SPCR

I am looking to find a new CPU cooler and I have nailed it down to the last two contenders being the Scythe Ninja and the Thermaltake Fanless 103. I'm sure you've all heard of the Scythe Ninja, not so sure about the TT Fanless 103 though.

Scythe Ninja:
http://www.pro-clockers.com/images/scyt ... 000big.jpg
http://www.chaosreigns.com/gallery/medi ... NY0306.JPG
http://parker1.co.uk/ripley/ripley1.jpg

TT Fanless 103:
http://img.presence-pc.com/dossiers/fanlesshs/103.jpg
http://img2.zol.com.cn/product/0/424/ceQqGm6mKmDrs.jpg
http://www.fan-x.de/pics/hardware/testk ... s01big.jpg

Any opinions? (FYI: I've got the TT Tsunami Dream case)
Looks/Appearance: ?/5
Performance: ?/5
Overall: ?/10

Thanks for any input!

First, the review of Scythe:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article251-page1.html

For TT 103, try searching.
In general, Scythe Ninja is very good in all aspects. TT not in all, although also cools well. Scythe's wide spacing is good for fully passive cooling, and it imposes little load on the motherboard.

the fin spacing on that thermal take looks rather narrow, definatly not ideal for passive cooling (less airflow can get through the fins easily) iam sure the TT makes up for it with sheer size. that size however may put a serious ammount of pressure on the motherboard. If i were you i would go for the ninja, wide spaced fins and a square design take better advantage of case air flow, and the less torsion on the motherboard the better.

the thermalright hr-01 is another passive cooler that has seen good reviews as well, dont know if you looked into that one or not.
although it is a little top heavy it works just fine for me, i would have went with a ninja though if it would have fit in my case.

Edit : found a review, not sure how credible the site is but this may help
http://www.rbmods.com/Articles/Thermalt ... s103/2.php

Well here's 2c from the user of [Tada!] Ninja [/Tada!] in fanless mode. Wide spaced fins, lotsa heatpipies, universal orientation - close to the back and/or PSU fans (see pics in sig). Millions of happy users can't be wrong. Although Ninja Rev. B might not have the best mounting system, it's still highest end. Give a thought to Ultra 120, and especially to its newer version - Ultra 120 Extreme (or is it Plus?). Will also work great in passive mode. Heck, if your CPU is not a beast, Infinity or Noctua U12 (same as Ultra 120, almost) will also be good choices.

found a review, not sure how credible the site is

I think they made some mistake in using the heatsink. It takes a mistake to get such high temperatures with it. Maybe too much thermal grease, or lack of grease, or a grain of sand, or some wrong placement. Whatever, with a fan even much smaller heatsinks perform better. The review length is also not convincing.


In general, thin-finned, thin-spaced heatsinks perform extremely well with fans. If you look inside a high-power 1U server, like 4-CPU dualcore Opteron with 4 HDD, feeding off 1000W PSU, and all in that 40mm of internal space, you'll often find lots of thin-spaced copper heatsinks inside, equipped with their 40mm fans. Same inside the PSU. These heatsinks are high-performance, and even not very well done would provide excellent cooling with a good fan, just from the looks. Unless TT really screwed up with thick layers of poor grease or something, but more likely it's the reviewer.

However, while excellent if air is forced through, they lack good natural convention. Not that they are bad, actually good, just the numerous thin fins you can rely on with a fan don't help nearly as much without it.
So, if going with a fan, TT might prove good (or even very good). If not, Scythe all the way, IMHO. Size is more important there than number of fins.


P.S. I myself have Zalman 7700Cu at minimal speed. What I like about it is cooling of all motherboard components, particularly the VRM. Even slow airflow is far better than none.

You should probably go with the Ninja unless appearance or some specific plan of yours is a factor.

People have used the Tt 103 in the past when there were few other choices for large, potentially passive-running heat pipe coolers. It is a design several years old now, and doesn't offer as many cooling options and probably not as much heat capacity as the Ninja does. Also, as mentioned, the closely spaced fins are not a good thing.

These days there are far more, far better choices than the 103 available, and I am surpised that it is still being sold.

wooo....thanks guys!