Scythe SCKTN-5000 Katana 5 CPU Cooler Review

Introduction

Scythe SCKTN-5000

Sycthe may not be one of the best-known brands in terms of CPU coolers, they are, however, trying very hard to change that. Building on the success seen with their 4th generation of coolers, they have now looked to update what was one of their most popular ‘entry-level’ models.

The Scythe Katana 5 (full name being the Scythe SCKTN-5000 Katana 5) looks to represent that highly popular portion of the market that wants to offer you something better than a standard stock cooler. With no assertions made to Scythe, this is as a whole, a market area that has many people fighting for just a small slice of the action. To stand out, you have to offer something either inexpensive or exceptional in terms of performance.

With this in mind, we take a closer look at the Katana 5 and see if this could be a hidden gem in terms of inexpensive CPU coolers.

Features

Despite this being, on the surface, a rather simplistic CPU air cooler, it does have a number of impressive features.

• High-Quality Base Structure – High-quality base-plate made of nickel-plated copper. Perfectly fitted 6mm heat pipes ensure maximum heat conduction.
• 92mm Kaze Flex PWM Fan – New 92mm Kaze Flex PWM Fan features a self-contained fluid bearing (Sealed precision FDB) providing an extremely long lifespan of 120,000 hours. The fan is also equipped with integrated stock absorbing rubber pads, which effectively prevent the transfer of vibrations.
• Easy Clip Mounting System II – Quick and easy mounting system using either preinstalled push-pins (Intel) or a simple one-clip solution (AMD).

Technical Information

For more in-depth technical specification, please visit the official product page in the link here!

Exterior Packaging

The front of the packaging immediately catches your eye with a nice bold image of the cooler. With many of the key features on show (including the modified rear radiator to allow for excellent RAM clearance), it’s nice to see a product displayed so well immediately on the box work. It sounds ridiculous I know, but so many brands fail to provide a decent picture of the cooler anywhere on the packaging.

While the side of the packaging gives the key features of the cooler (including a diagram of its rather low-profile design and the ‘clip-on’ design) the rear gives specifics regarding the warranty. The warranty for this product is, incidentally, 2-years.

Finally, the other side of the packaging gives you the full specification of the cooler. This not only includes the full technical drawings, but also the nitty-gritty of the cooler’s operation. In terms of information, while it could perhaps be better presented (mass languages included make it rather small) everything you need to know is all available to you on the packaging.

A Closer Look

Out of the box, the Scythe Katana 5 looks very nice with its bright stainless steel design. The gaps between the vents are well spaced and overall the design gives you a lot of confidence. The push pin design to the mounting bracket might initially throw anyone off who isn’t used to it, but that will soon become much clearer.

With the fan fitted, the side profile gives you a much better idea of how this has been designed. Not only does it have a rather flat-plush design to the rear, but you will note that the front end (with the fan) is set a little higher. As such, you should have absolutely no issues regarding RAM clearance regardless of how you fit this cooler.

When the fan is fitted, you will note that you get an excellent coverage of the cooler itself. Despite the fan only being 92mm in design, it looks surprisingly good and suits the low-profile of the radiator itself very well.

The contact plate for the Scythe Katana 5 has a nice sleek surface with 6 pipes leading off to the radiator. You will also, again, note the push pin design which is intended to make installation to your motherboard quick and straightforward.

Installation

With the push pin design, the intention behind this is to mean that (for Intel users at least) the cooler simply clips onto your motherboard without the need of any complex mounting system, backplate or mounting set-up. It’s a little more involved with AMD chipsets, but the concept remains largely the same.

That is, at least, the theory.

In truth, we had great difficulties getting this cooler to fit well. Despite the push-pin design being improved from the previous model, we really struggled to get this mounted to our Intel motherboard. An installation that should have taken less than 5-minutes ended up taking us nearly 30 minutes before we were truly convinced this was well installed. The biggest issue was a constant concern about the amount of pressure necessary to get the push pins to lock in. Yes, you get a lot of pressure with standard mounting kits (it is kind of the point), but at least you have control over that. With this, it’s push, twist and hope that the pins stay in.

Having spoken to a Scythe representative, they believe that it may have just been bad luck on our part and we can accept that with a design such as this. It’s meant to be quick, but that’s not always the case!

Being diplomatic, we would suggest that while the mounting system may be perfectly straightforward for some, others might find this much harder than a simple standard mounting kit.

Test System and Methodology

Please note that our testing system was completely revised in September 2017. That means all previous results have been scrapped, and a new set of benchmarks introduced. For a look at our previous reviews, please consult our most recent review that used that system. Please note that we re-tested the Noctua NH-D15S as our base benchmark for cooling results.

