I have a P4 socket 478 MB and my system lies horizontally. This PC lies in a conference room, so minimizing noise is a big thing. I have read that this HS needs to be mounted with the system vertically. Why would it not work horizontally?? With a horizontal position, no stress on MB....and heat would naturally rise up the HS thru all the fins as it is intended. There is an exhaust fan on my power supply which would be blowing across this HS and I may even add a fan to the HS itself to blow air across.....therefore I would have air flow coming across the HS in two different directions. Would this work? I do not see why it wouldn't, but I'll let the "masters" help me decide. Thanks for any info!!

Jeff

It will work fine.

Thanks. I had just read in your review that it is reccommended that the system be vertical. So, I just wanted to make sure before I made this purchase that this would work. Thanks for your info! Great site.

Jeff

I'm wondering if anyone else has tried putting their fan on top of the Ninja blowing down, and seated as low on the Ninja as possible, for better performance, when they can't put the fan as low as it could go when mounting on the side, due to RAM sticks in the way.

On my motherboard (Epox 9nda3+), I can't fit the fan at the lowest position on the Ninja if I mount it on the front side blowing towards the back exhaust, and it won't fit period underneath to blow up towards the PSU fan (120mm).

So I've tried two different setups, one is the recommended front mounting blowing toward the back exhaust, but raised due to memory. The other, which I've found to be much better in my case, is to mount it on top blowing down towards my vga card, and leaving the top two 5.25" bays of my evercase 4252 open to allow a low resistance path for cool air to be fed into the fan on my Ninja. I'm using a Nexus 120, and the difference is like 5 degrees Celsius at idle (36 vs. 41 or so). And when I set up the first recommended configuration (fan in front blowing back, but raised), I even opened the lower two 5.25" bays so there was a direct stream of air going right in the front of the case to the Nexus 120, through the fins of the Ninja, and out the back exhaust, I could see the exhaust fan in a straight line from the front bays, with the Ninja right in between.

Actually in my best case scenario, I had all the 5.25" bays open (usually I have a couple optical drives installed. With all of them open, and the fan on top blowing down, I get an idle of 32 degrees Celsius. These are wildy different idle temps, wouldn't you say? I've repeated ALL of these measurements at least twice, and ambient temperature is pretty steady in this room at like 70 degrees F. The CPU is an Opteron 165 OC'ed to 2.52ghz on +0.05v over stock voltage.

This kind of baffles me that lowering the fan a couple centimeters on the Ninja would have such a big effect, even with the arguably better streamlined airflow of the first configuration with the fan raised a bit. Can't figure it out, except maybe there's more potential for heat removal lower on the Ninja, closer to the CPU.

Just a weird question, but have you tried mounting the fan at the back of the Ninja sucking air out?

This may be a little difficult to implement as the fan hub could potentially be pushed right against the fins causing noise, fan impedement, or just plain no air from the fan being stopped. Try putting something inbetween the fan and fins with a width of 1mm or something small to put between the fan edges and the Ninja. That might solve your problem.

The reviewer states the base was very flat and smooth.

I just got one of these and noticed that the base has pretty pronounced milling lines. Sort of like a very fine pitch file. To my recollection, all my OEM and the few aftermarket heatsinks I've had have always been smoother.

Did I get a dud? Have others noticed this on theirs?

I can just feel the ridges with my fingernail but I've never seen a file that smooth

My ridges seem to be sharper.

Looks like it's lapping time

Hi guys. I have a problem with my newly bought Ninja. I have a system with an Asus P5LD2 motherboard and a Pentium D 940. Unfortunately my Ninja is not making contact with all of the surface of the CPU. It only touches the edges and not the center. So when using just a bit of thermal paste then the center won't touch the heatsink and therefore the temperatures go sky-high (70 degrees celsius idle).

I tested it again with a different surface. I greased the full surface of the heatsink with a bit of paste and put it on top of a cd (which should be flat). And again only the paste from the edges of the heatsink remained on the cd surface. The only way to deal with this is using more thermal paste, but I cannot imagine that this is the right way. I'm sending the heatsink back to my supplier and hope I get one back that is truely flat.

What I would like know from you guys: am I the first one or are there more reports of crooked Ninjas?

I don't think that's a fool-proof test. A CD is made of flexible plastic and is only as flat as the surface you set it on.

Just to be sure, set a straight edge across the surface and verify there is in fact a gap.

