The Scythe Ninja CPU Cooler is one of the most highly praised and sought after CPU coolers on the market today, some would say it’s the best when it comes to cooling and even overclocking. Scythe has introduced a little brother of the Ninja aptly named the Ninja Mini, the basic design is essentially the same except for the fact that it looks like someone either cut it in half or maybe squashed it down to half the size. The Ninja Mini is more aimed at the HTPC market with its smaller size, but it can be used with any system where a smaller sized cooler is needed, or any system at all actually. Can it live up to the hype of its’ big brother? I put it through some tests to find out, so continue on to see what I found out about this little guy…
Scythe Ninja Mini Heatpipe CPU Cooler
Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos
Sponsor: Scythe
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Scythe "NINJA MINI" 6Heat Pipes CPU Cooler
Price:$49.00
Ideal for HTPC, Living-Room PC Systems! Ready to accommodate either 80mm or 92mm fan for various user needs!
Specs:
Model Name: Ninja Mini CPU Cooler
Model Name: SCMNJ-1000
Manufacturer: Scythe Co., Ltd. Japan
Heatsink:
Dimensions: 110 x 110 x 115 mm
Weight: 580g
Material: x6 Heat Pipes
Aluminum
Copper
Fan:
Dimensions: 80 x 80 x 25 mm
Noise Level:24.4 dBA
Air Flow: 32.2 CFM
Speed: 2,300 rpm (10%)
Bearing Type:Sleeve Bearing
Attachment:
x4 Screws
x1 LGA 775 Clip
x1 Socket 478 Clip
x1 AMD (Socket AM2, 940, 939 and 754) Clip
x2 92 mm fan attachment Clips
x2 80 mm fan attachment Clips
x1 80 mm cooling fan
x1 Thermal Paste
User’s Manual
Compatibility:
Intel LGA775 (SocketT) Processor
Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor 3200 Series
Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 3000 Sequence
Intel Core2 Extreme processor
Intel Core2 Quad processor
Intel Core2 Duo processor
Intel Core Duo Processor
Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition
Intel Pentium D Processor
Intel Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel Pentium 4 Processor supporting Hyper-threading Technology
Intel Celeron D Processor
Intel Socket478 Processor
Intel Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel Pentium 4 Processor supporting Hyper-threading Technology
Intel Pentium 4 Processor
Intel Celeron D Processor
Intel Celeron Processor
AMD SocketAM2 Processor
AMD Athlon 64 Processor
AMD Athlon 64 FX Processor
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor
AMD Socket940 Processor
Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processor
AMD Opteron Processor
AMD Socket939 Processor
AMD Athlon 64 Processor
AMD Athlon 64 FX Processor
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor
AMD Socket754 Processor
AMD Athlon 64 Processor
AMD Sempron Processor
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Features:
Ready for 80mm or 92mm Fan Mounting
The default silent fan (80 x 80 x 25 mm) can be easily exchanged to another 92mm sized fan with 25mm of thickness for high performance user (92mm Fan Clips are included).
Improved Mounting Systems
Never stop the improvement of mounting systems, the Ninja Mini CPU Cooler has the improved mounting mechanism with easier than ever mounting for all sockets!
Universal Socket Compatibility with AM2
Ninja Mini CPU Cooler is compatible for socket 478/754/939/940/AM2 & LGA775. All in one solution for your PC system
A Better Look at Things
:
The first thing we look at its the packaging, and the box for the Scythe Ninja Mini is done in the usual Japanese stylings of other Scythe products. There are numerous pictures on the box of the installation and features along with of course the list of specs and features that we saw on the previous page.
Unpacking everything we find all sorts of parts for the various installation options including two sets of fan mounts for either the 80mm fan that is included or the optional use of a 92mm fan if you wish.
The Scythe Mini Ninja looks essentially like its larger brother but just short and it seems fatter, but I don’t think it is, it’s more of an optical delusion.
Looking at it from the top it looks like there are a lot more than six heatpipes, but there are only six. Each side of the Ninja Mini has fan clips mounts so the fan can be installed on any side you wish or for maximum compatibility with all types of systems, and of course you could add another fan as well to increase cooling performance.
On the bottom we can see all the heatpipes converging, and we can see the additional heatsink that is mounted on top of the heatpipes. The heatpipes are sandwiched between the base and the secondary heatsink for maximum cooling efficiency. When shipped the base has a protective plastic cover to insure it gets to you in good condition and no damage occurs to the surface.
