Scythe Mine and Pentagram NXC-100Cu coolers

Scythe Mine, Tt Mini Typhoon, and Pentagram NXC-100Cu

Today we are testing the most fresh and interesting coolers that have (or are about to) appeared on the retail shelves. They all reflect different approaches of manufacturers to creating cooling systems. For instance, Scythe keeps using the concept of a massive aluminum radiator (made up of a great number of thin fins) that runs through several heat pipes. ThermalTake, on the contrary, has presented the compact model Mini Typhoon with a copper radiator and again the same heat pipes. Only Pentagram (Poland) hasn't presented anything but just another close of Zalman (Korea).

Note that all the coolers offer a universal fastening system which allows fitting them on all the popular platforms. There is another fine point: in a couple of months AMD is announcing their new processor socket AM2 the cooler for which has a somehow modified scheme of fastening. So in choosing a cooler in spring 2006 we should keep the possibility of future upgrade to AM2.

Scythe Mine

The cooler is packed into a cardboard box with a transparent window through which the buyer can see the major trait of Mine: the fan is inside the radiator.

Inside it, apart from the cooler itself, we found a kit of fasteners for AMD and Intel motherboards, a power supply adapter, a pack of thermo paste, as well as brief setup guide.

Unlike the very effective radiator of Scythe Ninja, the Mine cooler sells with an already installed fan. At the same time, we note very quiet and noiseless operation of the fan. According to the data of the manufacturer, the noise level does not exceed 22 dBa at the rotational speed 1500 RPM. At the same time, the 100 mm nominal radiator provides air flow = 42.69 CFM.

It is important to note that engineers at Scythe provided the possibility of fan replacement. 100 mm fans are quite rare guests in the retail, so the user has a possibility of installing a fan of a different size (in particular, the following dimensions are supported: within 60 to 140 mm). The major limitation is the "thickness" of the fan, which should not exceed 25 mm. As a result, Scythe allows the buyer to choose either the performance-mode fan (noisy) or confine to a low-speed quiet fan.

To replace the fan, the user has to remove two screws in the upper part of the base, install a new fan and fasten the screws back in place. That's very simple!

As we have already noted, the fan is in the middle of the radiator (such a design resembles a sandwich), where air is sucked in through one half of the fins and is release through the other half. As a result, the efficiency of the cooler rises as compared to traditional coolers.

The quite a massive base is some sort of a "heat receiver".

From this base there come out 6 heat pipes which run through the radiator upwards.

Of note is the ideal processing quality of the base:

The radiator is of quite massive dimensions. It is 109 mm in length, 105 mm in width, and 150 mm in height. As a result, its installation may cause various issues with blocking of other system components (e.g., memory modules, a fan on the chipset or a video card). Despite the impressive size, the overall weight of the cooler is relatively small and amounts to 560 mm (with a nominal fan). Remember that the weight of a Scythe Ninja radiator alone is 665 g.

The fan can be installed on any of the 4 sides of the radiator, which allows the user to avoid conflicts.

It's just this radiator layout (shown on the photo) that allowed to improve the efficiency by 1.5 C (can't explain why so).

We are pleased to note that engineers at Scythe have re-worked the system of fastening the cooler to a motherboard. This has essentially improved the installation convenience as compared to the previous products of the company (e.g., Scythe Ninja). The only minor complaint was about the inconvenience of removal the cooler from an LGA775 motherboard. While doing that I burned my fingers by the chipset radiator and the radiator on the power supply module (I mean the ASUS P5WD2 Premium motherboard built on the i955X chipset). By the way, that point tells that the Mine cooler does not generate sufficient air flow to cool important components around the processor socket.

Pros:

• Excellent efficiency of the cooler;
• Compatibility to all the popular platforms.

Cons:

• Large overall dimensions;
• Insufficient blowing of the chipset and power supply module of the motherboard.

We will make final conclusions regarding the Scythe Mine cooler on the last page of the review where we examine the prices and efficiency.

Pentagram NXC-100Cu

The first thing to note is that the NXC-100Cu cooler by Pentagram looks like two peas against the copper version of IceHammer 3175 cooler.

Apart from the cooler, the remaining parts are also similar: the design and the package shape,

fastening scheme (and other bundled items). There is even a speed regulator similar to that by Zalman:

In the end, you get the impression that Pentagram and IceHammer 3175 coolers are manufactured at the same factory and all the differences are only about labels and inscriptions on the paper (and of course the user's guide). One more difference is in the sticker with a proprietary logo.

Let's look at the cooler again:

As we can see, the profile of the fin is not straight but wavy (again, the same as that on IceHammer). The processing quality of the base is quite decent for a value model:

Now a few words on the specifications. The weight of the cooler is middling and amounts to 652 g. The fan is 92 mm in diameter, rotates at 1700RPM - 3000RPM, and the noise level is variable within 19 dBa to 27 dBa. Although the noise of the cooler is not getting on your nerves, I would recommend to use a speed regulator (available in the package bundle).

The cooler's overall dimensions are: 106x106x55 mm.

The cooler is installed without any obstacles and quickly enough. For instance, installation on the Intel LGA775 platform is the same as on coolers of the Zalman 7xxx series. However, all the fine shortcomings of IceHammer are repeated. In particular: if the user installs a fastening frame around the LGA775 socket, it then becomes impossible to install a processor - the socket latch rests against the frame (while the Zalman's frame offers a special hollow for a latch). Anyway, it is a matter of a few seconds to remove-install a frame.

