Scythe Shuriken 2 – Low-Profile CPU Cooler without Bells and Whistles

The manufacturer Scythe, founded in Japan in 2002, is a worldwide known and recognized manufacturer of CPU coolers, fans and other PC accessories. Especially with the CPU cooler “Mugen 2” and the fan series “Slip Stream” the company has celebrated great successes. Scythe also has something for smaller PCs in its portfolio with the Shuriken series. We already tested the Big Shuriken 3 about 18 months ago. But since this cooler could still be too big, depending on the case, Scythe introduced the smaller brother Shuriken 2 in November.

The Shuriken 2 is an extremely compact and flat CPU cooler with a height of 58 millimeters. Thus, this CPU cooler is particularly suitable for small HTPC and ITX systems. At the same time, the Shuriken 2 is supposed to achieve a considerable cooling performance despite its compact size and not cause a high noise level due to the decoupled fan with a closed liquid bearing. Whether the cooler is worth its price of 33 euros (current: Price not available *) and how it performs in general, you can find out in this review.

Technical details

Cooler Specifications

Fan specifications

Packaging & scope of Delivery

The Scythe Shuriken 2 comes in a small color printed cardboard packaging. In addition to a product picture, you can find a technical drawing, technical data and the most important features of the Shuriken 2 on the cardboard. If you open the top flap, you first encounter a brown cardboard box that contains all the mounting accessories for many sockets, an illustrated installation manual, a small bag of thermal paste and four more screws for a 25-millimeter deep fan. Then, hiding under the box is the Shuriken 2 with pre-mounted fan. Encased in cardboard, the heatsink should be well protected from damage.

Design & workmanship

The Scythe Shuriken 2 was definitely designed by the manufacturer in a very restrained way. The cooler consists of four 6-millimeter heatpipes, 49 aluminum fins and a smooth, nickel-plated base plate made of copper. Via an aluminum frame attached to the fins, it is possible to attach the included fan. In addition, the cooler’s appearance is improved because the frame covers the ends of the heatpipes and the manufacturer’s Scythe logo has been punched into it. Due to the nickel-plated heatpipes and the base plate, the cooler achieves a uniform and coherent look, which should fit seamlessly into almost any system. The workmanship of the components is good.

The included Kaze Flex fan from our own company have a black frame and grayish fan blades. In addition, the frame has, also gray, rubber elements on all corners, which should prevent vibration transmission to the cooler body. In addition, the fan was equipped with a high-quality cable sleeve. To keep the maximum height low, Scythe relies on a slim format with a thickness of just 15 millimeters for the fan. However, a 25 millimeter deep model can also be mounted if needed.

Mounting

For the review, we are using a test system on a benchtable. This allows us to rule out factors such as heat buildup in the case. The test system consists of the following components.

• AMD Ryzen 5 1400 @ 3.8 GHz at 1.25V
• MSI B350 PC Mate
• Crucial Ballistix Sport LT gray 32 GB DDR4-3000
• Corsair Force Series MP510 960GB Nvme
• Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1060 6G
• LC-Power LC550 V2.31 Platinum Series 550W

As with all of Scythe’s current coolers, the mounting system for the Shuriken 2 comes with the name H.P.M.S. III. These letters stand for Hyper-Precision Mounting System. Behind it is a mounting solution with a solid metal backplate and a bracket design on the front. But let’s start at the beginning.

For our AM4 system, the pre-installed plastic brackets of the AMD backplate have to be removed first. However, the AMD backplate must remain behind the motherboard for further assembly. The four plastic spacers are now placed on the protruding lugs of the backplate. The two silver metal mounting brackets are then placed on top of them and fixed with the four long screws provided.

After applying thermal paste, the Shuriken 2 can be placed on the CPU and screwed evenly on both sides with the large mounting bracket. The spring-loaded screws distribute the contact pressure evenly and limit it to a maximum. This prevents damage to the motherboard and CPU.

With a quick help of the included instructions, the installation of the cooler was done within 5 minutes. The mounting system is well thought out and looks stable. Scythe has done a very good job here. Since the Shuriken 2 is very compact, it does not overhang the RAM slots. Thus, nothing would stand in the way of installing RAM modules with high heatspreaders.

Loudness and cooling performance

As pointed out in the previous chapter, we are using an AM4 system based on the Ryzen 5 1400 and the MSI B350 PC Mate as our test hardware. The Ryzen runs at 3.8 GHz at 1.25V. To warm up the processor, it was loaded with Prime95 for 15 minutes. The CPU’s temperature was then read with the CPUID hardware monitor and the room temperature was around 21 °C during the measurements.

Of course, the Scythe Shuriken 2 cannot perform miracles. The heatsink simply has too little overall mass for that. Nevertheless, our slightly overclocked 65W CPU can be kept within a good to acceptable temperature range under absolute full load. Even at reduced speed, the 90 °C is never exceeded. At full volume, the fan is quite audible, but not obtrusive, and air noise predominates. If you reduce the speed to below 1600 rpm, the fan should no longer be audible from many systems.

Summary of the Scythe Shuriken 2

Let’s get to the conclusion of this review. The Scythe Shuriken 2 is a compact CPU cooler that can definitely take on the competition. What we liked about the Shuriken 2 is the solid workmanship, the neat and simple mounting system, and the quiet fan. In addition, the Shuriken 2 can easily outperform the usual boxed coolers and also has a bit more cooling potential due to the mounting option for a 25 millimeter deep fan.

Even the popular Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 is narrowly beaten. However, one should not forget that the NH-L9a-AM4 is another 2 centimeters smaller than the Shuriken 2. With its 58 millimeters, the Shuriken 2 is compact, but still too big for one or the other narrow ITX case (e.g. the DAN Cases A4).

In terms of price, this Shuriken 2 moves you with 33 euros (currently: Price not available *) in a difficult environment. The Noctua NH-L9a is hardly more expensive and the jump to its bigger brother, the Big Shuriken 3, is not too far either. Basically, it is also true for this product that you have to pay a certain premium for the smaller footprint. Still, if you only have a maximum of 60 millimeters of space in your case for a CPU cooler and don’t plan on overclocking, we can recommend the Shuriken 2 without hesitation.