Introduction

From the Scythe website:

Scythe Co., Ltd., originally started its business operation in Japan’s famous "Akihabara Electric Town" located in metropolitan Tokyo, where visitors can find a variety of products, ranging from the latest computer parts to the world’s most advanced high-tech electric devices.

Sythe Co., Ltd., began its operation and business in November, 2002 as a distributor and manufacturer of passive and low-noise PC parts. Since then, the company has established the R&D facility in Taiwan & China for production and quality control, and the USA office (in Los Angeles, California) & European office (in Hamburg, Germany) for customer care and sales support.

At Scythe, we believe the best ideas for products to simply come through knowing customer needs and expectations. Based on this philosophy, the PC enthusiasts working at Scythe know what to develop because that is exactly what we would like to have for ourselves too! We offer products with 100% quality assurance and total pride, and if the product has the Scythe name on it, you can rest assured that its quality will be up to the "Zero Tolerance" standards!

Scythe is a well-established manufacturer in the PC-cooling industry. Started in 2002, they have since become a major force in the market through exceptional CPU coolers, fans, fan controllers, cases, and more. It is the quality of these products which has put and kept them in the minds of PC enthusiasts the world over.

Their exceptional products have garnered Scythe the support of the enthusiast community and the average gamer. The Gentle Typhoon fans have been enthusiast favorite cooling radiators for years, and unique CPU cooler designs, like the Grand Kama Cross, Kabuto II, and Big Shuriken 2, have in the meantime helped define Scythe's place in the market. Still, while these products might spring to mind when thinking of what Scythe has to offer, it's the likes of the Mugen coolers that have been a mainstay for do-it-yourself gamers who want exceptional performance for the price.

Thus, we have today's review sample before us, the newest revision of Scythe's long-standing Mugen series, the Mugen 4. Featuring fifty aluminum fins, six 6 mm heatpipes, and a GlideStream 120 mm PWM fan, it received a bit of a facelift over past Mugen coolers. The now four separate towers that are interconnected at specific intervals replace the solid fins of the Mugen 3. Will this and its newly designed base be enough to propel the Mugen 4 toward the top? Well, it's time to find out!

Packaging & Contents

The Mugen 4 ships in a small box meant to be hung on a shelf at typical retail outlets. It measures in at roughly 15 cm in length, 13 cm in width and, including the tab that sticks up at the back, 23 cm in height. The front is covered in an angled close-up shot of the Mugen 4 and Scythe's logo, and mentions support for Intel's socket LGA1150. The left side has the cooler's specifications and a diagram documenting its size, and the back of the box has the warranty information for areas outside of Japan.


The right side of the box lists a few key features of Scythe's Mugen 4, including H.P.M.S (Hyper Precision Mounting System), T-M.A.P.S (Three-dimensional Multiple Airflow Pass-through Structure), the GlideStream 120PWM fan, and more. The top of the box has a partial image of the cooler's top and mentions the fact that the installation guide and thermal grease are included. That said, I would seriously hope those two items are included as the average consumer would certainly appreciate it.

Contents

The Mugen 4 package could be considered spartan. Much like the products offered by Raijintek, the Mugen is sealed in a box that only offers minimal protection, which won't matter all that much in most situations, but is something to keep in mind.


Scythe made sure to support all modern AMD and Intel sockets. The mounting hardware is like many others used on today's popular CPU coolers in that it is, for the most part, universal. The only pieces that need to be swapped out are the mounting plates. The cooler actually has a very simple mounting system, which has its pros and cons. I already touched base on some of the pros, but it is the cons that come to mind. Users will notice that there is nothing to help dampen fan vibration on the heatsink, which could result in higher noise levels and some rattling. That said, I will look at it in a bit. Jokes aside about the included installation guide, I can say Scythe has done a great job with its instructions. Scythe made sure to use clear, concise, and perfectly sized images to help users through the process. They also made sure to include enough fan clips for a dual-fan configuration should users want to improve the Mugen 4's cooling performance.

Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 4x Wire fan clips
• 4x Stud nuts A
• 4x Stud nuts B
• 4x Screws
• 4x White plastic spacers
• 2x Large screws
• 2x AMD mounting plate
• 2x Intel mounting plate
• 1x Backplate
• 1x Mounting bar
• 1x 120 x 120 x 25 mm fan
• 1x Heatsink
• 1x User's manual
• 1x Packet of thermal compound
• 1x Wrench