Scythe has followed up the original Big Shuriken 3 cooler with a new revision. It brings, in addition to native support for Alder Lake processors, a supposedly improved fan. The Kaze Flex II is said to achieve the same cooling performance at lower noise levels, which is nice in the inexpensive top-flow category. There are really few coolers like this, and the Big Shuriken 3 rev. B has all the prerequisites to sit on an imaginary throne in its price category.
There are a modest number of coolers with a fan directed perpendicular to the motherboard, and there are only a few decent ones (with higher cooling capacity). And even then most of them are quite expensive. Fortunately, Scythe is still keeping the Big Shuriken series alive, and it’s freshly updated.
New Big Shuriken 3 rev. B has, first and foremost, native support for the Intel LGA 1700 platform. But this alone wouldn’t be enough to make the cooler interesting. Scythe has added LGA 1700 support for the first Big Shuriken 3 revision as well. The attractiveness of the B revision lies mainly in the use of the new Kaze Flex II Slim 120 fan. The biggest difference over the older Kaze Flex 120 Slim PWM (on the Big Shuriken 3) should be the lower noise level.
The overall noise level at maximum speed should be 2.6 dBA lower. The airflow (81,55 m3/h) and static pressure (1,36 mm H2O) is stated to be practically the same. The stated pressure is the same and the airflow is only 5.4% lower. Thus, the cooling intensity should not be weaker, at least the efficiency, i.e. the ratio of the cooling power to the noise level produced, will probably not be worse. The new fan has an unchanged speed range (300-1800 rpm) and the lower, 17-millimeter profile has remained as well as the fluid (FDB) bearings.
The heatsink is otherwise, it seems, unmodified and corresponds to the previous design. Its construction is quite robust, with five 6 mm heatpipes running from the base between the fins. Big Shuriken 3 rev. B can thus most likely handle higher classes of Intel processors in silence, even in SFF cases. Those are the ones Scythe is aiming for with this cooler anyway.
However, it does not reveal the recommended price yet. If the price is give or take at the level of its predecessor, you will pay about 50 euros for it.
In addition to LGA 1700 support, backwards compatibility with older Intel platforms (LGA 1200/115x/2066/2011/1366/775) is wide and AMD AM4 socket is also on the list of supported platforms. For completeness, it should be added that the cooler also comes with a tube of Thermal Elixer 2 thermal paste with a claimed thermal conductivity of 3.5 W/mK.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
