Pros:
- Solid Construction
- Quiet Operation
- Full RAM Compatibility
About Scythe
Does Scythe even need an introduction? If you’re not familiar with Scythe they have over 20 years of experience, founded year 2002 in Tokyo, Japan. They’re well known amongst PC cooling enthusiasts for coolers which prioritize quiet operation – their FUMA 2 is one of the most popular desktop air coolers on the market!
Introducing Scythe’s Big Shuriken 3 Rev B, a SFF air cooler
Low Profile SFF Cooling
The Big Shuriken 3 features a low profile design at only 67mm tall. The cooler should fit into even the most cramped and space constrained of cases, making it a viable option for any SFF or Mini-ITX build.
Additional 25mm mounting screws
While Scythe includes a strong Kaze Flex II PWM Slim fan, they recognize that some enthusiasts might prefer to pair a louder fan. They’ve included 4x 25mm mounting screws for those who would prefer to upgrade the included fan.
5 Copper Heatpipes
1x 120mm Kaze Flex II PWM Slim fan
Scythe advertises the following with this fan:
- Anti Vibration Rubber
- Equipped with Anti-Vibration rubber allows Kaze Flex II slim fan to contribute nearly silent operation by absorbing possible vibration transmission.
- High Precision FDB
- With proprietary Fluid Dynamic Bearing, Kaze Flex 120 Slim fan provides quiet cooling as well as long lifespan up to 120,000 hours. The bearing and pressure shaft are made of high-quality compressed metal, it is to guarantee minimum tolerance and excellent stability.
Packaging and included contents
The Big Shuriken comes in a small box, as it’s only a SFF sized cooler. Upon opening the box you’ll see the top inner box which holds the accessories for installing the cooler. Below the accessories box is the SFF heatsink and fan.
Included with the package are
- SFF Heatsink
- 1x Slim 120mm Kaze Flex II PWM fan
- Mounting for modern Intel & AMD platforms
- Thermal paste
- Manual
AM4 & AM5 Cooler Installation with H.P.M.S IV Mounting System
Scythe made the Big Shuriken’s installation very simple and it only takes a few steps.
1. Remove the default AM5 retention socket
2. Place the rubber standoffs against the motherboard
3. Place the mounting bars against the rubber standoffs, and secure them with screws
4. Place the cooler against the mounting bars, and use a screwdriver to secure it. You’ll need to aim the screwdriver through the fan atop the heatsink to reach the screws.
Foreword
Over the past few months I’ve been exploring different levels of cooling with AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X CPU. When I tested EKWB’s AIO Elite 280, it surprised me by able to keeping the CPU under TJmax in intensive workloads – I had been under the impression that it was “impossible” to keep Ryzen 7000 CPUs under TJMax in intense workloads. On the opposite end, I tested BeQuiet’s Pure Rock LP SFF cooler – which was only able to cool 66W.
Test Platform Configuration
- At the default power limits
- Noise normalized to 36.4 dBA for silent operation
- With a 95W PPT enforced
- With a 75W PPT enforced.
Maximum Noise Levels
With a total system noise level of 42.9 dBA, Scythe’s Big Shuriken 3 Rev B. runs with a quiet hum and it isn’t loud in any sense of the word. It maintains this noise level in all of our tests when tied to the default fan curve of ASRock’s b650E Taichi.
Some of y’all might notice that the graph starts at 35 instead of zero – this is because my sound meter cannot measure noise levels lower than 35 dBA. Since that is the noise floor of this meter’s recording capabilities, 35 dBA is the “zero” for our testing purposes. For those concerned that this might distort results – there’s no worry. If anything, the graphs above will minimize the differences in noise levels because dBA measurements are logarithmic.
Noise Normalized Results
My data here for noise normalized operation with SFF coolers is limited, but when you consider that DeepCool’s full size AG500 air cooler only performs 18% better when noise normalized – Scythe’s bite sized SFF cooling performance looks pretty darned good.
75W Power Limit
95W Power Limit
At first glance you might think the results here are bad, because Scythe’s cooler is at the bottom of the chart – having reached 69C over ambient temp during testing.
But the fact that it’s even on this chart is a good sign – both BeQuiet’s Pure Rock LP and Iceberg Thermal’s IceFLOE T95 failed this test.
Default Power Limits
Cooling an average of 98.1W, Scythe’s cooler does better than other SFF offerings – only a small bit aways from reaching the cooling performance of normal sized air coolers.