I had cause recently to upgrade the cooler on a Q6600, and chose to use an old Scythe Ninja that was lying about spare.

Under Prime95 load, with the stock Intel cooler I was reaching high 70s. With the Scythe Ninja, high 60s…in passive mode.

Considering how old this cooler is (note that it’s the original Ninja, not the Ninja II) I was immensely impressed with its performance. I had been prepared to add a 120mm Zalman fan but saw no need to: it’s rarely placed under maximum load as it is. The only fans in the case were the graphics card fan and the PSU fan, which is starting to annoy me now noise-wise.

What can I say? Not much. If you’re an average end-user who hasn’t yet changed from the stock CPU cooler, don’t look further. Seriously, buy a Scythe Ninja II. I know what I’ll be looking for for my next build.

Has anyone else any positive or negative experiences with the Ninja?