If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. Nobody gets things right the first time and even if done well, needs change over time so a revision is almost always guaranteed to happen. It is not about striving for perfection because what that is cannot be a clearly defined point, but it can be approached. This is a proverb cooling product manufacturer Scythe has also taken to heart with their Ninja CPU cooler series.

The Scythe Ninja 4 is the latest iteration of the company’s symmetrical tower-heatsink design. Utilizing six 6mm heatpipes arranged in U-formation, the Scythe Ninja 4 actually has less heatpipes than its predecessor which had eight but boasts a refined aluminum fin structure that promises to be much more efficient especially at lower fan speed levels. Bundled with the Scythe Ninja 4 is a 120mm Glidestream 120mm PWM fan with an adjustable 3-level fan speed switch for those with non-PWM headers, allowing for 1500, 1150 and 800 RPM speeds.

[sc:sponsor sponsor=”Scythe” product_link=”http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/cpu-cooler/ninja-4.html” product_name=”Ninja 4 CPU Cooler” product_price_link=”http://amzn.to/1IsIF6Z” product_price=”$52.95 (Amazon.com)” ]

Before you take to Tumblr and accuse Scythe of insensitivity and cultural misappropriation for its product naming and packaging, keep in mind that Scythe’s headquarters is actually in Japan; originally from Akibahara, a district known around the world for their electronic stores. Besides, it is in a rather playful context so put down that pitchfork and do not be such a baka desu.

  The packaging internally itself is modest with the heatsink held in place with cardboard and the accessories housed in its own box on the top. Any decent heatsink should be ready for installation right out of the box and that is exactly what Scythe has with the Ninja 4 as there is bundled thermal interface material as well as a mini hex spanner and screw driver with the mounting kit and illustrated user guide. An extra fan mounting clip is provided as well for an optional secondary 120mm fan.

Specifications:

Socket Compatibility Intel: Socket LGA775, LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA1366, LGA2011 / 2011-v3 (Square ILM). AMD: Socket AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, FM2, FM2+ Dimensions without fan  130 x 130 x 155 Dimensions with fan  130 x 155 x 155 Weight  780g (900g with fan) Heatpipe  6 x 6mm Base Material  Nickel Plated Copper Fan Bundled  1x GlideStream 120 PWM SY1225HB1212H-PS (3 operations modes H/M/L) Fan Airflow  L: 21.97~73,90 m³/h (12.93~43.50 CFM) M: 21.97~73,90 m³/h (12.93~63.73) CFM H: 21.97~73,90 m³/h (12.93~84.64 CFM) Fan Speed L:  300 rpm (±300)~800 rpm (±10% M: 300 rpm (±300)~1150 rpm (±10%) H: 300 rpm (±300)~1500 rpm (±10%) Static Pressure L: 0.69~4.90 Pa / 0.07~0.50 mmH²O M: 0.69~10.40 Pa / 0.07~1.06 mmH²O H: 0.69~17.55 Pa / 0.07~1.79 mmH²O Bearing Sleeve Bearing

  [section_title title=Closer Look at the Scythe Ninja 4]

A Closer Look at the Scythe Ninja 4

Standing 155mm tall, the Scythe Ninja 4 is not a small heatsink by any standard. Without a fan installed it is 130mm wide and symmetrical so all sides have the exact same width and height.  The Scythe Ninja 4 has also streamlined the “ninja” theme by making the fin resemble a shuriken front top looking down unlike the previous generation Ninja 3 Rev. B which looked more like a hot rod engine stack complete with flames. While the middle part is now connected, there are still gaps halfway from the edge which also functionally help easy installation as a long screw driver (such as the one bundled) can be passed through to secure the mounting bar onto the mounting plate.

