Scythe Kotetsu Mark III
Neither small nor big, just Kotetsu Mark. The latest, third version of this CPU cooler comes with support for AMD AM5 and Intel LGA 1700 platforms in particular. In terms of body design, the Kotetsu Mark III sticks to the features of its predecessor in many ways, but at least one change with the new heatsink raises questions. The answers are perhaps the features of the Kaze Flex II fan, which will eventually be used in this line (of Kotetsu coolers) as well.
The new Kotetsu Mark III cooler is a tower design that fits between the current models Katana and Mugen/Ninja. Both in terms of size and performance. Among other things, it is also characterized by the diversion of fins away from PCI Express slots, which is not common. This is especially useful on motherboards that don’t have an M.2 SSD slot above the first PCIe ×16 slot, and typically there is less distance between the graphics card and the CPU socket.
Such spacing/rotation significantly improves handling during (de)mounting of the graphics card or the cooler itself. The Kotetsu Mark III’s heatsink is also deflected away from the DIMM slots so that it does not interfere with them on any board. This ensures compatibility with all memory modules on all boards, regardless of their height. The above-standard compatibility is also there in terms of cases due to its height of “only” 154 mm.
Kotetsu Mark III (SCKTT-3000) shares all the above parameters with its predecessor (SCKTT-3000), but still they don’t have the same heatsinks. This new one has six less fins, although the height of both coolers is the same. But the difference is that while the Kotetsu Mark II had fins all the way to the top, the Kotetsu Mark III has a sort of plastic canopy under which there are no fins. I mean, there are some fins, but not ones into which the four heatpipes conduct heat. The aforementioned canopy has its fins, which seem to serve as supports (to keep this cover from collapsing).
Although the new heatsink is obviously a bit smaller, the specifications state that it weighs 12% more (723 g) than the Kotetsu Mark II (465 g). However, this is the total weight, so including the fan, which may be heavier, and the rest of it may not be lighter either. The aforementioned canopy has some weight as well, and perhaps (although it doesn’t seem likely from the proportional comparison) the Kotetsu III may have thicker fins.
Scythe does not specify the TDP of the new Kotetsu Mark III cooler, but even with a “weaker” heatsink it may eventually be higher than the older model. The fan used is the 300 rpm faster and noisier (according to Scythe materials up to 3.7 dBA) Kaze Flex II fan with max. 1500 rpm.
If the Kaze Flex II fan seems strange and you don’t know what it is at first, it’s probably because it rotates clockwise, which is why the blades have an inverted blade geometry compared to the vast majority of other fans (rotating from right to left). However, which way the rotor rotates does not matter in terms of cooling performance.
Included with the Kotetsu Mark III cooler is the HPMS V mounting kit, which in addition to AMD AM5 and Intel LGA 1700 platforms also supports older AMD AM4 and Intel 1200/115x platforms.
We have no information on price or availability. We have not yet found the cooler offered by any store. Scythe has already listed it on its website and there is a complete product page for it. So the Kotetsu Mark III is probably in the logistics process at the moment.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
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- Scythe Kotetsu Mark III
