Scythe Mugen-2 Revision B
Surface area is one of the biggest factors in air-cooling efficiency and, at around $40, Scythe’s Mugen 2 Rev. B (spelled with or without the hyphen and abbreviated name) provides the greatest surface area per price of today’s competitors. Yet surface area is not the sole determining factor for performance, so we’ll rely on testing to determine how well this extra size is used.
Pressure relief grooves are Scythe’s innovative solution to the aerodynamic drag that accompanies long cooling fins. Without these grooves, a greater amount of air pressure would be lost out the sink’s sides.
The Mugen 2 Rev. B surprised us by supporting Socket 478 motherboards, in addition to the expected LGA models (1156, 1365, and 775) and AMD sockets (939, 940, AM2, AM2+, and AM3).
The Mugen 2 has one of the flattest polished bases we’ve seen, with distortion that normally occurs from the polishing process, which is only noticeable as a rounded edge. The copper base appears to be plated in nickel to prevent oxidization.
The Mugen 2 Rev. B’s greatest design weakness is that it usually must be installed outside the case, with screws that can only be accessed from beneath the motherboard. One of its strengths is that once installed, its fan can be slid up to allow greater DIMM clearance or down to further assist motherboard voltage-regulator cooling.
Related Stories :
- ASRock P67 Transformer: P67 Gets LGA 1156 Compatibility
- Overclocking On Air: 10 LGA 1156-Compatible Performance Coolers
- Extreme P55: Four LGA 1156 Motherboards Over $250
- P55 On Boost: Five LGA 1156 Boards Between $200 And $250
- LGA 1156 Memory Performance: What Speed DDR3 Should You Buy?
- Enthusiast P55: Eight LGA 1156 Boards Between $150 And $200
Not a single top down cooler?? That is disappointing, though I can already see the excuse: "they don't have as much performance as the tower coolers".
Argh - unbelievable! I literally just purchased my build on newegg, and they just posted this article. I bought the Arctic Cooling 7 over the Hyper 212+, not having seen the article yet.
Hey Tom's - what temps are you getting at 3.2 GHz with the Arctic Cooling 7? Did you use arctic silver 5?
Test settings page reads: CPU Intel Core i7-860, but CPU-Z screen shot under it reads Intel Core i7-870. Which one is it that you tested Tom?
Is there an article testing thermal compounds?
Argh - unbelievable! I literally just purchased my build on newegg, and they just posted this article. I bought the Arctic Cooling 7 over the Hyper 212+, not having seen the article yet. Hey Tom's - what temps are you getting at 3.2 GHz with the Arctic Cooling 7? Did you use arctic silver 5?
no worries there you will be fine
i had the 212 and sunbermtech both were running really good and cool. but i would buy the sunbeamtech with the easy exchange fan kit.
I just love to read toms old school articles like this one
What no Coolermaster V10 or Thermaltake SpinQ Vertical?
Not a single top down cooler?? That is disappointing, though I can already see the excuse: "they don't have as much performance as the tower coolers".
What no Coolermaster V10 or Thermaltake SpinQ Vertical?
You would have to ask the manufacturers, since they picked the coolers.
prolimatech megahalems
If NH-D14 is in this, where's Prolimatech's Megahalems and Thermalright's Venomous X?
just bought a freezer pro too
If NH-D14 is in this, where's Prolimatech's Megahalems and Thermalright's Venomous X?
Thermalright sent the MUX-120.
Why no Megahalems? They're widely considered the best air coolers out there right now.
Even though the Zalman CNPS10X didn't win any of the tests, I still prefer its design because of the all copper contact between the CPU and the heatsink. Nice to see some of these tests again...can you also do one to compare the effectiveness of different thermal compounds?
Why no Megahalems? They're widely considered the best air coolers out there right now.
Some companies didn't respond to the invitation. Sorry, I didn't keep a list.
Quick question..these temps you are showing they are all with an ambient temperature of 11C? So when you say 82C over ambient the temps are actually 82+11=93C?
the best cpu cooler is now the thermalright vemonous I believe
Interesting article. I knew results would vary from other reviews. That's normal.
I was surprised the new Thermalright Venoumous X was not included. It's an updated version of the Ultra 120 Extreme specifically designed for the new Intel Core i5/i7 cpu's.
Didn't THG mention in an older article that those extra tall heatspreaders that sort of look like a comb did not provide any additional cooling over stock heatspreaders?