Non-TEC Air Cooler: Scythe Ninja Plus Revision B
The Scythe Ninja Plus Revision B has the size to help answer questions regarding the effectiveness of TEC compared to non-TEC air-cooling solutions, with the added benefit of using a larger, quieter fan than the TEC coolers in this comparison.
Components And Installation
Designed to operate in either fan-assisted "ultimate cooling" or fan-free silent modes, the Scythe Ninja Plus Revision B is an enormous twelve-heatpipe tower cooler.
The Ninja Plus Revision B includes a 120 mm fan and wire fan holders, installation guide, a clip-on bracket for AMD Socket 754/939/940/AM2 processors, a clip-on Intel Socket 478 bracket, a pin locking Intel LGA775 bracket, four bracket-mounting screws, and a packet of thermal paste.
Shown with the LGA775 bracket installed, the Ninja Plus Revision B features a smooth copper contact surface.
Installation is a "snap", but the enormous fan has difficulty clearing even the shortest of memory modules. The fan can be placed on a different side of the cooler if needed.
One drawback of Scythe's installation kit is the use of a thee-pin fan that is not PWM-controlled. Nearly all current motherboards use four-pin PWM fan controls. As a result, the 20 dB, 1200 RPM fan will always be quiet, but never extremely powerful for its size.
The Ninja Plus Revision B is designed for use in either fanless or fan-assisted configuration, so the fins are placed far enough apart to assist with convective cooling. This also means a slow fan such as the one Scythe includes should be able to do the job adequately, and that the fins will take longer to become clogged with dust. A drawback of spacing the fins farther apart is that fewer fins results in less total surface area. Scythe helps make up for the lost fin count by making each fin huge compared to those in most other large air cooling designs.
