Thermalright Ultra-120 vs Scythe Ninja

jmke · 9th August 2006, 09:19

Thermalright's Ultra-120 is designed to take on the biggest, coolest heatsinks on the market — and win. But, like most performance heatsinks, it has closely spaced fins that are designed to do well with lots of airflow. That doesn't always square well with SPCR's goals for quiet, low-airflow systems. We've put it head to head with the Scythe Ninja... and we have a new silent champ, not by KO but by a small margin of points.

jmke · 9th August 2006, 09:20

Too bad not tested inside a case, this might change the outcome, open test benches are all fine and dandy for easy install and trying to create a reference with the previous results, but they are not really representative of performance of these heatsinks when installed inside a case, here the airflow is completely different and the performance results for certain types of HSF will be better than others, something you don't notice when testing on an open testbed

18th August 2006, 08:42

Well, if they had then it would only have given the Ninja a hands down win. Especially after they make mention of this here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article251-page5.html

It seems all but made for the P180, and I've decided after some careful browsing that it's a needed investment. My Zalman 7700Cu is good, but it dosn't hold a candle to the Ninja. I don't even need to base that off reviews, as I am running an E6300 @ 3.33ghz and I will not go higher to to temps. I helped one guy build and OC his first rig using an E6600, I though he had his temps mixed up and it was going to be a long night, until he confirmed he was using the exact same program I use to measure the temps of both internal die readings for each core.

At the exact same 1.36 voltage, same black P180 and AS5 used, his E6600 @ 3.33ghz and my E6300 at 3.33ghz he was showing 51c core temps after 1 hour of dual prime95 running. My own system gives 58-60c for both die temps. Now considering his cooler has to deal with twice the L2 cache.... I think that about says it all right there. I can even add that he applied his AS5 that afternoon, and mine has had exactly 1 week to cure.

jmke · 18th August 2006, 09:14

If you provide a good airflow path in your case the large surface area of the Ninja will make it a better candidate for low noise , yet superior cooling.

18th August 2006, 20:45

That's my hope, I'm banking on it.

With the 7700cu the best performance I could arrange was use the GPU fan tunnel feature of the case, flip the rear 120 around to blow outside air onto the 7700Cu, and use the PCI gpu card as a sort of duct to catch exhaust from the 7700Cu with a 80mm sitting on the card itself shunting that hot air back out through the rear PCI slot covers. Soon as the first PCIe card is carried into this house that will cease to work though... :P

9th August 2006, 09:19	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	Thermalright Ultra-120 vs Scythe Ninja Thermalright's Ultra-120 is designed to take on the biggest, coolest heatsinks on the market — and win. But, like most performance heatsinks, it has closely spaced fins that are designed to do well with lots of airflow. That doesn't always square well with SPCR's goals for quiet, low-airflow systems. We've put it head to head with the Scythe Ninja... and we have a new silent champ, not by KO but by a small margin of points. __________________

9th August 2006, 09:20	#2
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	Too bad not tested inside a case, this might change the outcome, open test benches are all fine and dandy for easy install and trying to create a reference with the previous results, but they are not really representative of performance of these heatsinks when installed inside a case, here the airflow is completely different and the performance results for certain types of HSF will be better than others, something you don't notice when testing on an open testbed __________________

18th August 2006, 09:14	#4
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	If you provide a good airflow path in your case the large surface area of the Ninja will make it a better candidate for low noise , yet superior cooling. __________________

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18th August 2006, 08:42	#3
Kougar Posts: n/a	Well, if they had then it would only have given the Ninja a hands down win. Especially after they make mention of this here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article251-page5.html It seems all but made for the P180, and I've decided after some careful browsing that it's a needed investment. My Zalman 7700Cu is good, but it dosn't hold a candle to the Ninja. I don't even need to base that off reviews, as I am running an E6300 @ 3.33ghz and I will not go higher to to temps. I helped one guy build and OC his first rig using an E6600, I though he had his temps mixed up and it was going to be a long night, until he confirmed he was using the exact same program I use to measure the temps of both internal die readings for each core. At the exact same 1.36 voltage, same black P180 and AS5 used, his E6600 @ 3.33ghz and my E6300 at 3.33ghz he was showing 51c core temps after 1 hour of dual prime95 running. My own system gives 58-60c for both die temps. Now considering his cooler has to deal with twice the L2 cache.... I think that about says it all right there. I can even add that he applied his AS5 that afternoon, and mine has had exactly 1 week to cure.

18th August 2006, 20:45	#5
Kougar Posts: n/a	That's my hope, I'm banking on it. With the 7700cu the best performance I could arrange was use the GPU fan tunnel feature of the case, flip the rear 120 around to blow outside air onto the 7700Cu, and use the PCI gpu card as a sort of duct to catch exhaust from the 7700Cu with a 80mm sitting on the card itself shunting that hot air back out through the rear PCI slot covers. Soon as the first PCIe card is carried into this house that will cease to work though... :P