There are 36-fins in total and as is obvious from the photos, have a high-quality reflective finish. Unlike the Ninja 3 Rev. B which had independent aluminum fin stacks, the Scythe Ninja 4 revised their multi-airflow pass-through structure to be connected at the center and if you look closely at the middle, criss-cross alternatingly to accelerate and distribute airflow much more efficiently across. There are six 6mm heatpipes in a U-shaped formation and these distribute evenly in four groups of three toward each corner. Unlike the Ninja 3, the Scythe Ninja 4 copper heatpipes are fully nickel plated to combat oxidation.

You can look all you want at the top of the heatsink but you can only truly judge a heatsink’s build quality by looking at how the heatpipes are connected at the base. Scythe did a stellar job with this and it is remarkable how clean and neatly tidied it is. The contact surface itself measures 38 x 43mm with the longer side on the heatpipe row. For reference, Intel’s HEDT LGA2011 CPUs have a 38×38 integrated heatsink surface area.

Like the copper heatpipes, the copper base is also nickel plated and is highly reflective with a center apex. Looking closely reveals discernible machining marks across and circular.

The bundled fan is a 120mm Scythe GlideStream 120 PWM SY1225HB1212H-PS fan. This is a sleeve bearing fan so this is where concession was made to make it more affordable. The fan itself otherwise has very good specifications with up to 1.79 mmH²O static pressure at the 1500 RPM maximum. There are nine blades in total, each with a groove across the top surface for lessening air resistance and with only a 36mm diameter hub, the fan blades cover a bigger surface area. The blades themselves are wide with big gaps in the middle, able to scoop plenty of air even at low fan speeds. There are four struts on the exhaust side curving against the the blade curve. The frame is otherwise standard 25mm thick and conforms with typical 120mm fan form factors.

It is a PWM fan so the range is controllable but Scythe was considerate for non-PWM users as well by providing a switch on the fan that limits the fan speed to three levels: high (~1500 RPM max), medium (~1150 RPM max) and kow (~800 RPM max).

The fan cable is nicely sleeved and has a 4-pin connector, Readings from ASUS Fan Xpert II reveal the real-world controllable PWM range:

  [section_title title=Installation Procedure and Clearance Issues]

Installation of the Scythe Ninja 4

Everything required to install the Scythe Ninja 4 on an Intel system is provided in the bundle, including thermal interface material, screwdriver and a small hex spanner with angled tip. AMD users will require the use of the stock backplate bundled with their AMD motherboard instead of the provided backplate. All steps are the same otherwise.

For Intel systems, the backplate has three different positioned holes to accomodate LGA775, LGA1366 and LGA115x sockets. Because people have been asking, yes LGA115x covers every single socket including LGA1151, LGA1150 and LGA1156 because the mounting hole distance is exactly the same for all of those models.

The main idea is to basically secure the backplate with the stud nuts with the white plastic spacers/washers as buffer so the metal stud nuts do not scratch the motherboard surface on the front. There are two kinds of stud nuts provided, one is shorter and one set is longer. The shorter one is for LGA2011 sockets with the integrated locking mechanism. For LGA775 sockets, the provided square padding must be added at the center of the backplate first.

Position the backplate appropriately and take note of the position of the two holes at the top of the socket at the back of the motherboard. The tip edges of the backplate have padding that elevate the backplate and provide clearance for any surface mounted part close to the socket area. The stud nuts can be secured by hand or tightened by a screw driver. The pair of mounting plates install on top of these directly and secured with the four small flat screws provided. These mounting plates install with the curve facing inward and have three different mounting holes for LGA775, LGA115x and LGA1366 as well. Technically, the Scythe Ninja 4 can be installed on any orientation because of its equidistant measurement, but for optimal results, it must be installed with the fan blowing close across a group of heatpipes on one side so the mounting bars are installed at the top and bottom (pictured below):

After the mounting bars are secured, apply thermal interface material on the CPU socket or on the heatsink contact surface (do not forget to remove the plastic cover first). To fully secure the Scythe Ninja 4, the mounting bar is slid in the middle and secured with the pair of large screws to the mounting plate. There is a cut-out on the aluminum fin stack that allows for the screwdriver provided to pass-through and secure these large screws in place. Afterwards, the mini-spanner can be used to tighten the contact further. Always make sure to tighten each incrementally so that pressure is distributed across properly. The last step is of course installing the fan and it is fairly self explanatory since the fan clips just attach to the edges.The measurement for these fan clips are remarkably exact and contact is very tight without being difficult to remove or install.

