The Scythe Ninja Mini is the smaller brother of the Ninja Plus Rev. B that we will be getting to next. This cooler features a total of six copper heatpipes passing through a polished aluminum base featuring machined aluminum fins between the base and the top aluminum fins. Each of the copper heatpipes is capped with the same hex-nut caps as the Katana 2. These heatpipes are also spread out further than the Katana 2. This method allows for greater fin surface per heatpipe and theoretically better cooling.
At the bottom of the Ninja Mini, the six heatpipes come together into the aluminum base over lapping each other. This will mean that the bottom three heatpipes are going to take the grunt of the heat and the top three heatpipes are going to have a slightly smaller load to bear. With this thinking you may choose to place your fan on the side closest to the bottom three heatpipes.
The aluminum base, same as the previous cooler, features a protective film that will need to be removed before installation of the cooler. Once removed, you can see the high polish that was done on this base.
Something I noticed on this base more than the other candidates in this review was the rounded corners of the base. It appears that the preliminary sanding and polishing of the base was done a little bit more sparingly than that of the final go-around. The last machining of the surface resulted in some very small micro-grooves in the surface of the base but was not easily noticed with a swipe of the fingernail.
On the corners of the Ninja Mini are channels that go about 50% of the way into the cooler’s fins. This is probably to keep separation of heat sources in the fins but other than that, these are probably for looks more than anything. One thing I noticed was the bottom aluminum fin had their pointed corners cut off. I thought this a bit strange as during installation there was no need to have these shortened.
To install the included fan, you simple place the fan onto the heatsink where you want it, place one side of the clip’s ‘fingers’ into one of the mounting holes in the fan. Then you place the length of the clip within the grooves of the aluminum fins; lastly placing the second ‘finger’ in the opposite mounting hole in the fan.
Mounting the AM2 retention harness to the Ninja Mini cooler was as easy as the Katana 2 cooler. Just four screws and you’re done. One thing to note is that the retention lever can get in the way of the fan’s fins if the fan is mounted too low and you have the harness mounted in parallel to the air flow. Easy solution is that you mount the fan higher than the clip or mount the fan perpendicular to the airflow.
