Tested 15 years ago: Scythe Ninja Cu, the limited copper slug

The Scythe Ninja Cu (test) was a revised version of the Ninja in full copper casing with a new fan that provided better cooling at a lower sound pressure level. At 60 euros, the version, which was limited to 600 copies in Germany, was more expensive than many of its competitors – and heavier.

Table of contents

1. Copper as far as the eye could see
2. Outstanding in silent operation, even with reference ventilation
3. Conclusion

Copper as far as the eye could see

With dimensions of 110 × 110 × 150 mm (L × W × H), the cooler weighed around 1,120 g. The high weight was due to the change in material – the original made of aluminum weighed 665 g. As with the original, Scythe uses a six-way U layout with 6 mm heat pipes that dissipate the waste heat from the copper base plate to the copper fins. Unlike the original version, the heatpipes were spaced slightly further, distributing the heat more evenly.

< figure class="thumbs__figure thumbs__figure--has-caption"> Flawless quality

Slightly improved slat progression and higher quality

Comparison: Ninja Hybrid in Rev A and Ninja Cu

Meanwhile Scythe standard: nickel-plated radiator floor

Convenient wire bracket mount for 120mm fan

With its 23 wafer-thin fins and their relatively large spacing of about 4 mm, the Scythe Ninja was optimized for low-speed fans. The included Scythe Slip-Stream fan (120 mm) worked at a maximum of 800 rpm. With this, the manufacturer went back to its roots: silent cooling. Even at full speed, the fan was hardly audible, when throttled it was completely inaudible.

Outstanding in silent mode, even with reference ventilation

To ensure a fair comparison between the coolers, 15 years ago all coolers were tested with three different reference ventilations. The Scythe Ninja Cu was able to stand out particularly in the Super Silent configuration. He achieved slightly better results with the series ventilation than with the reference fan. In both cases, however, it placed itself at the top of the test field, right after the Thermalright IFX-14. In the other two fan configurations, the values ​​were a bit worse compared to other coolers, but it was always enough for a place in the middle. At high speeds, the large distances between the fins thwarted the Ninja Cu – the cooler was developed explicitly for slowly rotating fans.

Super-Silent -configuration [< 31 dB(A)]

Quiet to medium configuration [< 40 dB(A)]

Power Configuration [> 40 dB(A)]

Conclusion

Overall, the Ninja Cu was a successful cooler. With a price of 60 euros, the limited edition was comparatively expensive. In addition, the dimensions and the high weight of the cooler meant that it could not be easily installed in every case. Especially when mounting on Intel systems, there were some difficulties due to the sheer size of the cooler. With only 600 copies on the German market, the Ninja Cu was a model for enthusiasts.

In the category “In the test 15 years ago”, the editors have been taking a look at the test archive every Saturday since July 2017. The last 20 articles that have appeared in this series are listed below:

• Hello, Radeon HD 3850, the 135 euro silver bullet< /li>
• With the Zalman VF-1000 against Arctic Coolings S1
• ATi made a comeback with the Radeon HD 3870
• Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT was almost perfect
• Intel's 45nm process made Penryn fast and economical
• Two towers were not enough for the Thermalright IFX-14
• The best Radeon HD 2600 XT were blue
• Thermalright's Ultra-120 Extreme was the reference
• 249 euros too much for the Radeon HD 2600 XT X2
• Teufel's elegant 2.1 system with excellent sound
• Arctic Cooling's Accelero S1 was colder than the competition
• Zalman wanted himself reinvented and failed
• Cooler Masters Cosmos at an astronomical price
• The best multimedia keyboard came from Microsoft
• Sparkles Caliber GeForce 8600 GT performed far outside the norm
• li>
• Xigmatek was on the way to success with the HDT-S1283
• Movie playback on GPUs from ATi versus Nvidia
• Devil and Logitech in 5.1 battle

< li>Scythe's Katana 2 was the cooler king of the middle class

• An almost inaudible gaming PC for 3,100 euros

Even more content of this kind and many other reports and anecdotes can be found in the retro corner in the ComputerBase forum.