Getting a closer look in between the find we can see how each fin is attached to the heatpipes. If we count the smaller bottom fin we have a total of 18 cooling fins on the Ninja Mini. The fins themselves are fairly thin and semi-flexible, the ends aren’t that sharp so you shouldn’t get cut on them.
The base is very flat with a mirror quality to it, you can see in the first picture below where I focused on the ceiling tiles in the reflection.
Overall the Scythe Ninja Mini is very well made, as are all Scythe products, and it is very lightweight actually.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Installation is very easy, the only thing you’ll need is a philips screwdriver to attach your choice of base to the Ninja Mini, depending on what platform you’ll be installing it on.
There are four holes located at each corner of the base, and each mounting bracket lines up with these with a cutout for the base. Put the screws in and you’re basically done. I’m installing it on my LGA775 Gigabyte motherboard with Intel P4955x CPU, so I used the LGA775 bracket.
Of course you’ll need to install the fan as well, this is done using the included mounting clips, it’s fairly easy to do as long as you pay attention to the instructions and install the clips the correct way.
After the fan is installed you can apply your thermal compound and attach it to your motherboard/CPU.
The ram I’m using with this system is OCZ Reaper PC2-8500 and it has large heatpipes that come out of the top, due to the fan I couldn’t install the Ninja Mini the way I wanted to which would be to have the fan pulling air across the ram and through the cooler. Even if I moved the ram to another slot the Ninja Mini would still not fit in my system the way I wanted it to. The Mini Ninja also comes very close to not fitting with the Gigabyte Northbridge cooler as well, it comes very close and leaves little room between the fan and heatsink.
The actual installation to the motherboard was a bit tricky as the push-clips are located under the fins, it was a bit difficult to get to the clips on the side where my ram is, but with patience I got it locked down.
For testing I like to compare any after market heatsinks to the stock HSF as most people will be replacing the stock setup with an after market HSF like the Ninja Mini.
Please note for testing I did not use the included thermal compound that came with the Scythe Mini Ninja, I used Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal compound on both the Intel Stock Heatsink and the Ninja Mini to insure the results were equally comparable.
I had both heatsinks installed for one week on my secondary system which consists of:
Gigabyte GA-G33m-DS2R/S2 motherboard
Intel P4 944X CPU
2 gigs OCZ Reaper PC2-8500 ram
Hard drive
DVD/RW
installed in an Antec Nine Hundred Case with Antec Quattro 850Watt PSU
The system ran everyday and got quite a bit of a workout actually as I am in process of reviewing the Gigabyte motherboard so numerous benchmarks and tests were being run all the time.
To get my idle temps I powered the system on and let it sit for 30 minutes doing nothing but running Windows processes that start at boot. To get Load temperature I ran Orthos Stress Prime for the same amount of time, I did this everyday for a week and averaged out the temperatures I got for the results you see below. The ambient room temperature during all testing was approximately 24C.
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As you can plainly see the Scythe Mini Ninja just blows away the Intel Stock cooler easily. The load temp for the Ninja is the same as the idle temp for the Intel Stock Cooler, very nice performance indeed.
The Scythe fan is also very quiet, I couldn’t hear it at all over the fans installed in the Antec Nine Hundred, so it should work great with an HTPC setup where silence is wanted.
Summary:
The Scythe Ninja Mini is anything but small when it comes to performance, its comparable to it’s larger counterpart in cooling efficiency and overall performance, design and silence.
From the review you can see I did have a small problem with the configuration of my motherboard and installing the Ninja Mini, so this needs to be taken into account when thinking about this cooler for your own use. Of course the ram I used was a bit larger than standard ram would be, but even so with smaller ram it would have to have been moved the next slot anyway for the Ninja Mini to fit.
DragonSteelMods gives the Scythe Ninja Mini a 4.5 out of 5 score and our Recommend Award as well.
Pros:
-Silent
-Excellent performance
-Fairly easy installation
-Looks cool
-Very well made and designed
-Lots of extra parts included
-Cross-platform compatibility
Cons:
-Wide/fat might not fit all system configurations
-Tight installation with the clips under the fins
I would like to thank Scythe for the chance to review the Scythe Ninja Mini and for their continued support of DSM.
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