Scythe Kamakaze Heatsink Review

Former staff writer - January 4, 2004
Category: CPU Cooling
: Quiet PC

Introduction
Things have changed a lot since the past regarding good CPU cooling. Not to long ago I remember to have a good performing heat sink you needed a very loud high rpm fan to go with it. Then overnight the silent pc trend took over. The heat sink market was flooded with passive and low noise heat sinks, fans, and psu’s. One of the low noise heat sinks well be looking at today is the scythe kamakaze; scythe is a newcomer in the silent heat sink solution market. Let’s see what this heat sink has to offer.

Specifications

Compatibility	Intel Pentium 4 Socket 478 up to 3.2 GHz AMD Athlon XP Socket A up to 3400+
Fan Dimensions	80 mm x 80 mm x 25 mm
Heat sink Dimensions	70 mm x 70mm x 57mm
Combined Dimensions	90 mm x 85 mm x 90 mm
Fan Speed	1300-3400 rpm (w/ rheostat)
Air Flow	13.6 CFM @ 1300 rpm ~ 34 CFM @ 3400 rpm
Fan Noise Level	16dBA @ 1300 rpm (lowest); 37 dBA @ 3400 rpm (highest)
Weight	690g (1.44 lbs)

In-Depth Look

Inside the box neatly packed were the heat sink, pentium4 bracket, fan controller, instructions, and a bag with some white thermal paste and plastic clips to hold the p4 bracket in the place. For the Pentium 4 user’s some parts must be disassembled in order to attach the p4 retention mechanism.

When I first opened the box I noticed that one of the retention screws for the heat sink was missing. I later found it inside the metal reducer for the fan, upon removing the fan. After removing the fan I noticed that a side of the heat sinks pins where pushed together more then I would have liked too seen. I feel as thou quietpc.com took every step possible in shipping the heat sink; this seemed to of happened on the manufactures side. Since the kamikaze is made in Japan a lot of things could happen in the shipment from there. I contacted scythe and they were more than helpful with this situation. I did not mention I was with occ, or the reseller I received the heat sink from. They offered to replace the heat sink, after I returned the damage product.