Scythe Big Shuriken 4 Review: Compact SFF cooling for Mini-ITX

Despite its small profile, the 67mm (2.64 inches) tall Big Shuriken 4 provides adequate cooling performance.

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Scythe Big Shuriken 4
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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Maximum noise levels

Scythe Big Shuriken 4

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

In terms of maximum volume, both Scythe’s Big Shuriken 4 and Shuriken 3 had relatively low noise levels, measuring 39.6 and 40.3 dBA, respectively.

PBO Performance

Scythe Big Shuriken 4

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Enabling PBO allows AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X to stretch its legs and guzzle power, but those legs won’t stretch very far with SFF cooling. Despite the limitations of a small heatsink, the Big Shuriken 4 is still able to handle 90% of this CPU’s default power limit in Cinebench R23.

The smaller Shuriken 3 doesn’t fare as well, dropping to 134W. But that’s kind of impressive, considering that cooler is about the size of a pack of cigarettes.

150W

For the next thermal test, I’ve set the power limit to 150W. This is about the highest power limit I would recommend for users considering the Big Shuriken 4 to keep their CPU under TJ Max, as the average temperature was measured at 79.5 degrees Celsius.

The smaller Shuriken 3 isn’t able to handle this workload, so it has been omitted from the results in this chart.

Scythe Big Shuriken 4

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

150W Noise measurements

Now, as the 150W thermal measurements demonstrated above are similar to what users might encounter in gaming scenarios, I’ve measured the noise levels of coolers in this benchmark to see how loud they get in everyday situations.

Scythe’s Big Shuriken 4 measured 39.3 dBA, a moderately low volume level.

Scythe Big Shuriken 4

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

100W thermal results

Our next test is the least-demanding benchmark featured in this review, with a workload that consumes only 100W. With this lower power limit in place, both of Scythe’s latest SFF coolers can handle the CPU with relative ease. Scythe’s Big Shuriken 4 reached a temperature of 62.7 degrees Celsius, only 5-6 degrees behind traditional single tower air coolers.

Scythe Big Shuriken 4

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Noise-normalized testing

While the preceding results used the default fan curve of my MSI x870E Carbon motherboard, I understand many readers prefer data where cooler noise levels are equalized. For this review, two noise-normalized tests were conducted. The first test was run with Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) active to allow for the highest possible power consumption.

Scythe Big Shuriken 4

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Looking at this first round of results, what stands out to me is how little performance is lost when the CPU’s fans are set to 39.6 dBA and the system fans are reduced from 60% to 25% PWM.

The Big Shuriken 4 cooled 178.7W with fans set normally, but only lost 1.2W of cooling power – practically a margin of error difference when noise levels were lowered and standardized.

The other noise-normalized test we have for this review also stresses the CPU to its maximum, as above, but also adds the heat of a GPU to the mix – our MSI RTX 4070 Ti Super consumes ~295W.

Scythe Big Shuriken 4

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Conclusion

Scythe Big Shuriken 4

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Scythe’s Big Shuriken 4 is a worthwhile choice for builders targeting SFF systems. Its slim 67mm profile, combined with low-noise operation, delivers cooling performance superior to that of smaller SFF alternatives. It’s a compelling balance of price, performance, and size for any system where space is at a premium.

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Albert Thomas
Albert Thomas
Freelancer, CPU Cooling Reviewer

Albert Thomas is a contributor for Tom’s Hardware, primarily covering CPU cooling reviews.

18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bit_user
    Thanks for testing a top-down cooler, @Albert.Thomas ! I've long been partial to these, given their tendency to provide direct cooling of VRMs. and other board components (e.g. LAN chips, which can run hot). Would be great to see how it compares to Noctua's 120 mm top-down: the



    Reply
  • thestryker
    Both of those coolers seem interesting, but I wonder how they would work with a 25mm thick fan. I'm betting the SI-100 and NH-L12Sx77 are probably going to perform better than the Big Shuriken 4, but I'd be really curious if the Shuriken 3 performance improves much as it would still be under 50mm high. If it did then it could be a great option for a future Strix Halo style APU in a very small form factor.

    It would also be really cool to see a Cryorig C5 cu (or even regular) on your test setup. It doesn't seem to do as well for AMD as Intel, but it's a very interesting cooler being low profile and using a vapor chamber. It's unfortunate that they use a proprietary fan mount, but it's another cooler that could potentially slot into that big APU SFF cooler segment since it's 55mm in height.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    thestryker said:
    Both of those coolers seem interesting, but I wonder how they would work with a 25mm thick fan. I'm betting the SI-100 and NH-L12Sx77 are probably going to perform better than the Big Shuriken 4,
    Curse you for putting this idea in my head! : D $40 isn't too much to satisfy my curiosity, especially for an old friend like Scythe. I think I probably will give it a go, on that Ryzen 9600X, since I'm not done experimenting with that system.

    Sadly, I do not have any comparison data for the NH-L12x77 vs SI-100 on AM5 - and I'm not about to remove the Noctua cooler from the machine it's in. However, I seem to recall others have made this comparison, so we could rely on their results for that part.


