VR Features
Scythe Zipang - Super Size Me!!
Does Size Really Matter?
Written by Firefox and filed under Reviews > Cooling & Chassis
Published on January 28, 2008, 5:12 pm
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With a 140mm fan that spins at a mere 1,000RPM, the Scythe Zipang is definitely inaudible in the chassis. In fact, we couldn't even hear the fan operating even in an open-configuration. So much so that we initially thought that the fan would be incapable of actually cooling the Zipang with its densely packed fins (compared to the likes of the Andy and Infinity). It appears that the engineers at Scythe have proven us wrong. Even as we mounted the faster S-Flex fan on the heatsink, the temperatures did not drop by much. However, the motherboard components benefited from it and so we know that the stock fan pushes enough ait to cool the heatpipes but that's about it. With the S-Flex, we saw a marked improvement in system temperatures but not much of a drop in CPU temperatures. The Zipang has indeed been optimized heavily by the Scythe engineers. That said, we did have some issues trying to remove the heatsink due to the size of the fins above the locking pins. With an elaborate heatpipe heatsink cooling solution on the motherboard that's becoming commonplace, accessing the push-pins proved to be somewhat difficult. However, there were no issues with the heatsink being blocked by the said motherboard cooling and the mounting is very secure and possesses more than enough mounting pressure.
If you have been on a look-out for a silent but high performance cooler, we would definitely recommend the Scythe Zipang. With the stock fan, the Zipang keeps up with the likes of the Infinity and offers much more than the stock cooler. Swap the fan out for a faster unit and you will have a cooler to negate the additional heat from overclocking that chip of yours. Although the choice of 140mm fans is limited, the Zipang is capable of mounting 120mm fans if you purchase the optional mounting kit. Here, we would recommend the likes of an S-Flex "F" if you would like to retain your sanity and a 38mm thick Silverstone FM-122 if you don't mind a little more noise.
For delivering a fantastic heatsink, we would give the Scythe Zipang 90 marks but the stock fan is a little lacking and so we would have to deduct 5 marks for not bundling a faster fan which showed greater cooling performance without significant increase in noise. In conclusion, 85 VR-Marks for a nice cooler from Scythe.
