Scythe Orochi CPU Cooler Review

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Scythe has been developing large fanless heatsinks that employ heatpipes for quite some time. Their original NCU-1000 found favor with many silent PC enthusiasts. The follow-up, the NCU-2000, was an improved version of the same heatsink.

Their latest product is a massive tall heatpipe device with a loosely spaced fins structure. the Orochi can be used with all modern desktop CPU platforms. It is more extreme than anything Scythe has put out before. This innovation is definitely worthy to be classified as XTREME!!

Scythe heatsink designs have always been unique. The Orochi is by far the largest cpu air cooler on the market today.

BASICS

Thanks to Scythe for shipping the test sample fast.


Total 10 heatpipes and large surface for ultimate super silent cooling! Scythe original designed 140mm fan / 25mm thickness round-shaped fan!

Manufacturers Specifications:
Model Name: OROCHI CPU Cooler
Model Number: SCORC-1000
Manufacturer: Scythe Co., Ltd. Japan

Overall
Dimensions: 120 x 194 x 155 mm
4.7 x 7.6 x 6.1 inch
Weight: 1,285 g
2.84 lb

Fan
Dimensions: 140 x 140 x 25 mm
5.5 x 5.5 x 1.0 inch
Weight: 130 g
0.29 lb
Speed: 500 rpm (±10&#37
Air Flow: 29.39 CFM
Noise Level: 10.8 dBA


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.

Compatibility

Intel® LGA775 (SocketT) Proessor
Intel® Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 3200 Series
Intel® Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 3000 Sequence

Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor
Intel® Core™2 Quad processor
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor
Intel® Core™ Duo Processor

Intel® Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition
Intel® Pentium® D Processor
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor supporting Hyper-threading Technology

Intel® Celeron® Dual-Core Processor
Intel® Celeron® D Processor

Intel® Socket478 Proessor
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor Extreme Edition supporting Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor supporting Hyper-threading Technology
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor

Intel® Celeron® D Processor
Intel® Celeron® Processor

AMD Socket AM2+ Processor
AMD Phenom™ Processor
AMD Socket AM2 Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor
AMD Sempron™ Processor
AMD Socket940 Processor
Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor
AMD Opteron™ Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor
AMD Socket939 Processor
Dual-Core AMD Opteron™ Processor
AMD Opteron™ Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core
AMD Socket754 Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 Proessor
AMD Sempron™ Processor

The Packaging





What's inside the box?




You get 1 multi language manual, 2 cpu brackets, mobo backplate, 2 fan clips, thermal paste, and mounting hardware.



First glance


this is huge!!!!
It's bigger than my beer!





Look at that thing! I've seen single stage phase compressors smaller than this thing!!!

I put the fan on for a second


A WHOPPING 10 HEATPIPES!


This also uses a second heatsink that connects to the base.


more shots



The Base of the Orochi needs no lapping due to its beautiful mirror-finish! Look at the beer in the reflection!
Holy Crap! Totally Awesome!



Installation:


Turn the heatsink over and pick your cpu bracket. I'm using 775....duh.




get it on and screw in 4 little screws. easy enough.





next get a motherboard and get the plastic bag off. I'm gonna be using an Asus P5K3 Deluxe WIFI.




This cpu socket area is tricky.. Will it fit?


YES!


I thought ram clearance might be an issue but you can see there is plenty of overhead from this image.






Installation was a breeze. You will need to take your board out because you need to mount a backplate on the mobo.





Fan clips are on and Fan is installed! 140mm FYI 500rpm so the fan is virtually silent.




Ready for action!



Testbed and Methods


The testbed was configured as follows:

* Asus P5K3 DELUXE BIOS 0910
* Intel CORE2 DUO E8400 CPU (overclocked from its default 3.0GHz to 4.00GHz frequency)
* MUSHKIN DDR3 PC3-14400 memory
* VISIONTEK 3870 X2 VIDEO CARD
* Western Digital Raptor WD740GD hard disk drive
* MUSHKIN XP-800 power supply
* ARCTIC SILVER 5 THERMAL PASTE
* Windows XP with Service Pack 2

I used my living room to maintain stable environment temperature. As for the software, i used orthos small fft test and core temp.

I used a UEI DT200 to monitor the ambient temperature and certain areas of the cooler.

Fan rotation speed was set. At the maximum fan rotation speed of 2,000rpm using a Evercool 120mm.

Ambient room temperature maintained a constant 25c
The cpu temperature in idle mode varied between 41.5 C and 43.5 C resulting into the average of 43 C.


During 15 minutes of orthos load test (small fft) cpu temp was about 70c


also note I have a bad e8400 that needs about 1.5v to reach 4ghz.


The results are especially impressive if we take into account the fact that Scythe Orochi has some room left for improvement, i.e. it has not yet exhausted all its reserves. For example, you can polish off the footing and thus gain a little bit more on the efficiency side. As for the faster rotating fan, I would recommend a higher rpm 140mm fan to cool the board and memory a bit better. The stock fan doesn't move as much air as I had hoped for but if you are looking for silence this is the best solution. The height is 20c with a fan attached. I never installed it in a case but my case (coolermaster Stacker) is 21cm. from the top of the motherboard standoffs to the side door. This is really cutting it close and you can forget about it if you want a side fan over the cpu area but I guess it defeats purpose since the fan is basically right up against the door. This is really meant for caseless setups or good for cold air benching.

On a scale from 1-10 I would give the Orochi a 7.

pros:
-easy to install
-nice base finish
-10 heatpipes
-cools pwm and dimms
-quiet operation with included fan

cons:
-too big to fit inside 99.99% of cases on the market
-considering it's massive size results were a bit disappointing
-included fan isn't powerful enough

I'd like to thank Scythe USA for the review sample.