Comparison Heatsink : Scythe NinjaWe re-tested the Scythe Ninja on the new S775 platform with the GlobalWin NCB to have a points of reference compared to our Athlon 64 results. The Ninja installation requires you to place a custom bracket at each side of the LGA775 socket, then you snap the Ninja in place.
The Scythe Ninja will be serious competitor as it has no less than 6 heat pipes and massive amounts of dissipation surface. Able to fit multiple 120mm fans this heatsink has been popular with many enthusiasts for a good reason.
Where possible we tested the fans at high and low speeds using a Zalman Fanmate 2. The Fanmate at high settings gives ~11v (so we’re running the fans undervolted!) and at lowest setting only ~4v!
A word about the noise readings, we did them at a
very close distance of ~5cm at the side of the case, with the case panel
removed. The reason for this is the rather high ambient noise in the test room. At larger distances with the side panel closed, we couldn’t pick up most of the coolers at low fan speed settings. In the charts below you can say that
anything below 45dBA is whisper quiet!S775 Results – Sorted by CPU temperatureNot taking into account the noise readings, we can see the Zalman CNPS9700LED in the lead closely followed by the Titan Amanda and Coolermaster Hyper TX.
The first quiet heatsink is again the Zalman which makes an impressive showing; the TTIC NPH Big is able to perform on par/slightly better than the Ninja, quite an accomplishment. Its stock fan is rather noisy at high speed, but becomes very quiet at low speeds.
The Intel Stock cooling has a temperature regulated fan, trying to keep the CPU temperature below 60°C at all times, when we left the machine running for several HOURS at full load the fan was spinning close to 4300rpm and at 66.8dBA it’s ear deafening. If we only loaded the system for half an hour the fan would reach ~2500rpm this gave a more acceptable 50dBA noise level, on par with some of the other heatsinks tested.
The Coolermaster Eclipse disappointed at high speed but was able to claim a super low noise level at lower speed, surprisingly the temperature only climbed by ~3°C, while the noise drop was close to 20dBA! The Mars had trouble keeping up at low speed but the system did not crash, no temperature throttling was happening either, at this speed the HSF was inaudible.
S775 Results – Sorted by dBA readingsIf you don’t care much if your CPU runs 10°C hotter/colder but just want to have peace and quiet when you are working/gaming/… on your PC this ranking might be of more interest to you.
We’re happy too see almost all heatsinks tested to allow for silent computing without the danger of the CPU overheating. The Titan Amanda TEC lacks manual fan control and at ~1600rpm the two 92mm fans remain audible but not overly loud.
Conclusive ThoughtsSince December last year we’ve tested close to 50 new heatsinks on AMD and Intel platforms; we have noticed a positive trend developing, where silent computing is being put more into the spotlight.
With both AMD and Intel striving to produce cooler CPUs, these monster heatsinks will have an easy time keeping them cool, even at low fan speeds.
We hope you found this roundup useful. Until the next sitting!
We thank all companies for their continued support and help in providing us with test samples for these group tests.