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!

Established in 2002, Scythe soon became a major force in the PC-cooling industry. Offering a diverse product stack that includes CPU coolers, fans, fan controllers, cases and more, it is no surprise they continue to offer top quality products over a decade later. This can be attributed to their company philosophy of knowing a customer's needs and expectations. Scythe simply continues to put out some amazing products, year after year.

The fact that Scythe has been around for over a decade is no surprise. Nearly every PC enthusiast on the planet has heard of Scythe. Their level of renown has been well-earned, with their excellent Gentle Typhoon and Ultra Kaze fans, Mugen and Katana series coolers, and much more. With interesting coolers, exceptional fans, and affordable prices, Scythe has worked hard to earn said reputation. Continuing to experiment, offering new designs to the PC-cooling community, Scythe has firmly embedded itself in the minds of today's PC enthusiasts for many years to come.

In this review, I will focus on Scythe's new Ashura CPU cooler. Rather than a continuation of a previous series, such as the Mugen or Katana coolers, this design is unique and new. Its key feature is the fact that it offers enough room for all DIMM slots on today's mainstream platforms to easily be populated. It may not stand out due to its traditional single tower design, but the additional space does give it a leg up on the competition. With that said, it is now time to find out just what the Ashura CPU cooler is capable of!

Packaging & Contents

The Scythe Ashura CPU cooler ships in a very small box; that is, relative to the size of the cooler itself. Measuring just 17 cm in length, 12 cm in width, and 18 cm in height not including the lip, which is roughly 4 cm tall, the front of the box is covered in a fully sized image of the cooler and a great deal of information. Features such as its narrow fin and varying pipe structure, GlideStream 140 PWM fan, wide range of cooling purposes, to name a few, are all mentioned. AMD and Intel socket support are also featured here. The left side shows the heatsink's orientation on various sockets and has a brief rundown of its specifications. The back lists its warranty information in various languages.


The right side displays the cooler's key features again, along with a diagram showcasing the heatsink's dimensions. Meanwhile, the top shows the Ashura cooler with two fans and lists the components that are included in the box.

Contents

The packaging Scythe used for the Ashura cooler offers, while colorful, very little protection. Only the bare minimum in packaging materials is used. While my sample suffered no damage during shipping, the package still does not inspire confidence. At the very least, some foam inserts are used, which I have found to work better than the typical plastic trays of some competiting products.


With all modern sockets from both AMD and Intel supported, Scythe made sure this cooler can be used with nearly any system. Once again, the mounting hardware is straightforward for even the typical user because much of it is universal. The included hardware is backed up with an easy-to-follow instruction manual, making the Scythe Ashura a good choice for first-time builders. Overall, everything one would expect to see is included here, along with an additional set of fan clips for those that want to maximize the Scythe Ashura's cooling potential.

Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 4x Wire fan clips
• 4x Stud nuts A (LGA: 775, 115x, 1366, AMD)
• 4x Stud nuts B (LGA: 2011)
• 4x Screws
• 4x White plastic spacers
• 2x Large screws
• 2x AMD mounting plate
• 2x Intel mounting plate
• 1x Backplate
• 1x Mounting bar
• 1x 140 mm x 140 mm x 25 mm GlideStream PWM fan
• 1x Heatsink
• 1x User's manual
• 1x Packet of thermal compound
• 1x Wrench