Do not forget to set the fan speed accordingly before installing the fan. For users with PWM motherboards, simply set the fan speed to maximum but for those who are going to plug the fan into a header with no PWM control, set the fan speed limiter accordingly.

Compatibility and Clearance Issues

The test motherboard is an ASUS Maximus VI Gene micro-ATX motherboard and measuring from the edge of the socket (the gray plastic part), there is a 31mm gap between the CPU socket and the first DIMM slot as well as a 52mm clearance between the CPU socket and the topmost PCI-E x16 slot where the graphics card is installed:

  The DDR3 module used in the photo below measures 30mm tall in total (bare PCB). The Scythe Ninja 4 overhangs on top of the first and partially on the second DIMM slot although it provides a total clearance of 39.5mm from contact surface to the first aluminum fin for any module. For reference, the popular Corsair Vengeance DDR3 modules (1st gen.) are exactly 52.4mm tall at the most (measured at the tallest point) and although they can be installed on the 2nd DIMM slot, the aluminum fins are encroaching on it.

As with most heatsinks, the fan position can be adjusted to compensate for DRAM height clearance. An additional fan can also be installed on the opposite side as well but this extends the total length covered to 180mm across (130mm plus 2 x 25mm thick fans).

There are plenty of space for graphics cards on the PCI-E x16 slot however if there is no fan installed on the bottom facing side.

  [section_title title=Test System and Benchmarks]

Test System and Benchmark Results

Test System:

Processor Intel Core i7-4770K (Retail) Motherboard ASUS Maximus VI Gene Z87 Motherboard (1603 BIOS) Memory Mushkin Stealth 1600MHz DDR3 Drive OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD Video Card Intel Integrated Graphics Thermal Compound Noctua NT-H1 Case DimasTech Mini v1 Power Supply Corsair HX850W Operating System Windows 7 x64 Pro

Test was conducted on a DimasTech MiniV1 open-air test-bench for parity performance between tower-style coolers and C-type downward or upward blowing coolers. Ambient temperature is measured at the fan intake and kept as constant as possible (room controlled temperature). All case and heat sink fans were benchmarked with fan control settings disabled and running at 100% unless otherwise specified.

To get closer to real world performance, a retail Intel i7-4770K CPU was used (non-delidded). Stock settings use a constant 1.1Vcore voltage while overclock settings use a constant 1.2Vcore voltage with EIST disabled (1.28Vcore OC test added for high-end air coolers). The Intel core i7-4770K integrated graphics was used for display output and no discrete graphics card was installed to prevent additional heat sources from contributing inside and outside the case. Multi-core enhancement is enabled in the BIOS by default and left on (ASUS Turbo Core policy used instead of Intel standard). Note that performance results on this setup are not directly comparable with any benchmarks from some of the previous reviews as the UEFI BIOS on the motherboard has been updated and now has a much tighter control on the Vcore voltage.

Mushkin Stealth DDR3 modules ensure full compatibility with any CPU cooler tested as its heatspreaders only add ~1.5mm to the standard JEDEC module height of 30mm compared to other modules which limit cooler compatibility.

