Scythe Infinity: 5 Heatpipes and Silent 120mm Fan
by Wesley Fink on February 26, 2007 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Words
The question we asked in the beginning of this review was whether the Scythe Infinity would live up to the legend status that many users have bestowed on that product. The answer to this question has many parts and ranges from an enthusiastic yes to a "yes, but..." It is very clear that Scythe paid a lot of attention to lower noise in the latest version of the Infinity, and they succeeded in producing a CPU cooler with some of the lowest noise levels we have seen - particularly at higher overclocks where other coolers have to crank up their fans.
However, it is also clear than the current stock Infinity is not quite as good as the original models in reaching very high overclocks. The maximum overclock we could reach with stability using a stock Infinity fan setup was 3.83GHz - decent, but average among top heatpipe towers.
We fared better with a more powerful fan, reaching 3.85GHz at the price of a little more noise. The most effective solution, though, was to use two stock Scythe "silent fans" in a dual push-pull cooling configuration.
Using that setup, the Scythe matched the top-performing Tuniq Tower 120 in overclocking this CPU at a stable 3.90GHz. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact it did this at very low noise levels with two fans. The Tuniq was still cooler at 3.90GHz, but it was also noisier. The Scythe Infinity was still barely a whisper, even at 3.90GHz with two fans. We suspect if we combined two Tuniq fans, for instance, that we would get even better cooling - more in line with the Tuniq - but at the price of a bit more noise. We also found a single more powerful fan was still not as effective as two silent fans, which is very interesting.
Scythe also deserves praise for their effective design that allows easy installation on any current CPU socket. The tool-less socket adapters are cleverly designed and work very well. Our only real complaint here is that Scythe does not really address the massive weight of the Infinity in any way. It mounts the 2.2lbs - 1000 grams - in the same way stock coolers mount on the 775, 478, AM2, and 754/939/940. There is absolutely no doubt the installation is easy and effective, but we get very nervous with 2.2 pounds hanging on a vertical board with just four pop clips on a 775 Intel install.
This Scythe cooler is good enough that it deserves a more secure mounting system. This is particularly true since the multi-fan setup is the best performer and that weighs even more than the already massive 960 gram stock cooler. We sincerely hope Scythe will do a redesign of the Infinity mounting that finds some way to more securely mount this heavy HSF.
While they are at it, Scythe might also find a way to raise the fin cage a bit. It is impossible to pop in 775 clips in the mounting holes with the board mounted in a case. The clearance is just too tight to slip in a thumb and push the clips home. In the current design users need to mount the cooler before installing the motherboard in the case; It saves lots of frustration and prevents getting sliced by the sharp cooling fins. A little more cage clearance might allow mounting the Infinity on a motherboard that is still installed in the case.
These few complaints should be considered suggestions for improving a product that is impressive in its current performance. Our suggestion would be to run two Scythe silent fans in a push-pull arrangement as we did, or you could use two fans like the more powerful but still silent Silverstone FN121. The two fan option cooled better and allowed for higher overclocking. This moved the Infinity from average performance in our heatpipe tower tests to one of the best results in overclocking, cooling and low-noise that we have yet seen in our cooler reviews.
To return to our initial question, the Scythe Infinity is legendary in cooling with low noise. It is one of the quietest coolers we've tested with the single silent fan. The Infinity is also a decent performer in overclocking, but the stock cooler is average in performance among top heatpipe towers - at least with the single "silent fan" Scythe currently ships with the Infinity.
To move to the category of one of the best requires an Infinity with two fans in a push-pull setup. With that, the Infinity matches the highest overclock we have seen with this CPU. The two fans also seem to have few penalties to exact, particularly if the fans are Scythe "silent fans". The dual-fan Scythe is not yet a legend, but our performance tests indicate this push-pull configuration should be on the short list of anyone shopping for a CPU cooler.
The question we asked in the beginning of this review was whether the Scythe Infinity would live up to the legend status that many users have bestowed on that product. The answer to this question has many parts and ranges from an enthusiastic yes to a "yes, but..." It is very clear that Scythe paid a lot of attention to lower noise in the latest version of the Infinity, and they succeeded in producing a CPU cooler with some of the lowest noise levels we have seen - particularly at higher overclocks where other coolers have to crank up their fans.
