Scythe Ninja 5 in the test – Cooling colossus with space problems

Test and Methodology

A Ryzen 5 3600 has to be cooled at factory settings, in addition 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport (2x8GB) DDR4 memory on a MSI B550 Tomahawk (BIOS 7C91vA3). The Asus ROG Strix GTX 1060 6GB is running in zero-fan mode for the CPU stress tests only for the image output, and a BitFenix Whisper M 450W serves as the power source, all housed in the Thermaltake Core P3 as an open benchtable.

All records are logged with HWInfo64 v6.30-4240 – 2000ms logging, the specified temperature is derived from the sensor CPU Die (Average). The load of Prime95 produces an average of 88 watts of CPU package power. Since I don’t have air conditioning, the values in the graphs are the delta between room temperature and CPU temperature.  This allows all cooling systems to be compared fairly, even if the ambient temperature is different.  The thermal paste supplied with the cooler or pre-applied is used in each case.

Benchmarks

The first run is done with both fans:

 

Followed by a run with only one fan in the front:

 

And because the fans were a bit slow with only 800 RPM, I took the 1500 RPM of the Mugen 5 ARGB Plus and did a third run. By the way, this version of the Kaze Flex 120 has about 55% more airflow.

 

Finally, a general overview and comparison to other coolers:

 

Conclusion and Summary

The Ninja lives up to its name in terms of volume, even at maximum revs. As expected for the size, the cooling performance is also good, although not outstanding. The quietness bought by slow fans is paid for directly in °C to the processor. In the promotional material on the US site they even mention the potential for a completely passive operation, to what extent this is feasible or realistic depends very much on CPU and case. Interesting is the price position of the Ninja 5, because who has enough space in his system can get it even cheaper than the popular Fuma 2.  

However, the lack of upward potential in terms of cooling performance without fan replacement is of course problematic. It would have been nice to maybe include slightly stronger fans from the factory and leave it up to the buyer to decide how quiet to set their system with their own fan curve. It is suitable for the intended use in a silent computer, but even the in-house product range makes it almost obsolete.