CPU Air Cooler Mega Test

Scythe Mugen Max

Price:  £37.99

Technical Specification

 

Up Close

Scythe don’t do subtle and understated.  Scythe do “in your face”.  On the plus side the box has lots of info on it regarding the product inside, and even has a shelf hanger tab, you know, for when you used to buy things in shops.  But hey, just check out that mirror finish, it’s seriously different and gets a thumbs up (and most likely a thumb print) from us.

       

 

Measuring 110x145x161mm (HxWxD) the Mugen Max is a 140mm fan based single tower cooler.  The single black fan is lifted just slightly from the standard OEM fayre and looks the part.

       

 

The 6x6mm heat pipes are evenly distributed within the 40 element fin stack both antero-posteriorly and laterally, which, from our experience usually results in better performance figures.  Also of note is that the fin stack is canted backwards to be asymmetrical with the contact plate.  this of course limits RAM encroachment once the fan is fitted.

       

 

Sadly the picture below doesn’t do the mirror finish on the top plate justice, but believe us when we say it is a thing of beauty.  We also like the way it covers up the tops of the heat pipes and thus improves the overall aesthetic.  Down below we can see the quality of work is good with even the contact plate being highly polished. 

       

 

When I opened the accessories and fittings bags my heart sank at the sight of a tiny spanner.  If testing all these coolers has taught me one thing, it’s that if it needs a small spindly spanner to fit it, it’s going to be a sod!  What I didn’t appreciate though was just how much of a sod it was going to be.  Basically it’s practically impossible to fit as the bolt that resides under the rear of the heatsink is so close to the motherboard heat sink that it’s near impossible to see it, never mind get the spanner to it.  then I spotted the hole in the fin stack that channels down to it so thought “I know, i’ll attach the bolt to my magnetic tipped screw driver and lower it down”.  Great idea, only Scythe have made the hole too small for the bolt to fit down.  Genius, pure bloody genius.  Long story short, in the end I had open back up one of the Noctua boxes to extract one of their very long screw drivers.  So in essence, if you’re going to buy this cooler, you’re going to need a very long nosed screwdriver and a sense of adventure.  Unlike the hard to fit bequiets however, the Mugen Max rewarded us with some stunning performance figures, coming 2nd place in its class and 7th overall.  Not bad for a cooler that cost’s just £38.