Specifications and Features
Closer Look
Even though we’ve received early sample of the Scythe Kabuto 3, it’s in a retail package so exactly the same as will appear in the stores.
Package is not so big box which contains full description and specification on the outside. In the gallery below you can see each side of the package which is well designed.
Inside we can find all we need to install Kabuto 3 and of course there is the cooler.
In the box we can find thermal grease which is performing really well. I had a chance to compare its performance and results are similar to what we can achieve on higher CRYORIG, Arctic or Noctua products. I just want to point that out as buying Kabuto 3 cooler you don’t have to invest in additional thermal grease to achieve optimal performance.
Scythe in Kabuto 3 used its well known GlideStream fan. It’s well performing and what is the most important for many users, it runs quiet. Simply perfect balance. 120mm fan is mounted on top of the cooler, what you had to notice already. It’s 25mm thick so about the same as most popular fans nowadays.
The fan has PWM connector what means you can control its speed via motherboard BIOS or software. It also adjust it’s speed to CPU temperature. Scythe specifies its speed as maximum of 1400 RPM. In our tests it was barely passing 1000 RPM what is of course good as we see that Kabuto 3 has some more headroom working even with the highest i7 CPU from the latest Intel series.
On the photos you can also see quite large heatpipes. All of them are 6mm thick and are clearly improved comparing to Scythe Kabuto 2 cooler. It’s not the only improvement comparing to older series but we are actually expecting that new cooler will be better.
The cooler looks great. We are used to see tower builds while Kabuto 3 is something fresh.
Couple of more photos with close-ups.
Below is one photo showing how good looks the base. It has nearly perfect mirror finish what is hard to find in most competitive products.
At the end couple of words about mounting and installation. Scythe introduced new clip system which for Intel motherboards is basically taken from Intel reference coolers. I’m not a fan of this design as it’s not as easy to install as it looks and there can be problems to remove the cooler as bolts sit really tight and all are under the heatsink. At least for me it wasn’t easy to remove it when I was changing motherboard for additional tests. Once you install it, it fits perfectly. However I wish to see something like bolt-through design with screws under the motherboard.
