I heard the name before. A man who is righteous, good with his sword and other weapons of the time: loyal to his master and trusted by his friends. I have had read “the sword of a Samurai is to kill the strong so that the weak could live”. Is this the Samurai we are reviewing? I’m afraid not.



A new Cooler from SCYTHE, a company introduced the Kamakaze Cooler last year that has become well recognized in a very fast pace. While other manufacturers focus on performance; Scythe has been pushing silence and performance from the first product they released. The Samurai is a multi-platform cooler, it fits Socket A, Socket 370, 478, 754 and 940. In another word, it will work with all current AMD and Intel CPU. In a quick glance, the Samurai certainly looks similar to the Kamakaze that some of us have seen. It uses the same 80 mm fan with a max speed of about 3,400 RPM; the familiar rheostat PCI mounted control. Take a closer look and the similarity ends.

Dimension and Specs from Scythe:

Model Name: SCSM-1000
Manufacturer: Scythe Co., Ltd., Japan

Compatibility:
Intel:

Celeron (socket 478) all speeds

Pentium 4 (socket 478) all speeds
AMD:

Duron (socket 462) all speeds

Athlon (socket 462) all speeds

Athlon XP (socket A) all speeds

Athlon 64 (socket 754) all speeds

Athlon 64FX (socket 754) all speeds

Fan Dimensions: 80 x 80 x 25mm
Heatsink Dimensions: 83 x 65 x 38 mm
Combined Dimensions: 98 x 84 x 95 mm
Weight: 605g

Fan Speed: 1300~3400rpm (with rheostat)
Air Flow: 13.6CFM @ 1300rpm ~ 34CFM @ 3400rpm
Fan Noise Level: 16dBA @ 1300rpm (lowest); 37dBA @ 3400rpm (highest)

After we open the box we are left with 2 brackets, 4 different screws, thermal paste and a speed adjustable FAN with the rheostat mounted on a PCI bracket.




The Samurai is made out of 100% copper and has good overall finishing. Unlike the previous Kamakaze heatsink which featured round pins like the Alpha PAL, we know see a series of copper fins with small V cuts to increase the cooling surface.






The base of the heatsink is quite flat, and only shows small signs of machine lapping, unfortunately lapping this heatsink is no easy task, as the sides of the fan mounting bracket are sticking out on the sides, which make it impossible to lap the heatsink using the classic method (placing it on a flat surface and moving it around in circles). Luckily the finishing is of the base is quite good and by using the included thermal paste any imperfections will be hardly noticeable.





The fan mounting bracket comes high polished and really makes the whole HSF shiny





As mentioned on the previous page, the Samurai comes pre-installed with this 80mm fan which sucks air through the fins, this none-classical way of removing heat can also be seen in the popular Alpha heatsinks and when used with the correct heatsink is proven to be very effective.





So let’s get this heatsink installed shall we?

Scythe has put some research and effort into this aspect of the Samurai; the Kamakaze had already some pretty solid ideas which are perfected this time around. In order to install this heatsink you only need to remove your motherboard if you have an Athlon 64 setup and even then it still is very easy to install.



The bracket on the right is used for the AMD platforms; the one the left is used for the P4. Installation is all straight forward, as an example we´ll take the Socket 478:



After putting the clips over the default plastic retention bracket it is simple a matter of “dropping” the heatsink in the center and screwing it tight with the 2 small screws provided



You turn them all the way down until you feel metal hitting metal, at this point optimal pressure is provided on the CPU core, trying to turn any further is impossible and will only damage the screws.



With the HSF installed you can clearly see that you will no problem fitting it on any motherboard.

I do have to mention though that I had some issues installing this heatsink on one motherboard I had lying around. The problem maker was an Asus P4C800, I couldn’t get the heatsink to make sufficient contact with the CPU, and this caused very high temperatures when the system was stressed, to a point that the CPU began throttling or shut down completely. I had no issues however on an Abit IS7 (I865), Chaintech 9PJL2 (I865), Abit IC7 (I875) or Chaintech 9CJS (I875). If there’s someone reading this with an Asus P4C800 and lives in Belgium, please contact me, as I would like to further investigate this issue.

Onto the test results!

Socket 478

First up is the P4 platform, these tests were performed by Lazyman.

So how does this Samurai compare to other coolers? A Samurai deserves a formidable opponent; a cowboy would be appropriate I may say. The Cowboy this time is the MCX-478-V from Swiftech.

CPU: P4 2.8 “C” and overclocked to 3.4ghz using 1.7v vcore


(H) = fan speed high, (L) =fan speed low, the 0 value is used when the system crashed during testing when overclocked.

What can I say? The cowboy is wounded by the Samurai sword with 3 C higher. May be we did not give the cowboy the Colt 45 larger caliber six-shooter (a faster Tornado fan) which he handles well. Nevertheless, they both have the 80mm fan with blades tuning in similar speed and the Samurai is ahead.


Socket 754

Piotke installed the Samurai on his A64 setup and compared it to the current reigning champ, the Thermalright SLK-948U. The Thermalright was equipped with a low noise Papst fan, the 8412 n2gm to be exact. It spins at 2700rpm, which places it between the Samurai’s fan High and Low setting.

CPU: A64 3000+ overclocked to 2.4ghz using 1.55v vcore


(H) = fan speed high, (L) =fan speed low

In the graph above you can also see the dBA rating of the fans, the Samurai offers a nice balance when running at its most silent setting, quite a good showing against Thermalright’s top contender.


Socket A

Last but not least, Piotke installed the HSF on one of the more popular budget platforms; the opponent in this test is the new Alpha S-PAL8055F which we will be reviewing in detail very soon. The fans used with the Alpha:

High = Delta AFB0812SH-F00 (80x80x25.4mm) - 4000RPM / 40db(A)

Low = Sanyo Denki 109P0812M701 (80x80x15mm) - 2000RPM / 21db(A)



At “High” fan settings the difference is negligible, but when going for silence the Alpha leads the way, but wait... since we are not using the same fans it is essential we also take a look at the data below:



This explains a lot, the Samurai runs a lot quieter then the Alpha and even at “High” fan settings it’s more silent!

Onto the conclusion ->

So in conclusion we can safely say that the new Scythe Samurai is a winner, it offers you the possibility to run your system whisper quiet and still have acceptable performance, or turn the fan’s rheostat wide open and enjoy some overclocking headroom. Combine this with the fact that you’ll have a hard time finding a system where you can not install this heatsink on, and what’s more, the suggested retail price is close to €34 which makes it an absolute killer.

PRO
Easy installation
Good overall performance
Very competitively priced


CON
Weird installation issue on Asus P4C800



I would like to thank Hiro from Scythe for helping us out with the review samples as well as the support when the Asus P4C800 issue was discovered. I also would like to thank Erwan from Bacata for helping investigate the issue, I will try his suggestion of adding extra spacers ASAP and update the review with the results.

Questions/Comments: forum thread