OCZ's new Scythe Ninja...I mean...

Rory Buszka · 01-14-2007, 01:16 PM

It looks like everything old is new again. At CES, OCZ Technologies showed a new CPU cooler with a tower form factor, a 6-heatpipe cooler with fins spread nicely apart to allow for low resistance to passive convection cooling, though the cooler offers a mounting solution for a 120mm fan. On one hand, I'm pleased that more mainstream manufacturers of coolers are beginning to take notice of low noise CPU cooler design principles...

...But on the other hand, I really wish they could have been more original in their design. Shown below is the Scythe Ninja cooler, which is also a tower-style heatsink with six heatpipes. Now, I'm pretty sure that Scythe did not exhaust all the possible ways that six heatpipes could have been effectively integrated into a tower heatsink.

I think that the new OCZ tower heatsink really looks like nothing more than a direct take-off of the Ninja. OCZ had better hope that Scythe isn't capable of pricing their Ninja substantially lower than OCZ's own cooler, and that their cooler outperforms the Ninja, if they want to have commercial success, since just about every serious PC enthusiast who reads web forums knows about the Ninja. I also want to see a head-to-head comparison between the two coolers, both to show the incredible similarity in design and see definitively which one offers the lowest temperatures. Companies take significant risks when they decide to do a take-off of another company's design, not limited to those in the legal realm. I'll be interested to see which cooler is more of a success.

On the upside, however, more manufacturers are beginning to see the growing market for very large heatpipe-tower heatsinks to achieve passive or semi-passive cooling of processors. Soon, even hard-overclocking gamers won't have an excuse not to pursue quieter air-cooling solutions.

Greg King · 01-15-2007, 08:35 AM

I don't think that it's too difficult to find any cooler that isn't based on a design of another product. It's just the name of the game and it's been that way for as long as I can remember it. It's the same with PC cases. I too would like to see a head to head comparison. Good idea.

Rory Buszka · 01-15-2007, 04:32 PM

The other possibility is that the OCZ cooler is actually manufactured by Scythe, and the design is so similar to the Ninja to ensure commonality of parts.

Greg King · 01-16-2007, 10:24 AM

This idea is quite possible as well.

Rob Williams · 01-16-2007, 09:59 PM

It could be, but I'm unaware that OCZ gets help from other companies like this, except with their power supplies. I could ask them.

Either way, way too bulky of a cooler for me.

01-14-2007, 01:16 PM	#1
Rory Buszka Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana Posts: 388	OCZ's new Scythe Ninja...I mean... It looks like everything old is new again. At CES, OCZ Technologies showed a new CPU cooler with a tower form factor, a 6-heatpipe cooler with fins spread nicely apart to allow for low resistance to passive convection cooling, though the cooler offers a mounting solution for a 120mm fan. On one hand, I'm pleased that more mainstream manufacturers of coolers are beginning to take notice of low noise CPU cooler design principles... ...But on the other hand, I really wish they could have been more original in their design. Shown below is the Scythe Ninja cooler, which is also a tower-style heatsink with six heatpipes. Now, I'm pretty sure that Scythe did not exhaust all the possible ways that six heatpipes could have been effectively integrated into a tower heatsink. I think that the new OCZ tower heatsink really looks like nothing more than a direct take-off of the Ninja. OCZ had better hope that Scythe isn't capable of pricing their Ninja substantially lower than OCZ's own cooler, and that their cooler outperforms the Ninja, if they want to have commercial success, since just about every serious PC enthusiast who reads web forums knows about the Ninja. I also want to see a head-to-head comparison between the two coolers, both to show the incredible similarity in design and see definitively which one offers the lowest temperatures. Companies take significant risks when they decide to do a take-off of another company's design, not limited to those in the legal realm. I'll be interested to see which cooler is more of a success. On the upside, however, more manufacturers are beginning to see the growing market for very large heatpipe-tower heatsinks to achieve passive or semi-passive cooling of processors. Soon, even hard-overclocking gamers won't have an excuse not to pursue quieter air-cooling solutions. __________________ Best Regards, Rory Buszka Last edited by Rory Buszka; 01-14-2007 at 01:24 PM. Reason: love doesn't need a reason.

01-15-2007, 08:35 AM	#2
Greg King I just kinda show up... Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 2,081	I don't think that it's too difficult to find any cooler that isn't based on a design of another product. It's just the name of the game and it's been that way for as long as I can remember it. It's the same with PC cases. I too would like to see a head to head comparison. Good idea. __________________ "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan System: Intel i5 2500K \| Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 \| 16GB G.Skill DDR3 \| Crucial M4 128GB SSD WD 1TB Black x1 \| WD 2TB Green x 1 \| XFX Radeonn HD 6850 \| Corsair H80 Water Cooler Fractal Design R3 \| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 \| Dell 2410 x 3 @ 1920x1200 ESXi Host: Intel i7 920 @ 3.0 GHz \| Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P \| 24GB Patriot DDR3 \| WD 1TB Black x 2

01-15-2007, 04:32 PM	#3
Rory Buszka Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana Posts: 388	The other possibility is that the OCZ cooler is actually manufactured by Scythe, and the design is so similar to the Ninja to ensure commonality of parts. __________________ Best Regards, Rory Buszka

01-16-2007, 10:24 AM	#4
Greg King I just kinda show up... Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 2,081	This idea is quite possible as well. __________________ "It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan System: Intel i5 2500K \| Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 \| 16GB G.Skill DDR3 \| Crucial M4 128GB SSD WD 1TB Black x1 \| WD 2TB Green x 1 \| XFX Radeonn HD 6850 \| Corsair H80 Water Cooler Fractal Design R3 \| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 \| Dell 2410 x 3 @ 1920x1200 ESXi Host: Intel i7 920 @ 3.0 GHz \| Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P \| 24GB Patriot DDR3 \| WD 1TB Black x 2

01-16-2007, 09:59 PM	#5
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,246	It could be, but I'm unaware that OCZ gets help from other companies like this, except with their power supplies. I could ask them. Either way, way too bulky of a cooler for me. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

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