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Page 1
<B>Intro</B>:
Most people don't concern themselves with what type of heatsink is in their computer, nor do they bother about overclocking their system. There is a group of people that do overclock all the time, and today, this process is pretty mainstream. With the Athlon and Pentium 4s hitting higher and higher clock speed, what can you do with a slower speed model? Overclock it. This is where <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com">Scythe</a> steps in and provides the Kamikaze heatsink/fan. Not only should this appeal to overclockers, but it is also geared towards people that want quieter PCs.
<B>Packaging</B>:
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</center>
The packaging has some Japanese stuff on it and other words. I don't read them. What the box does say, that is important, is that the cooler is design to fit Athlons and Pentium 4 up to 3400+ or 3.2GHz, respectively.
<B>Parts</B>:
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</center>
This is what is included in the package. You get the assembled heatsink, a manual, some grease, and the P4 retention bracket. I've been reading at other reviews of this heatsink and it seems that Scythe has stopped giving a new Intel motherboard CPU bracket. I guess it isn't needed. What you need to know is that the heatsink comes pre-assembled for Athlon CPUs. You'll have to do some work to get the P4 bracket on.
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</center>
This is a monster heatsink, it weighs in at nearly 1.5 lbs. If you're measuring in metric, that's about 690g. This is well above the recommend weight for Intel heatsinks. I'd also like to point your attention to the sides of the heatsink (in the parts picture). There are spot welds to hold the fan shroud on. Those spot welds have eaten away the metal somewhat. A solder point inside would have been nicer.
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</center>
Now we see the downfall of this heatsink. I hate having to use a screw driver to mount heatsinks. Well, I shouldn't be too mad considering that every single Athlon heatsink I've taken off required the use of a screwdriver. Anyway, I guess I'm spoiled, the stock Intel heatsink have a great locking mechanism for their heatsinks. There are a few problems with screwing in the bracket, the torque and the bowing of the metal. I mention the torque because you would need a torque meter to make sure that both screws are tightened exactly the same, but that is impractical, and the metal bracket bows in use! The heatsink directions tell you to tighten the screws till they reach the top of the metal, but don't do this. The heatsink's cooling efficiency dropped dramatically then after I tweaked it. I'm getting ahead of myself, let's move on.
<center>
</center>
You can see where the heatsink will bow. I had to remove the Athlon bracket and install the P4 one. You have to completely unscrew both sides of the heatsink, remove the little brackets holding the retention bracket on and then reverse the process. That's annoying!
The other thing that caught my attention was that the fan sucked air from the heatsink instead of blowing on it. In my experience, most heatsinks do better when the air is force into the heatsink than sucked from it. This heatsink proved no different, I had to switch the fan to blow on it to make the cooling better (in my case anyway).
<center>
</center>
The bottom of the heatsink is okay, it could be polished better. I also took the liberty to scratch off the copper in the unused portion of the heatsink and it goes pretty deep inside the heatsink. Anyway, let's move on to the testing.
<B>Intro</B>:
Most people don't concern themselves with what type of heatsink is in their computer, nor do they bother about overclocking their system. There is a group of people that do overclock all the time, and today, this process is pretty mainstream. With the Athlon and Pentium 4s hitting higher and higher clock speed, what can you do with a slower speed model? Overclock it. This is where <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com">Scythe</a> steps in and provides the Kamikaze heatsink/fan. Not only should this appeal to overclockers, but it is also geared towards people that want quieter PCs.
<B>Packaging</B>:
<center>
</center>The packaging has some Japanese stuff on it and other words. I don't read them. What the box does say, that is important, is that the cooler is design to fit Athlons and Pentium 4 up to 3400+ or 3.2GHz, respectively.
<B>Parts</B>:
<center>
</center>This is what is included in the package. You get the assembled heatsink, a manual, some grease, and the P4 retention bracket. I've been reading at other reviews of this heatsink and it seems that Scythe has stopped giving a new Intel motherboard CPU bracket. I guess it isn't needed. What you need to know is that the heatsink comes pre-assembled for Athlon CPUs. You'll have to do some work to get the P4 bracket on.
