Scythe Big Shuriken 3 CPU-Kühler for AMD and Intel CPU´s

Product Information

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

As many of you have pointed out time and again this procedure takes a lot more time than the usual peltier/thermometer tests but this way not only can we deliver real world results based on real CPUs but we can also triple check the results using a variety of programs. Once the paste is applied, we can mount the Big Shuriken 3 by using a screwdriver and alternating between screws on the crossbar every few turns to apply pressure as evenly as possible until the heatsink is securely mounted. Performance is surprisingly good in low-mid heat situations, but temps start to become an issue if much more heat is added into the mix. That mission revolves around grouping and standardising key technologies under various banners that are designed to ensure hardware compatibility and consumer ease of use. So when it comes to having the best performance, and the ability to suit many more environments, we have to give the edge to Scythe and show them the love this cooler deserves.Across the top of the front panel, we see the company name and logo to the left, while the much larger product name, highlighted with red, pops right out at you. multiple hard drives the norm, lots of memory and mainboards covered in heatpipes to combat toasty core logic and PWM circuits, a PC appreciably warming up a room when it’s working hard is no joke. However this should not be taken as an indictment of the cooler, as this represented the highest level possible as the fan was spinning at 100% during this sustained workload. The biggest difference over the older Kaze Flex 120 Slim PWM (on the Big Shuriken 3) should be the lower noise level. For the installation of the heatsink, Scythe has one-upped Noctua by including vibration dampeners on the HSF standoffs.

Along with the Big Shuriken 3 you will also receive a tube with thermal conductive material, double-sided 3M tape, backplate, installation guide and all the bits and pieces required to mount the cooler onto Intel LGA775/1150/1151/1155/1156/1366/2011/2011-3/2066 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/AM4/FM1/FM2/FM2+ mainboards. Five product drawings are located at the rear of the box and are used to showcase the product specifications. At the bottom of the cooler, the cardboard is bent to lift the cooler off the bottom of the box as well as taking the weight of the cooler.

The next step is to apply thermal paste to the CPU, and Scythe kindly includes a tube of paste for those who may not have any.

Unfortunately, I did find a single measurement inaccuracy that is working to their disadvantage here and I hope that they will fix it. Warranty information is printed on the left side and on the right, we see a few words about both the heatsink and the Kaze Flex Slim 120 PWM fan used. A large product picture along with the company logo, the fan used and the mainboard/CPU compatibility are placed at the front of the box. I had it idle in bios for around 45 minutes and it sat comfortably at 37°C with the fans spinning at between 900-1000rpm.Scythe included a slim version of their Kaze Flex fan that comes in at 17 mm thick and runs at a max of 1,800 RPM.

The copper base is machined into a slightly convex shape, and while most of the surface has an orange peel effect from the later plating of the surface, at the center, there is a defined ring left from the machining process. We honestly cannot imagine a good enough reason for wanting to stick a 30mm thick fan on this device… nor can we imagine the need for using a thinner fan.Below, to the left, we see the four black spacers, one side of which has a rubber washer on it for isolation, the Intel nuts for the brackets, and the LGA2011/2066 standoffs. So, having a typical enclosed PC at an average distance away would result in almost all the heatsinks in the chart below being reasonable, even at max fan speed. In the middle, we find the universal Intel backplate, which offers adjustable positions for the threaded bits, and even a place for the preload spacer for LGA775.