing pics....what camera did you use?