<center>
</center>This is a monster heatsink, it weighs in at nearly 1.5 lbs. If you're measuring in metric, that's about 690g. This is well above the recommend weight for Intel heatsinks. I'd also like to point your attention to the sides of the heatsink (in the parts picture). There are spot welds to hold the fan shroud on. Those spot welds have eaten away the metal somewhat. A solder point inside would have been nicer.
<center>
</center>Now we see the downfall of this heatsink. I hate having to use a screw driver to mount heatsinks. Well, I shouldn't be too mad considering that every single Athlon heatsink I've taken off required the use of a screwdriver. Anyway, I guess I'm spoiled, the stock Intel heatsink have a great locking mechanism for their heatsinks. There are a few problems with screwing in the bracket, the torque and the bowing of the metal. I mention the torque because you would need a torque meter to make sure that both screws are tightened exactly the same, but that is impractical, and the metal bracket bows in use! The heatsink directions tell you to tighten the screws till they reach the top of the metal, but don't do this. The heatsink's cooling efficiency dropped dramatically then after I tweaked it. I'm getting ahead of myself, let's move on.
<center>
</center>You can see where the heatsink will bow. I had to remove the Athlon bracket and install the P4 one. You have to completely unscrew both sides of the heatsink, remove the little brackets holding the retention bracket on and then reverse the process. That's annoying!
The other thing that caught my attention was that the fan sucked air from the heatsink instead of blowing on it. In my experience, most heatsinks do better when the air is force into the heatsink than sucked from it. This heatsink proved no different, I had to switch the fan to blow on it to make the cooling better (in my case anyway).
<center>
</center>The bottom of the heatsink is okay, it could be polished better. I also took the liberty to scratch off the copper in the unused portion of the heatsink and it goes pretty deep inside the heatsink. Anyway, let's move on to the testing.
Page 2
<B>Testing</B>:
My test setup includes a P4 2.4C at 2400MHz and at 2800MHz. The heatsink was tested against the stock 2.4GHz Intel heatsink. Other components include a Radeon 9500 Pro, some Dual Corsair RAM and a Maxtor 120GB hard drive. Not that it matters, but I used Win2k with SP4 for testing.
Before I go into the hard numbers, let me just tell you what I went through trying to get this heatsink to perform at its peak. I have found that using my Xoxide X-Turbine case that the heatsink fan is better blowing on it that sucking from it. This is due to the other three case fans near it also sucking out air. That being fixed, I also noticed that when the heatsink was screwed in tightly (as stated in the directions), the heatsink performed MUCH worse than the stock Intel one. This lead me to believe that the heatsink was sitting flush on the CPU. Sure enough, I was correct. I released the screws until the heatsink and the CPU sat flush, I had to keep the computer on so I could see the temperature change. You'll need to do this as well to get the best cooling possible. I also noticed that with my case, the cooler does nearly as well as the stock Intel heatsink. Once I removed the side of the case, the cooler did extremely well. This means that I'd have to redesign the airflow of my case using this heatsink. These are some things that you'll need to consider when purchasing this heatsink.
Let's see about the idle numbers. This is at the default 2400MHz. Ambient was 25 - 26 C
Intel Stock: 31.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze Fast: 30 C (But with the case open it dropped to 27 C)
Scythe Kamakaze Slow: 33 C (But with the case open it dropped to 30 C)
And at load...
Intel Stock: 42 C
Scythe Kamakaze Fast: 41.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 36.5 C)
Scythe Kamakaze Slow: 52 C (But with the case open it dropped to 46 C)
Now for 2800MHz (233MHz system bus) and idle.
Intel Stock: 32 C
Scythe Kamakaze Fast: 31.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 28 C)
Scythe Kamakaze Slow: 34 C (But with the case open it dropped to 30 C)
And loaded...
