Introduction

I have seen more than my fair share of coolers in the past ranging from the more conservative OEM coolers to the weird and wonderful world of aftermarket coolers. So you might think that I wouldn’t want to review any more, but when I was asked if I would review the Scythe Orochi – a ten heatpipe monster – I just couldn’t say no.

So today Tech-reviews.co.uk presents you with the Scythe Orochi.

About Scythe

Aside from sounding like the name of a Pokémon, Scythe was started in Tokyo Japan in 2002 manufacturing PC parts and gaming devices.

Scythe’s first venture was to manufacture a super powerful, yet super quiet CPU cooler (Scythe Kamakaze CPU cooler) and with the great success of this Kamakaze CPU cooler, Scythe became recognized as the leading CPU cooler supplier in Japan. Shortly there after, due to popular demand, Scythe began exporting products all over the world.

Features

• Ultimate Super Low Noise CPU Cooler

  10 heatpipes and large heatsink surface enables this CPU cooler to enable the ultimate fanless operation for today’s PC system.

• Large Sized Scythe Original 140mm Round Shaped Fan

  Large sized 140mm and Scythe original round-shaped fan to provide big airflow yet optimization for silent operation!

• Total 10 Heatpipe for Top Performance

  With total 10 x 6mm diameter heatpipe to provide the super ultimate silent cooling.

• 120mm Fan Mounting Compatibility

  120mm fan can be attached to Orochi CPU Cooler using the Scythe 12cm Fan Clips.

Specifications

Model Name:	OROCHI CPU Cooler
Model Number:	SCORC-1000
Manufacturer:	Scythe Co., Ltd. Japan
Overall Dimensions:	120 x 194 x 155 mm
Weight:	1.285 kg
Fan Dimensions:	140 x 140 x 25 mm
Weight:	130 g
Speed:	500 rpm (±10%)
Air Flow:	29.39 CFM
Noise Level:	10.8 dBA
Compatibility:	775, 478, AM2, 940, 939, 754

At this point the more observing of you should be going “Christ that’s huge!” and it is so huge; in fact Scythe gives you a little warning:

Important Notice:

*Due to the large dimension of this CPU Cooler, this product may not fit into all PC cases.  Please check the dimension of your PC case and surrounding components to make sure this CPU cooler can fit into your system.

And if you have seen the noise levels and are wondering if that is a mistake? I can tell you that no it isn’t, it’s what Scythe has indeed stated.

The Package

The Orochi arrived in a large cardboard box with the classic Scythe Japanese Styling. The box is covered with dragons and scales – it all looks pretty oriental.

The box, which is coated at all sides by specifications and features, carries all of the writing in two languages, English and Japanese. The rear of the box simply gives the warranty infomation and a list of tips for idiots like: ‘This package consists of the CPU cooler only. Please purchase other PC devices on your own.’

Once the box had been opened its possible to see that the cooler is seriously hardcore and that no attempts have been made to keep it safe from knocks inside the box.

Along with the cooler there is a small box of various mounting kits and a 140mm fan. The supported CPU sockets are: all Intel LGA775/478 socket CPU’s, all AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2 CPU’s.

The Scythe Orochi

After removing this beast from the box I had a good hard look at it to see if the packaging was sufficient to protect the cooler.  As the Orochi’s cooling fins are incredibly thick and robust and do not bend easily, the Ocochi didn’t have any signs of damage.

The heatpipes were probably the first thing I noticed – all 10 of them. They all meet at the core where they are sandwiched between a small heatsink and the core itself. The heatpipes are all copper and have a very rough matt finish to them. From the opposite side to which they enter the core it is possible to see that they are all neatly finished on the ends.

Beneath the large cooling fins there is a small shiny heatsink. This dissipates heat straight up between the large cooling fins and if the fan assisted setup is used the airflow will be directly through the fins and onto the heatsink.

The CPU contact surface is protected as usual by a plastic sticker. The contact is probably the shiniest I have ever seen, and this is a good thing; as a shiny surface which is also flat has a greater contact surface area, which means greater and faster dissipation of heat from the CPU.

As you can see from the coin test the surface is like a mirror.

The cooling fins are huge and have a large surface area, the heatpipes run through these fins and protract from the end of the last fin. I counted that there are roughly 38-42 fins. 3 of the fins are a slightly different size though. All the fins have indentations on the edges, these allow for the attachment of fans via the provided mounting clips.

Because of the huge size of the cooler it can also be used in passive mode, meaning that no fans are attached equalling total silence. From past experience, passive coolers can offer quite astonishing results such as the Coolermaster Z600.

The fan supplied with the Orochi is a 140mm Scythe model which runs at 500rpm producing 10.8dBA.

All that said the Orochi isn’t the best looking cooler but it is imposing.

Installation

Test Setup

Motherboard	MSI K9N6GM
Processor	Athlon 64×2 4200+
Memory	OCZ Spec OPS 2gb (2×1gb)
Hard Disk Drive	80gb Hitachi SATA
Graphics Card	ATI HD 2400pro OC
Case	Antec Three Hundred

The installation onto the motherboard was incredibly simple as the AMD clip simply pushes onto the hooks and the entire cooler feels very securely fastened. However when putting it all into the case I found that I had to remove the rear case fan because the cooler is such a huge size that it couldn’t really have been fitted in any direction without having to remove the fan.

The installation of the fan to the cooler was relatively easy as its pretty much a matter of pushing the clips into place.

When installed the cooler covers about half of a micro-atx motherboard, which for a cooler, is huge. As you can see it dwarfs everything else within the case.

Methodology

To test CPU Coolers we simply boot the PC up into Windows Vista and measure temperatures under idle and load states. The temperature is recorded from the CPU’s own diode using SpeedFan.

For idle testing, we leave the PC doing nothing for half an hour and take 3 temperature readings at 10-second intervals after 30mins. We then use the average score from these as the result. When testing at load temperatures, we use a similar method but load both cores of our CPU right to 100% by loading two processes of ‘CPU Burn-In’.

I will compare the Orochi to two other silent coolers the CoolerMaster Z600 and the Nexus HOC-9000. Ambient was 22c throughout.

Results

	Idle	Load
Scythe Orochi	23	30
Scythe Orochi Passive Mode	26	39
Coolermaster Z600 Passive	29	40
Nexus HOC-9000	33	42

From these results it is possible to see that the Orochi beats every other cooler thrown at it even in passive mode. This is a pretty amazing to achieve results like these.

Noise Levels

The Orochi is inaudible even when the fan is attached to the cooler so anybody looking for the ultimate silent solution cannot go wrong with the Orochi.

Cost

A quick google product search reveals that the cooler can be had for as little as £45 or as much as £53. This seems a lot to pay for a cooler but factor in the size, performance and silence it all comes together and appears reasonable.

Conclusion

The Orochi offers the best cooling performance I have ever seen from any cooler, it just goes to show that with a little innovation and sizeable air cooling, both silence and performance can be achieved.

I am pleased to award the Scythe Orochi 4/5 and the hardcore award. Good job Scythe!

Pros

• Hyper performance
• Silent
• Robust

Cons

• Ugly
• Size
• Cost