Temperatures are averaged (last minute) from individual core temperature results monitored by AIDA64 after 15 minutes using the default CPU, FPU, Memory and Cache simultaneous load. AIDA64 is able to use the latest instructions including AVX and AVX2, etc unlike other older CPU load tests so it is also a lot more “future proof” as more software start to utilize it. FPU-only load average is used to simulate worst case scenario load levels similar to Intel Burn Test or OCCT. Please keep in mind that this test is brutal and not even close to real-world load (especially not that constant for that amount of time), so not many CPU coolers are expected to pass this test but the ones that do are exceptional. Results marked “100″ and in red means thermal limit was reached and the CPU was throttled, even for just but a second. This includes results where even just the first core reached the limit and even if it briefly happened. It is marked as 100 in red in the review if it happens three times. Three runs are conducted per cooler and a fourth run is done after a remounting to verify. Last minute average is taken instead of peak because it represents the averaged behaviour of the thermal performance instead of worst-case scenario or a snapshot. Temperature delta results are used to account for variance since not all heatsinks can be conducted on the same day.

Screenshot of the Noctua NH-U9S under FPU-only load surviving 15-minute run in AIDA64. Getting the thermal behaviour presents a more accurate performance assessment than a single second snapshot or a mere peak temperature recording.

The Corsair HX850W power supply’s fans only ramp up when system load is past 20% making it an excellent power supply to use for when testing the CPU cooler’s noise levels. Any load under that and the fan does not spin at all, effectively acting in passive mode.

The American Recording Technologies SPL-8810 meter is placed 20cm from the source fan to measure sound level. The entire test unit is moved to an acoustically treated room to get the ambient noise as low as controllably possible for real-world results. All other fans are disabled to eliminate sound sources that are not from the cooling unit itself that is being tested. This includes all case fans and all other component fan is shut off. The boiler during winter or the air conditioner during summer is also shut off to eliminate ambient noise further and sound testing is conducted from 2AM to 5AM so sound traffic from the outside is minimized as much as possible. Fan levels are controlled manually via software and at a separate time from the temperature testing.

Although the graphs include the sound level in bar graph form with the temperatures, please understand that this is only done for the sake of convenience. Sound level measurement is logarithmic so technically it should be on a separate graph than temperatures because it is on a completely different scale.

Benchmarks:

Sound Profile (Fan RPM vs Noise Level) – Room ambient noise is 34.8dBA:

Fan Speed 1x 120mm Scythe GlideStream 120 PWM SY1225HB1212H-PS RPM dBA 1500 43.2 1400 42.4 1300 40.6 1200 39.2 1100 38.1 1000 36.6 900 35.9 800 35.3

[section_title title=Final Thoughts]

Final Thoughts about the Scythe Ninja 4

Looks like we have a kingslayer on our hands but there is a lot more to a review than just benchmarks and context of functionality must be taken into account. After all, who cares about a difference of one or two degrees? What makes the Scythe Ninja 4 impressive however is the fact that not only does it match the Noctua NH-D15/D15S in performance, it does so on its MEDIUM fan speed setting. When running at its max fan speed, the 120mm Scythe Glidestream fan on the Ninja 4 is able to trump the large 140mm twin-tower cooler by four degrees on the FPU-only load average. Averaged numbers are used in the methodology to get consistent and behavioural based results, but raw numbers will show even bigger gaps.

Factoring in noise, the Ninja 4 is considerably louder at 43.2 dBA with maximum fan speed but the medium fan speed clocks in at only 38.1 dBA, besting the NH-D15S’ 40.8 dBA. That makes it quieter than even the impressively silent BeQuiet Dark Rock TF which runs at 39dBA at full-speed. Even at the low 800RPM fan speed setting, the Scythe Ninja 4 still puts up impressive numbers, now clocking in at only 35.3 dBA and virtually inaudible from ambient noise for most ears even outside of an enclosure.

The Scythe Ninja 4 shows the kind of impressive performance that is not just based on brute airflow, but on quality engineering. You can slap any fan on this heatsink and it will perform well because the design is fundamentally strong. The Scythe Glidestream fan itself is very good, especially considering it is a sleeve bearing fan. They generally do not last as long or as versatile as ball-bearing and fluid-bearing fans but the Scythe Glidestream exhibited decently smooth PWM noise across the spectrum. There is only a slight grinding noise noted between 400 to 500 RPM but otherwise, the grooved fan blade design proved to be very good at producing quiet, high-pitch free operation even at maximum speed.