    On a related note, one thing I want to try with that SI-100 is strapping a 140 mm fan to it, using this fan adapter:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U3RTEO/
    I think it'll require drilling some small holes in the adapter, which shouldn't be a big deal. I will try using the Noctua NF-A14 G2 on it (Nocuta's recent revision of their 140 mm PWM flagship). And, if I move ahead with testing the Big Shuriken 4, I'll do the same on it.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    bit_user said:
    Curse you for putting this idea in my head! : D
    :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:

    Blame Scythe! They include 25mm fan mounts with the coolers and that's where the idea came from. I was looking up the Shuriken 3 since there wasn't a good picture of it in the review and saw that they advertise the 25mm mounts.
    Reply
  • Mindstab Thrull
    Running one of these proves that occasionally, Scythes matter...

    I'll see myself out.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    thestryker said:
    Blame Scythe! They include 25mm fan mounts with the coolers and that's where the idea came from.
    Yeah. Although, when a cooler lacks something as simple as a wire bracket, for holding the fan in place, I will simply tie the fan on there.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    @Albert.Thomas , there's an error in how one of the graphs is labelled. This one says it measures temperature, but the text indicates it's measuring noise at 150 W.

    Also, considering your overall quite positive-sounding conclusion:
    The article said:
    Scythe’s Big Shuriken 4 is a worthwhile choice for builders targeting SFF systems. Its slim 67mm profile, combined with low-noise operation, delivers cooling performance superior to that of smaller SFF alternatives. It’s a compelling balance of price, performance, and size for any system where space is at a premium.

    I'm surprised it rated only 3.5 stars. For someone with space constraints tight enough to be looking at this cooler, this seems like very good cooling performance - especially considering the noise level and price. It's surely no 5-star product, but I'd have expected at least 4.
    Reply
  • Albert.Thomas
    bit_user said:
    @Albert.Thomas , there's an error in how one of the graphs is labelled. This one says it measures temperature, but the text indicates it's measuring noise at 150 W.
    OOPS

    bit_user said:
    Also, considering your overall quite positive-sounding conclusion:

    I'm surprised it rated only 3.5 stars. For someone with space constraints tight enough to be looking at this cooler, this seems like very good cooling performance - especially considering the noise level and price. It's surely no 5-star product, but I'd have expected at least 4.
    I think I need to test more coolers of this nature with this system before I'd be confident in giving a higher rating.
    Reply
  • GravtheGeek
    From what I understand, the BS4 is actually one of the better performing 67mm class cpu coolers. It has a few rivals, the AXP120-67 from thermalright, the AN600 from Deepcool, the IS-67-XT from Id Cooling, and the RC600-67 from PC cooler. Fractal Terra and jonsbo T9 are great examples of cases that use 67mm coolers.

    The S3 though, is an interesting one. You see, at 39mm it's a bit too tall for some A4 cases, which typically max out at 37-38mm. A popular usage for it is in the Asrock Deskmini X600, where it performs quite well and is easier to mount then it's rivals, while being quieter. That case does support 47mm coolers though, which have better performance. Those would be right up against the metal though.

    There is also the issue that due to fin orientation, it performs better for intel then for AMD chips. Since SFF cases often have fans at the top, It's best to have fins that run parallel to the ram to direct air upwards as well.

    As for like the Cryorig C5, that's in that 50-55 mm range. The Cooj SF3 is a great example of a case in that range. Also a beautiful case to boot.
    Reply
  • beyondlogic
    bit_user said:
    Thanks for testing a top-down cooler, @Albert.Thomas ! I've long been partial to these, given their tendency to provide direct cooling of VRMs. and other board components (e.g. LAN chips, which can run hot). Would be great to see how it compares to Noctua's 120 mm top-down: the NH-L12Sx77 or Thermalright's SI-100 .

    Right now, I have builds with both of these coolers and another one with Noctua's 140 mm-based NH-C14S! I always upgrade the fans, though. Even on the NH-C14S, I tried upgrading the included first gen NF-A14 fan with the G2 version. FWIW, I found the NF-L12Sx77 struggled to cool a Ryzen 5800X its peak (142W) PPT, even with an upgraded fan. I need to revisit the Thermalright SI-100, but my Ryzen 9600X seems limited by it in 105 W (142W PPT) mode, although using a weaker fan (currently "just" a first gen NF-A12x25). I should note that both of these results were in extreme stress tests that ran at max PPT and not in regular usage.

    In the past, I used a Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B in two of my Intel builds (LGA 2011 and LGA 1150). It seemed like a solid design, even today. Maybe the fin stack was a bit thin, but I sort of wish they'd go back to that design and update it, instead of giving us yet another cantilevered top-down cooler.

    i currently used scythe for many years there good for chips around the 65w-110w range but they arent great with high core counts over 8 cpu cores. at least on amd side. due to more power density might draw same wattage but more cpus leads to more heat. at least on scythe coolers i find it cant handle a 12 core cpu even when crippled to 120w is was the reason i shifted to water cooling.
    Reply