INTRODUCTION

In the competative market of heatsinks not only does a new product have to perform well, it never hurts to look good either. One thing that many heat sink manufactures tend to over-look is compatibility across systems. I would consider this aspect of compatibility for the heatsink in review as it's #1 selling point.

Scythe has been manufacturing computer parts for a solid 4 years, so they should have a pretty good idea what people are looking for when it comes to heatsinks. It is also apparent that they are a Japanese based company based upon the names of some of their system apperals. Katana Cu, Kamazo 3.5, and of course the product you'll be reading about now, the Ninja PLUS.

As you will read there are numerous advantages to this heatsink, but I was able to find a few setbacks along the way. So sit back, grab a cold bottle of BAWLS and get ready to be educated on all that is Scythe Ninja PLUS (SCNJ-1000P) CPU Cooler.

PACKAGING

I would have to say that the purple ninjas on this bohemouth of a case wouldn't make this my first choice if I were to be shopping in a store for a heatsink. Luckily most of these will be sold online and you'll be basing your purchase off of product images and reviews like this. A little less than 50% of the box is written in Japanese, but lucky for us here in America there are small areas of translation. The same goes for the instruction manual which has been included.

Upon opening the box the first thing my eye catches is this HUGE 120mm fan. Now I'm used to seeing 92mm fans and the occasional 80mm fan for a heatsink. I begin questioning if this will even fit, but we'll get to that in a bit. When I get the massive fan out of the box I notice that the heatsink is strategically placed in the center of the box with ridgid cardboard, keeping it away from any possible damage that may occur if the box gets some battle marks along it's journey. Be careful when pulling the heatsink from the box. The fins of the heatsink are aluminum and tend to be quite plyable when force is applied to them and the edges are almost sharp enough to break skin.

When the Ninja PLUS heatsink is all the way out of it's box you will find a ziplock bag containing all the goodies that make this such a great heatsink. Once again we'll get to that in a little bit. At this point you want to refer to your manual and make sure all your parts are there. Take a swig of your BAWLS energy drink and get ready for further inspection.

QUALITY

To start off, this thing has 6, not 3 or 4 heat pipes, 6. Yet, it's priced very similar to those that are 3 or 4 piped. The quality of welds between the aluminum fins and the copper pipes is flawless. (If my camera was working right now I'd insert picture here). There is an additional aluminum heatsink sitting right above the copper base which looks to be the size of most OEM heatsinks of years past. The only two things that caught me off gaurd were the tips used to close the pipes and the finish on the contact base.

The caps really are just an astetic thing for me and not really an issue of quality. But the contact base is where Scythe could have put a little more effort into. There are apparent semi circle grooves going across the entire base and can even be felt by running a finger nail across. But also keep in mind that this is a well priced heatsink and a little elbow grease and sandpaper could make this base have a glass finish.