Scythe Kamakaze :

This heatsink has a remarkable resemblance to the older Alpha PAL8045, sporting 500 pins which are mounted into a copper base to provide with enough cooling power. The base of the heatsink is sufficiently smooth, although lapping it will improve the performance.

This heatsink comes with an adjustable 80mm fan (16dBA @ 1300rpm to 37dBA @ 3400rpm) and installation brackets for both Socket A as Socket 478 systems.






Smooth base of the heatsink


A PCI bracket with rheobus for changing the speed of the fan without having to open your case




Installation :

The concept of the installation is pretty straightforward; you push the 2 clips over the socket, and then turn the 2 screws at each side completely down so that the metal clip bends to provides enough pressure on the CPU's die. The whole process takes less then 5 minutes.



But, when trying to remove this heatsink, the clip was stuck on my Abit KR7A between the socket and the capacitors, even trying to get it off with a small screwdriver and a lot of patience did no good in the end, as this is how my motherboard looked after the Kamakaze was removed:



I understand that this issue will not reproduce itself on all motherboards out there, but those of you who have the same socket/capacitor layout on their motherboard as the Abit KR7A must take caution when removing this heatsink.



The difference with the Swiftech is the fact that the clip on the Scythe is bend inwards because of the big copper base, when trying to move the heatsink away from the Socket to release the clip, the base touches the capacitors and can't move enough for the clip to come loose. Using a small screwdriver to try and assist me on pushing the clip away from the socket did not help unfortunately.



But as you will see on the next page, TerAngreal tested this cooler on an Abit NF7 and didn't encounter the issue I had, so check your motherboard's socket layout before you consider this heatsink as a possible next upgrade.