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Cooling: Scythe Kamakaze Review :: Features
As stated above, the Kamakaze is an aluminum/copper hybrid heatsink with (by my count) 484 aluminum oval shaped pins embedded in the heatsink base. Arriving at my doorstep in a very interesting looking box, the Kamakaze has the following features:
There's quite a lot to talk about here, so let's get to it. The box, as mentioned, is very interesting with several languages and pictures on it. It is pretty tough cardboard, and nothing was damaged during shipping.  Inside this colorful box was the heatsink, already assembled and ready for installation on an AMD system, and the P-4 bracket, mounting hardware and white silicone thermal paste.    Starting at the top and working our way down, here is the 80mm Scythe fan, connectors and rheostat.   Here is my first complaint. There is no fan guard. This, in my opinion, is a mandatory requirement for all heatsink fans. There are just too many wires that can be around the fan for there not to be a guard. Not to mention the possible injury to probing fingers. After removing the fan, you can see the oval aluminum pins and the fan shroud. The pins are tall and thin with plenty of space around them for good airflow. They are also easily bent, as you can see from looking at the left side of the picture. Fortunately, they are just as easy to bend back into place. I like the shroud design, as it forces the air straight down over the pins and its position allows the fan to sit very close to the top of the pins.  Looking now at the Rigid Core Clamping Mechanism, you can see that you will need a Phillips headed screwdriver to attach the heatsink to either the AMD or Intel socket. Installation for both systems should be done with the motherboard removed from the case. The mounting screws should be reversed far enough to allow the slits that fit over the socket tabs to fit over them easily. You will need to hold those slits in place while tightening the screws down in an alternating fashion till the slits grab the tabs firmly. The instructions are not as clear as I'd like to see them as to exactly how far you are to turn the screws. They state that you are to do so "until you feel the bars reach the top". Well, I can excuse part of this due to language translation, but really they should be more specific so that people don't screw the clamp down so hard as to damage their CPU. From my experience with installing this, it appears to me that when you see the bars reach very near the top, then you will have mounted it as far as you need to go. Just be careful and do this slow and easy. For Intel applications, you will need to remove the original heatsink bracket and replace it with the Scythe bracket and use the provided pins. You will also need to remove the AMD socket retention clips, as the screws will be going into the P-4 bracket. After that, the installation is the same.   Moving on down to the base now. It came with a good plastic cover over it to prevent corrosion and scratches. The majority of the base is machined copper press-fitted into the aluminum body. It is obviously a large enough area of copper for both AMD and Intel systems and the pressing has to have been of very good quality machine work as there are no gaps whatsoever between the copper and the aluminum. Once again, the base was not mirror finished, but it is very smooth and flat with no machine marks or ridges.    Lastly, here is a shot of the unit after it's been installed on the test system.  Now that we've examined the Kamakaze, it's time to put it to the test and see just how well it performs.
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