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.

Scythe 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 came to be in 2002 and has since quickly gained prominence. Now a well-known and respected manufacturer in the PC-cooling industry, they feature a diverse product stack of coolers, fans, and accessories. Thanks in part due to these unique products and a solid commitment to quality, Scythe has earned quite the dedicated following in the DIY PC space.

In fact, there is not a PC enthusiast out there who has not heard of Scythe. Having released many amazing products over the last decade. Scythe is most renowned for products like the Gentle Typhoon and Ultra Kaze fans, with the Gentle Typhoons being a favorite among enthusiasts using custom water-cooling loops. All of their other top quality products certainly helped reinforce their reputation, but even so I think of Gentle Typhoons when I think Scythe. Today, Scythe continues to remain popular as they studiously improve their wide range of products over time.

In this review, I will be looking at Scythe's Kabuto 3. It makes use of a top-flow design that offers cooling for the CPU and any surrounding components. Granted, top-flow designs are not as popular as they once were, but have seen a resurgence in recent years. The Kabuto 3 offers a more compact design than its direct competition, and it will, as such, be interesting to see how it performs.

Packaging

Scythe's Kabuto 3 comes in a box that measures in at roughly 14.3 cm long, 16.3 cm wide, and 20.1 cm high. On the front, you will find an image of a samurai on horseback with the product name and a list of supported sockets. Moving on, the left side lists the cooler's various features, from its top-flow design to GlideStream 120 PWM fan, among others. Finally, the back lists all the warranty information, which basically boils down to telling you that this cooler's warranty is two years long.


On the right side are the Kabuto 3's specifications in various languages and technical drawings which detail the cooler's and fan's dimensions, and the top has a large image of the Kabuto 3 itself.

Contents

Scythe's Kabuto 3 comes packaged in a thin layer of cardboard inside the box. To be blunt, the amount of protection for the product is pretty much non existent. I would have liked to see some foam or a bit more space around the product for protection during shipping.


The Kabuto 3 requires very little to install. Other than the heatsink and fan, Scythe only had to include an AMD mounting clip, two Intel mounting clips, a couple screws, fan clips, and a few miscellaneous items. The design uses the AMD mounting hardware included with every motherboard and uses push pins for Intel. As such, it's easy to use and pretty bare-bones.

Common parts supplied for mounting include:

• 2x Screws
• 2x Fan clips
• 2x Intel mounting clips
• 1x AMD mounting clip
• 1x Packet of thermal grease
• 1x Instruction book
• 1x Crossbar
• 1x 120 mm fan
• 1x Heatsink