The only other downside to the Scythe Ninja 4’s design is its symmetrical layout creating clearance issues with taller RAM modules. On many motherboards, it will overhang up to the second DIMM slot limiting the clearance to 39.5mm. Ultimately, the Scythe Ninja 4’s impressive performance more than justifies this short coming so it earns an Editor’s Choice award. While the 43dBA maximum fan speed is not enough on its own to convince, it earned a lot of points with its 38.1 dBA medium and 35.3 dBA low fan speed performance as well as a build quality that is a benchmark on its own, all for only ~$50 USD.

[sc:editors_choice_award ]

New Post has been published on http://www.pugeu.net/compro-i7-3770k-i7-4770k-i7-4790k

New Post has been published on http://www.pugeu.net/vendo-pc-i7-4770k-sin-grafica

Intel Broadwel: se acerca el nuevo procesamiento

Falta muy poco para que salgan al mercado los nuevos chips de 14 nm de la firma. Se centrarán en el rendimiento gráfico y el bajo consumo. 

Gráficos y ahorro de energía, ¿qué mas se puede pedir? Intel está trabajando para largar al mercado los nuevos procesadores Broadwell para equipos de escritorio. Si bien la empresa ya esta integrando los nuevos Core M y procesadores de la serie U que se utilizan por ejemplo en la MacBook Air; su próxima apuesta será traer los nuevos micros con tecnología de 14 nm.

Estos procesadores destinados a las PCs de escritorio, tendrán en sus diferenciales la mejora gráfica integrada, Iris Pro 6200; y una significativa reducción del consumo energético. Los modelos que van a ser más rápidos son el Core i5-5675C y Core i7-5775C, compatibles con LGA-1150 y chipset Z97.

Pese a su nueva tecnología y arquitectura, el Core i7-5775C con cuatro núcleos y ocho hilos de procesamiento nativo y 6 Mbytes de caché, el cual entrega hasta 3,7 GHz de velocidad, será de rendimiento inferior al Core i7-4770K. Parece raro, pero esto es algo que se viene dando en varias lineas de procesadores en nuevas versiones.

نتائج مسربة لبطاقة GTX 960 ببرنامج 3DMark

على الرغم من أن وقت إصدار البطاقة إقترب للغاية إلا أنه يوجد البعض لا يستطيعون الانتظار ومتحمسون للغاية لإمتلاك البطاقة GTX 960 التى تسمى بملكة الفئة المتوسطة من شركة Nvidia وبوجود العديد من التسريبات عن البطاقة لكن تسريبات اليوم مختلفة تماماً فتأتى عن طريق برنامج 3DMark الذى يختبر قوة وآداء البطاقة من خلال محاكاة تصويرية لبعض الألعاب وإختبار البطاقة فيزيائياً وعملياً، فقد صدرت نتائج الإختبارات…

Home is where the desk is: Finally got around to cleaning up the digital workspace at home, and made space for everything.  Cleared out the things I don't use from the desk.  Built a 4x USB charging station and added two new power boards.

Machines:

BLACK: 4770K, GTX780, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD

PANAFEN: Microsoft Surface Pro 3 i3, 4gb RAM, 64GB SSD

EYES 2: 2008 Macbook Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz, 8gb RAM, 180gb SSD

iPAD: Klu ku ku ku ku ipad (mini retina 32gb) klu ku ku ku

Devil’s Canyon – Haswell Refresh

Avevamo già accennato in precedenza l’imminente arrivo dei nuovi Haswell Refresh, ed eccoli qui.

Con un nome in codice che è tutto un programma, come a voler far intuire ai consumers che tanto ne aspettavano l’uscita le reali potenzialità dei processori.

Con i nuovi Core i produttori taiwanesi mirano all’accentuare maggiormente l’interesse per i sistemi di fascia enthusiast, puntando a Clock…