Pros:

• Compact size;
• Ease of installation;
• Compatibility to all the popular platforms.

Cons:

• Low cooling efficiency.

Tt Mini Typhoon

In its time, ThermalTake presented a very efficient cooler - Typhoon - which we liked for its high cooling level at a very low noise level. Let me briefly remind you that in the structure of Typhoon there were used heat pipes, a massive (but light, at the same time) aluminum radiator, and a very quiet 120 mm fan.

Quite recently, ThermalTake has presented a compact version of the cooler named Mini Typhoon. Frankly, Mini Typhoon and Typhoon have only a similar name: in fact, Mini Typhoon is an entirely different cooler.

See for yourselves: the radiator is of smaller dimensions and made of copper fins.

On the radiator, there is an open fan with very high impellers.

Inside the plastic box with the cooler,

there are the following items: a brief setup guide, a fastening frame for LGA775 motherboards, and a fastening clip for AMD boards. Among the compatible AMD boards, there were also AM2 socket boards (as the official web site of the company suggests).

The cooler design in general resembles the design of the Typhoon cooler. This is especially seen from the following:

We note a very decent processing quality of the cooler base:

However, it is too far for from the mirror surface of Scythe Mine.

Now a few words on the specifications. First, the cooler mass is 623 g, its overall dimensions are 112 mm x 94 mm x 125 mm (length/width/height). The fan is 92 mm in diameter (height - 38 mm), it rotates at 2200RPM, generates 38.7CFM air flow, and does not make noise higher than 18 dBa..

In other words, the developers promise a noiseless operation of the cooler and guarantee effective cooling of processors at the typical heat emission 130 W. However, practical experiments showed that the cooler does make a substantial noise and its operation can't be regarded as noiseless as that in Scythe Mine. In fact, the noise level does not prevent comfortable operation.

The cooler is very easy to install on an AMD motherboard. But while installing it on a LGA775 board we had to take pains since the fastening plate was inconvenient to to install. The cooler itself is placed at 45 degrees relative to the traditional installation of the processor:

correct installation of the cooler

In our case, it was possible to install the cooler in only one position. At a different orientation, the cooler rests with its heat pipes against the radiator on the north bridge, warps and presses the capacitor down (the motherboard - ASUS P5WD2-Premium (i955X) ; in fact, this ASUS board proved strong enough, so it went on operating.). But in general the overall dimensions of the cooler are not of any issues (e.g., does not prevent from installation of memory installation).

On the whole, we liked the cooler. However, the "price/efficiency" matter remains unknown yet, and the noise level of the cooler won't appeal to the fanciers of noiseless systems.

Pros:

• Good cooling level;
• Compatibility to all the popular platforms.

Cons:

• Some issues upon installation of a LGA775 motherboard;
• The noise characteristics do not match the declared.

Cooling efficiency and conclusions

To check the efficiency of the coolers, we emulated the most demanding and most rigid conditions on one of the hottest processors. Therefore, the choice fell upon the Intel system, namely, Pentium4 (Prescott 2M) at 3.6 GHz. We conducted another series of tests, but this time the processor was running at 4.05 GHz (18õ225 MHz), at the nominal voltage.

To warm up the processor, we used two running instances of BurnP6 software. As the thermo interface we used a very popular KPT-8 thermo paste (out of the tub).

So, we got the following test results:

Here are the results produced with the 4.05 GHz processor (the second series of tests was run at a much lower room temperature):

Some comments. As we have repeatedly noted, the Gigabyte G-Power cooler shows superb results at the maximum rotational speed of the fan. But the noise level exceeds all the admissible limits and certainly prevents comfortable operation. With the rotational speed reduced to 1900-2000 rpm, the noise level becomes acceptable and the efficiency does not drop essentially. Therefore, this cooler is one of the main candidates for purchases, but it is almost impossible to come across that in the retail.

It is interesting to note that companies use varied units for measuring noise. Otherwise, how can it be explained that Scythe Mine with the declared noise level = 22 dB runs noiselessly and ThermalTake Mini Typhoon at the official mark 18 dB runs much louder. This problem occurs regularly, so we shouldn't be guided by the manufacturer's data when buying a cooler.

The ThermalTake Mini Typhoon cooler is good at first glance: it has a copper radiator with heat pipes. But the cooling efficiency does not meet our expectations. By its efficiency, it loses to its elder brother Typhoon which together with noiseless operation showed a result comparable to that of Gigabyte G-Power (also at noiseless operation).

As regards the Scythe Mine cooler, this product deserves only the highest praises. Its superb cooling level with the absolutely noiseless operation make us safely recommend it for purchase. At the same time, the user can improve the cooler's characteristics through replacing the fan with one more powerful.

However, our findings cannot be final since on the date of testing the retail price of any of the presented coolers is unknown. It is quite possible that the "price/efficiency" ratio may change the attractiveness of examined coolers. Anyway, that applies to only Scythe Mine and ThermalTake Mini Typhoo, since the Pentagram NXC-100Cu cooler showed the worst efficiency and thus can't be recommended for use with powerful Intel processors. If its price is at about $19, then we'd rather recommend it for non-overclocked AMD processors.