Scythe Kamakiri:
Sample supplier: Bacata

Scythe has been very busy this last year, they have produced a wide range of high performance heatsinks, their latest we have here today, the Kamakiri (which stands for "Scythe Sword/Slash") features 6 heat pipes joined at middle and with an unique design aspect as you will see from the product pictures below. This unit fits on ALL recent CPU sockets out there, quite impressive and definitely a plus.

Can be installed on AMD Socket 462/754/939/940 and Intel Socket 370/478/775

Heatsink specifications:
- Length: 72mm
- Width: 99.5mm
- Height: 110mm
- Material: Copper base / Aluminum fins
- Weight: 665gr (with fan)

Included Fan: 80mm rated 1300-4600rpm @ 15-46dBA; own dBA reading at ~35cm: 33-62.2dBA

Rheobus included which mounts in a spare PCI slot

Supports Fan: 80mm

Product pictures

The Kamakiri features 6 heat pipes in a U form which are joined at the base; a series of aluminum waved fins are responsible for heat dissipation. In the middle of the heatsink you will find an 80mm fan which pulls in cool air and blows hot air out. The fan can be removed by removing the plastic cage. At the bottom of the fan Scythe glued a small piece of foam to reduce fan vibration.



Although the heatsink consist almost entirely of aluminum, they decided to screw a nickel plated copper plate in the bottom to improve heat transfer, the finishing is excellent.



Installation

Installation on Socket A requires the use of a separate bracket which is placed over the socket and hooks over the 3 clips at each side. Motherboard removal is not needed and you only need a Philips screwdriver and a bit of patience. The Kamakiri unit is placed in the center of the bracket and screws at each side lift up until everything is fitted tight. I did notice a small anomaly where the bracket is pushing up the socket lever but this did not pose any problems during further usage.



Performance versus Zalman CNPS7000Cu

Let’s see how it performs:



Using the default fan the High and Low settings cause a temperature fluctuation of 14°C, considering the fact that the dBA rating at "Low" setting is lower than ambient it is quite striking to still see the temperature below alarming values.

Using the Delta fan the noise is reduced quite a bit when compared to the default fan @ High, however the performance is trailing with the even quieter Zalman unit.