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

Product Information

Scythe has equipped the Big Shuriken 3 with a Kaze Flex Slim 120 PWM fluid dynamic bearing fan that can hit speeds of up to 1800RPM to produce up to 50.79CFM of airflow and 1.35mmH2O of air-pressure with 30.4dBA of noise.

The fan on this Noctua cooler is an NF-A9x14 92mm that is capable of 1700 RPM. The cooler can be expected to produce about 19,9 dB(A) in terms of noise levels which is extremely quiet by comparison to other offerings. After plotting the data, I was honestly surprised by how well it performed compared to the other heatsinks. Temperatures are only slightly hotter or even on par in the 1.13-1.275 V range. However, unlike the other heatsinks, the Big Shuriken 3 cannot handle the voltage increase much past 1.275 V without the CPU hitting the TJ max, which would lead to throttling. So, the Big Shuriken 3 performed well in the low to mid heat range, but can’t keep up with the larger heatsinks during high heat loads. After testing the default push configuration, I tried flipping the fan so that it pulls air through the Big Shuriken 3 and away from the motherboard instead. In my test runs, this did help shave a degree or two, and I believe I know why. Since I’m using a horizontal test bench, the default push setup would push air through the Big Shuriken 3, then that heated air would rise above the heatsink and get recycled by the fan. However, in the pull setup, air wouldn’t get recycled, so ambient temperature ended up being a little lower.All testing was performed on an open test bench, which minimizes ambient temperature and gives a “worst case” scenario for sound level.

Today we introduce you to the Scythe Big Shuriken 3 CPU cooler, which strangely is not that big as far as coolers go, but as the namesake, Shuriken, I'm not sure I'd want to be throwing these at trees. The reason we say this cooler is not that big as far as coolers go is that Scythe imposed its restrictions on the latest design.

dbrand was ROBBED

The noise of the Big Shuriken 3 paired with the slim Kaze Flex fan wasn’t the best and was basically identical to the Fuma with a standard Kaze Flex fan. The Big Shuriken 3 is a relatively dense heatsink and it’s paired with a higher RPM fan, so more noise is expected. However, these readings were done on an open test bench with the fans at max speed, so this is the worst-case scenario. 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. Nothing out of the ordinary to cause alarm about the noise levels here. Varied Vcore (in BIOS) from 1.125 V to 1.375 V in 0.050 V increments to increase heat. Stopped increasing Vcore once a core reached ~100 °C. The Big Shuriken 3 is a mid-sized low-profile CPU cooler that measures 122mm in length, 122mm in width and 69mm in height with a weight of 475g.

Next, I fired up the 3D Mark CPU profile and compared it to my previous run with a 280mm AIO. The worst bench score had the Big Shuriken 3 only 4.7% behind a 280MM AIO and the peak speed was only 25MHz behind the peak speed on the AIO.

Features

Building a SFF (small form factor) PC based on an Mini-ITX board carries certain limitations with it. One of the biggest limitations is the CPU cooler height, which has to be shorter than what you have on regular air CPU coolers since most Mini-ITX PC cases are much smaller than regular cases. And finding the best low-profile CPU cooler can be a bit complicated since not all are made for every CPU. The sound level in dBA was measured 10 cm from the intake fan with the fan speed set to 100%. Then, the sound level was estimated for other distances using the following formula: Also in confined spaces, airflow is a premium, and not just in how the chassis provides the influx of ambient airflow, but what in the system can be actively cooled. With the C-Style design, you almost get three coolers in one. Many cover some if not all of the memory, of course, they cool the CPU, but they also add direct airflow to the PWM of the motherboard. How many towers or AIOs can say that? Even more importantly, can they fit in an SFF chassis or Mini-ITX system?