However, it is also clear than the current stock Infinity is not quite as good as the original models in reaching very high overclocks. The maximum overclock we could reach with stability using a stock Infinity fan setup was 3.83GHz - decent, but average among top heatpipe towers.
We fared better with a more powerful fan, reaching 3.85GHz at the price of a little more noise. The most effective solution, though, was to use two stock Scythe "silent fans" in a dual push-pull cooling configuration.
Using that setup, the Scythe matched the top-performing Tuniq Tower 120 in overclocking this CPU at a stable 3.90GHz. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact it did this at very low noise levels with two fans. The Tuniq was still cooler at 3.90GHz, but it was also noisier. The Scythe Infinity was still barely a whisper, even at 3.90GHz with two fans. We suspect if we combined two Tuniq fans, for instance, that we would get even better cooling - more in line with the Tuniq - but at the price of a bit more noise. We also found a single more powerful fan was still not as effective as two silent fans, which is very interesting.
Scythe also deserves praise for their effective design that allows easy installation on any current CPU socket. The tool-less socket adapters are cleverly designed and work very well. Our only real complaint here is that Scythe does not really address the massive weight of the Infinity in any way. It mounts the 2.2lbs - 1000 grams - in the same way stock coolers mount on the 775, 478, AM2, and 754/939/940. There is absolutely no doubt the installation is easy and effective, but we get very nervous with 2.2 pounds hanging on a vertical board with just four pop clips on a 775 Intel install.
This Scythe cooler is good enough that it deserves a more secure mounting system. This is particularly true since the multi-fan setup is the best performer and that weighs even more than the already massive 960 gram stock cooler. We sincerely hope Scythe will do a redesign of the Infinity mounting that finds some way to more securely mount this heavy HSF.
While they are at it, Scythe might also find a way to raise the fin cage a bit. It is impossible to pop in 775 clips in the mounting holes with the board mounted in a case. The clearance is just too tight to slip in a thumb and push the clips home. In the current design users need to mount the cooler before installing the motherboard in the case; It saves lots of frustration and prevents getting sliced by the sharp cooling fins. A little more cage clearance might allow mounting the Infinity on a motherboard that is still installed in the case.
These few complaints should be considered suggestions for improving a product that is impressive in its current performance. Our suggestion would be to run two Scythe silent fans in a push-pull arrangement as we did, or you could use two fans like the more powerful but still silent Silverstone FN121. The two fan option cooled better and allowed for higher overclocking. This moved the Infinity from average performance in our heatpipe tower tests to one of the best results in overclocking, cooling and low-noise that we have yet seen in our cooler reviews.
To return to our initial question, the Scythe Infinity is legendary in cooling with low noise. It is one of the quietest coolers we've tested with the single silent fan. The Infinity is also a decent performer in overclocking, but the stock cooler is average in performance among top heatpipe towers - at least with the single "silent fan" Scythe currently ships with the Infinity.
To move to the category of one of the best requires an Infinity with two fans in a push-pull setup. With that, the Infinity matches the highest overclock we have seen with this CPU. The two fans also seem to have few penalties to exact, particularly if the fans are Scythe "silent fans". The dual-fan Scythe is not yet a legend, but our performance tests indicate this push-pull configuration should be on the short list of anyone shopping for a CPU cooler.
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Wesley Fink - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
The famous thermal compound review is at http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm">http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm. While it is written tongue-in-cheek the test methods are well conceived and there is a terrific discussion of what is significant and what is trivial in testing computer components. After I read the review a while ago I tested every thermal compound I had spent big bucks on and got very similar results.I will concede that the more fluid compounds do work a little better when you have tiny contact areas as in the older Socket A AMD - at least initially. But with heatspreaders on all the CPUs these days the thermal grease used makes very little difference as long as it holds up, isn't particualrly conductive, and doesn't dry out. Applying it properly can make a big difference in performance, however.
Those not from Oz may recall the Men At Work song "Down Under" that makes reference to a "vegemite sandwich". Now you'll understand Vegemite is that brown vegatable spread about the texture of mayonnaise that is uniquely popular in Austalia.
