Scythe Big Shuriken vs. Noctua NH-L12 Low Profile Cooler vs. Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev B
The Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev B looks like the original Big Shuriken with an extra heat tube. Apparently SPCR is about ready to publish a review on the Big Shuriken 2 Rev B... and apparently it represents a substantial improvement over the old one.
MikeC wrote:Here's a tip: We just finished testing the new Shuriken, and it is considerably better than the last one.
If you, as I do, like small cases, with big CPUs, this heat sinks along with the Prolimatech Samuel 17 are the only heatsinks that are really exciting to choose among.... with maybe also the addition of the Scythe Kozuti to the low end of this list.
1. Scythe Kozuti - only
40mm high with the under slung 10mm fan. And because it uses the underslung fan it needs liilttle breathing room on top to do its job
2. Noctua NH-L12 - Without the top 120mm fan, the
height is 66mm otherwise it is 93mm high with the top fan. With just its underslung fan, just like the Scythe Kozuti it needs little breathing room. (one option that SPCR found was that it was able to fit a 120mm fan on the bottom, that means it can be run with a single 120mm fan on the bottom or two 120mm fans, one on top and one on the bottom)
3. Scythe Big Shuriken - 57mm high with the stock 12mm fan. Replacing the stock 12mm fan with a 25mm fan brings it to
70mm high
4. Prolimatech Samuel 17 - With a 25 mm thick fan, the heatsink is
71 mm tall. The bolt heads add an additional
2 mm.
The one thing I have against the original Big Shuriken is its 12mm fan. Unexpectedly at 12 volts, it actually cools better with the stock 12mm fan than with the 25mm SPCR reference fan also running at 12 volts... but it does it so so so much louder. See:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1018-page6.html
The Noctua NH-L12 with just the stock underslung 92mm fan alone, cools about the same as the Big Shuriken is its stock 12mm fan at 12 volts... See:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1261-page6.html
With both fans, it is 9C cooler at the same dB level. At lower dB levels the gap increases to 17C.
Keep in mind that that the Big Shuriken with the standard 12mm fan at 12 volts outcools the Big Shuriken with the 25mm reference running at 12 volts. And also that the Prolimatech Samuel 17, with the standard 25mm reference fan at 12 volts outcools the Big Shuriken with the standard 12mm fan at 12 volts:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1261-page6.html
This is all before you even bring in the issue of dBs. As soon as SPCR publishes the review on the new Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev B I will update this post with that info.
For the time being here is a recent review of the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev B
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/842
Surprisingly in this testing regime, the Scythe Kozuti outperformed the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev B.
Frostytech found that even the old Big Shuriken clearly outperformed Kozuti:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.c ... 614&page=5
We'll have to see what SPCR finds to get some reliable results.
SPCR's Updated 2012 Small CPU Heatsink Test Platform
This includes a compilation of test results for a number of small CPU Heatsinks on the new test platform
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1267-page1.html
The Scythe Samurai ZZ fails to impress given its 94 mm height. It's not a bad cooler by any stretch of the imagination, but it's certainly outclassed by the NH-L12.
However, if you're planning on a LGA1155 mini-ITX build with a discrete graphics card, the Samurai might be your best bet. The CPU socket on mini-ITX Sandy Bridge boards are so close to the PCI Express slot that most heatsinks interfere with it. The Samurai doesn't.
The Winner Is
It looks like basically the Noctua NH-L12 Low Profile Cooler out performs the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev B
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1270-page7.html