Test system:

• Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 9 Z270
• Intel Core i7-7700K Delidded w/ NT-H1 under IHS
• Radeon R7 Passive GPU with 2GB VRAM
• 8GB Crucial DDR4 2400 MHz
• 512GB OCZ SSD
• be quiet! Dark Power Pro 800W
• Lian Li T80 Test Bench
• All testing conducted using NT-H1 thermal paste

We’d like to say a big thank you to Gigabyte, Noctua, Crucial, Intel, OCZ, be quiet!, and Lian Li for providing us with the above testing equipment and their on-going support.

Testing Methodology

• We always use Noctua Noctua NT-H1 thermal paste to make sure testing reveals the efficiency of the tested coolers not the efficiency of the bundled thermal paste
• Prime 95 is run for 10 minutes to calculate “load” results
• Unigine Superposition is run for 10 minutes to calculate “gaming” results
• The average temperature across all cores is taken
• Fans are left to operate at default PWM profile speeds unless otherwise stated
• For water cooling tests, all pumps have been operated at 12 volts unless otherwise stated
• Ambient temperatures should be between 21-23 degrees in all our tests unless otherwise stated
• Acoustic measurements are taken 10cm horizontally and 10cm vertically away from the CPU cooler with the VGA fan disabled
• Stock tests are performed using “out of the box” settings for the CPU
• Overclocking tests are performed with the CPU set to 5 GHz and 1.345v
• All coolers were tested under identical settings unless otherwise stated.
• There is approximately a 1-degree Celsius margin of error in our temperature recording software CPUID HW Monitor
• There is approximately a 1.5dBA margin of error with our Benetech GM1351 decibel meter
• In all these graphs we may have a few “reference” results of particular products that do not fit within that category for comparative purposes.

Software Used

• CPUID HWMonitor
• Prime 95
• Unigine Superposition (1080 Extreme)

Performance

As this is an entry-level cooler, it would be rather naive to expect the Scythe Katana 5 to be near the top of our charts. We have, however, tested various coolers similar to this and, as such, have a reasonable pool of comparison. In terms of similar air cooler models, the Scythe Katana 5 performs remarkably well.

In terms of both stock and overclock performance, while the figures are not mind-blowing, for such a small profile cooler, the Scythe Katana 5 does remarkably well. You will note that the overclocked max-load temperatures are rather high, but at the same time, it would be very optimistic to suggest that this cooler would be suitable for long-term use with an overclock as strong as our testing methodology uses. That being said though, a moderate overclock would seem to be very much within the remit here.

In terms of noise levels, the overall results are again very impressive. The overclocked acoustics are a particular highlight particularly since this does have a maximum operating fan speed of 2300rpm. For that speed, you’d expect a bit more drama. While it is a little vocal, it certainly never shouts at you either!

Stock Temperatures

Overclocked Temperatures

Stock Acoustics

Overclocked Acoustics

Final Thoughts

Price

At the time of writing, a current UK price is not available. Based on the pricing of the prior Katana 4 model, we’d expect this to retail for circa £25. There are, of course, a lot of coolers that find itself in that price bracket. With the best will in the world though, many of them are quite poor either in terms of performance or noise. While the Katana 5 isn’t exactly punching it’s way to the top of our testing, it does find itself in good company for temperatures and exceptionally good in terms of noise output. On the whole, for £25, this represents a bit of a bargain!

Design and Ease Of Use

In terms of aesthetics, we really like how the Scythe Katana 5 is presented. It’s low profile sleek design certainly offers something different to the vast majority of entry-level coolers. Many of which are usually bulky and not particularly attractive. It’s also nice to see that consideration has been made in this model to provide good RAM compatibility. We would, actually, possibly argue that this has full RAM compatibility unless you have some that stand bizarrely tall.

In terms of ease of use, it would seem that this factor is entirely dependant on what your experience of the push-pin system is. For us, it was exceptionally difficult to get this successfully mounted to our test bench. For the time it took us, we probably could have mounted a standard cooler with a traditional backplate and mounting kit. This might have just been bad luck on our part, these push-pin systems are great when they work well and usually result in the installation taking literally minutes.

The only concern really though is that this is supposed to be an improved design. If it has been improved on the whole, it certainly wasn’t for us.

Overview

Entry level coolers are a mixed bag in terms of what you can expect and what you get. In regards to the Scythe Katana 5 though, it provides excellent results for not a lot of money. When you consider the nice sleek design, the low-profile 135mm height, the excellent RAM compatibility and easy mounting system, this cooler should appeal to many people who are looking to take that important step-up from their stock cooler.

It’s small design, however, should also appeal to those to whom system space is a big factor.

It’s not perfect, and for this price, you shouldn’t expect perfection. In terms of a compact but powerful air cooler, the Scythe Katana 5 proves to be an excellent choice!

Pros

• Excellent performance figures based on the overall size.
• Nice aesthetic design.
• Low-profile means it will not dominate the look of your system.
• Excellent RAM compatibility.
• Easy to install design.

Cons

• Installation proved, for us, to be very difficult.

Neutral

• None.

Scythe SCKTN-5000 Katana 5 Air CPU Cooler Review