DrMrLordX - Tuesday, February 27, 2007 - link
While I'll generally agree with you, there is at least one TIM that is positively insane that may outperform the usual gunk, and that's Coollaboratory's Liquid Pro (their Metal Pads don't seem to work as well). That stuff will literally dissolve aluminum and otherwise make a terrible mess. It's mostly gallium, indium, and tin I'm told. Strange stuff.Others swear by Shin-Etsu X23-7783D as being clearly superior to AS5 and AS Ceramique. I've only seen one benchmark featuring the X23, but it even beat the crazy Liquid Pro in that benchmark.
Really, it would be more interesting to see benchmarks of the TIMs themselves than anything else. Your current TIM strategy in your heatsink tests is fine by me.
BigLan - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
I think the toothpaste and vegemite article is on dansdata. (Dan used to do HSF reviews back in the Socket A days and had literally dozens of them all compared.) While toothpaste might work for testing, it does dry out very quickly and so would need to be replaced after a short period of time (probably days.) You could use it in a pinch, but I wouldn't want to try for 3117 overclocks with it!Binkt - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
"We have the Thermalright 120 in for review, and we will also be testing the Scythe Ninja Rev. B. Noctua, an Austrian manufacturer of cooling solutions"Could you be specific on the model of thermalright 120 that you have in for upcoming tests? I assume that you mean the Ultra-120, since it is the current heavy-hitter from my personal favorite manufacturer.
Thanks, and keep up the great work!
PS. Any hope for a look at virtualization performance of current CPU's and platforms? hint: Asrock 775Dual-VSTA vs. more expensive i965 boards vs. AMD VT-enabled platforms ?
Wesley Fink - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
The cooler is the Thermalright Ultra 120.lopri - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
It's got to be Ultra-120. I'd personally rate Tuniq 120, Scythe Infinity, and Ultra-120 as top 3 air coolers today. BTW, what does this article have to do with virtualization??To Wesley: Thanks for the article. And I totally agree with your assessment on Infinity's mounting mechanism. It flexes motherboard and makes me uncomfortable to have it in my tower. Also it might not block DIMM slots on the tested motherboard, but I had some difficulties on other boards. (especially if I wanted to make use of any RAM cooling)
Did Infinity go through revisions? If so, what are the differences from original model and the current one?
thestain - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
Making comparisons based upon 38 dba is not a real test of quietness, try to get your rig a little quieter, maybe shoot for 33-34 so we can see these products spread themselves out more. Have you made any effort to test your test rig to see if the Power supply is making too much racket, in qhixh case replace it with a comparable performing Corsair or Seasonic, and can you turn down the fan slightly on your graphics card??Wesley Fink - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
With all computers, monitors, printers, lamps, etc. turned off in our testing romm the ambient noise is 36.4db. Reaching 33 to 34db as a base is therefore not likely. The OCZ 520 is one of the quietest power supplies we have tested. We have also tested with a small basic video card just to see if noise can be lowered further. The result was we had reached the floor of the PS. We also have to unplug the nVidia northbridge fan during noise measurements because it is much louder than the PS, video card fan or most coolers that we have tested.There is a place for fanless power supplies, fanless video cards, and coolers that are silent, but for the great bulk of readers we really see little point in testing below the noise floor of the power supply.
We could do like some other sites and isolate the test board in a sound chamber away from the power supply, but I seriously doubt this is how our readers run their silent PCs. We definitely hear what you are saying, but our noise testing is looking at real-world noise levels. There are other sites that specialize in silence at levels you would more likely find in a noise testing lab.
cujo - Monday, February 26, 2007 - link
you're forgetting a very popular cooler. i'd love to see the results of that vs. these other coolers.i would also suggest looking at motherboard/chipset temperatures as most of these tower coolers do nothing for those.
DrMrLordX - Tuesday, February 27, 2007 - link
I'm sure they'll get around to it eventually . . . that or the Big Typhoon VX.The article is well-done though, and I'm very glad that you did the dual-fan setup guys. If you look at other tests of the Infinity with dual fans, you'll find that using anything faster than 1200rpm in a push-pull config is really unnecessary. Once you have the second fan going you're getting the best you can get out of the Infinity.