If there is, I would see about returning it. If you can't return it you'll need to lap it.

I did some experimenting with a pci slot cover and a wide razor blade and these might be sufficient to determine flatness as well.

Here (except his was concave rather than convex): http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... ja+concave

Like ultrachrome said, I would use something like a good metal ruler to see how flat it really is.

Looks like Ninja's are going away.

http://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?t=288791

This confirms what I've seen. Been planning to build a new system for awhile now and have been reading spcr for advise. Decided quite some time ago that the Ninja is CPU cooler to have. Although I've been lurking around pc-parts stores off and on for awhile, about three weeks ago I started accumulating components for the new machine. Having seen them on the shelves for a long time, I was quite surprised when I went into a local big retailer and they were sold out of Ninjas. Same for the other big retailer across the street. I live in Japan, so I did next what any pc ethusiast would do: hop on a train to Akihabara. Even in Akihabara they are practically non-existent. I was lucky and found a stash of three "Ninja Plus" boxes on sale at Tsukumo. I promptly picked one up for 3599 yen ($31 at today's exchange rate). Haven't seen one available since then.

The new Infinity's are everywhere though. Infinity doesn't work as well for me because it's 1cm taller and is a tighter fit in the Antec P150.

Reports in the other thread (sorry, can't find the link right now) suggest that Scythe is currently refitting/making new Ninjas compatible with AM2. Word has it they'll be available in mid-September or so.

It is funny Scythe uses a discontinued fan in the Rev. B. package.
According to SPCR article under the last picture (page 6).
According to this Scythe link that fan is discontinued?
http://www.scythe-usa.com/support/support_temp/002/fan_spec.html

The postscript information on page 5 of the article are dated 2007.

Hello,

I assume that the new version has slightly greater surface area, to go along with the slight increase in weight?

I wonder how some crossing slots through the extruded aluminum portion at the bottom, would affect the performance? It could increase the surface area (a little), help some cross air flow (a little) and decrease the weight a little, too.

Does the new revision allow you to attach a Ninja to the existing heatsink bracket on the motherboard?

I had to move a Ninja from one K8 motherboard to another - it was a huge pain to remove the metal backing plate, as it was stuck on by adhesive foam. I used a plastic laminated page as a flexible knife to (eventually) cut through the foam.

EDIT: nvm... thought this was a newer version... all those ninja releases are getting confusing!

Too bad Scythe doesn't do a better job of listing compatible motherboards.

There is only Gigabyte Socket 775 motherboard listed, the DS4, which isn't sold in the US.

There are several abit & Asus 775 boards (though all the Asus boards appear somewhat iffy) -- and that's it. No Intel, no MSI, DFI, ECS, etc. Disappointing, though I haven't checked other manufacturers to see if they do any better.

The title for this update is misspelled on the front page, missing an 's': Postcript instead of Postscript.

I can confirm that atleast the Scythe Infinity works with Gigabyte DS3 (socket 775).

anyone know if this scythe scnj-1000 heatsink will fit into an antec fusion case?

the fan might have to sit on top of the memory a little bit... will i be able to put the top cover on the fusion case?

Antec Fusion Case
Intel DG965OT motherboard
Intel E6300 Core 2 Duo

Not with the lid on. In word, no.

hmmm.. . http://www.silentpcreview.com/article658-page1.html this says the scythe infinity fits into an antec fusion... the infinity is 10mm taller.

infinity 160mm
ninja 150mm

so shouldn't the ninja fit then?

I don't see where it says that. I have the uglier sister of that case and I can tell you with great certainty that it will not accommodate a heatsink taller than 120mm.

I just did a search of the entire article, and the word Fusion is mentioned nowhere. I think you're seeing what you want to see here; I can confirm that the Ninja is too tall to fit in a Fusion. The tallest heatsink I've jammed in there is a Zalman CNPS9500, and that required squashing down the top fins.

I wonder about the empty spaces between the heatpipes down where they should touch the heatsink just above the cpu... It seems to me that the second set of heatpipes doesn't even touch the heatsink, they just barely make contact with the first set of heatpipes


(photo is from here)

did anybody try to fill it with some thermal paste and measure the difference?

It's amazing that even for the best heatsink there is still plenty room for improvement

For those still interested in the ninja rev B I highly suggest you read the following thread before going any further:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vi ... 003#364003

I'll try and update the following link as more information becomes available.