Intel Stock: 45 C
Scythe Kamakaze Fast: 45 C (But with the case open it dropped to 39 C)
Scythe Kamakaze Slow: 58 C (But with the case open it dropped to 49 C)
The test shows that with proper airflow, this heatsink can be great. I recommend using it at full fan speed all the time. I could barely hear it. I really couldn't hear it over my case fans though. In this sense, the Kamakaze is great. It is good cooling and quiet.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
<a href="http://ase.dealtime.com/dt-app/SE/KW-scythe+kamakaze/FD-0/linkin_id-3002062/NS-1/GS.html">Priced around $32</a>, you too can have this heatsink. If you are using a Pentium 4, make sure your case has good airflow and you have to be able to modify it when you get the heatsink. Given the right conditions, the heatsink is great and I do recommend it if you like to tweak things. If you're more of a plug-in-and-go person, look elsewhere.
I'd like to thank Will from <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com">Scythe</a> for sending this product for review.
<B>Testing</B>:
My test setup includes a P4 2.4C at 2400MHz and at 2800MHz. The heatsink was tested against the stock 2.4GHz Intel heatsink. Other components include a Radeon 9500 Pro, some Dual Corsair RAM and a Maxtor 120GB hard drive. Not that it matters, but I used Win2k with SP4 for testing.
Before I go into the hard numbers, let me just tell you what I went through trying to get this heatsink to perform at its peak. I have found that using my Xoxide X-Turbine case that the heatsink fan is better blowing on it that sucking from it. This is due to the other three case fans near it also sucking out air. That being fixed, I also noticed that when the heatsink was screwed in tightly (as stated in the directions), the heatsink performed MUCH worse than the stock Intel one. This lead me to believe that the heatsink was sitting flush on the CPU. Sure enough, I was correct. I released the screws until the heatsink and the CPU sat flush, I had to keep the computer on so I could see the temperature change. You'll need to do this as well to get the best cooling possible. I also noticed that with my case, the cooler does nearly as well as the stock Intel heatsink. Once I removed the side of the case, the cooler did extremely well. This means that I'd have to redesign the airflow of my case using this heatsink. These are some things that you'll need to consider when purchasing this heatsink.
Let's see about the idle numbers. This is at the default 2400MHz. Ambient was 25 - 26 C
Intel Stock: 31.5 C
Scythe Kamakaze Fast: 30 C (But with the case open it dropped to 27 C)
Scythe Kamakaze Slow: 33 C (But with the case open it dropped to 30 C)
And at load...
Intel Stock: 42 C
Scythe Kamakaze Fast: 41.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 36.5 C)
Scythe Kamakaze Slow: 52 C (But with the case open it dropped to 46 C)
Now for 2800MHz (233MHz system bus) and idle.
Intel Stock: 32 C
Scythe Kamakaze Fast: 31.5 C (But with the case open it dropped to 28 C)
Scythe Kamakaze Slow: 34 C (But with the case open it dropped to 30 C)
And loaded...
Intel Stock: 45 C
Scythe Kamakaze Fast: 45 C (But with the case open it dropped to 39 C)
Scythe Kamakaze Slow: 58 C (But with the case open it dropped to 49 C)
The test shows that with proper airflow, this heatsink can be great. I recommend using it at full fan speed all the time. I could barely hear it. I really couldn't hear it over my case fans though. In this sense, the Kamakaze is great. It is good cooling and quiet.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
<a href="http://ase.dealtime.com/dt-app/SE/KW-scythe+kamakaze/FD-0/linkin_id-3002062/NS-1/GS.html">Priced around $32</a>, you too can have this heatsink. If you are using a Pentium 4, make sure your case has good airflow and you have to be able to modify it when you get the heatsink. Given the right conditions, the heatsink is great and I do recommend it if you like to tweak things. If you're more of a plug-in-and-go person, look elsewhere.
I'd like to thank Will from <a href="http://www.scythe-usa.com">Scythe</a> for sending this product for review.