In recent years, all-in-one liquid coolers have been sought after by gamers due to their efficient heat dissipation performance and declining prices, but air-cooled radiators still have a place in the market. Judging from the current situation of the market, air-cooled radiators serve more entry-level and mainstream-level users, while the high-end field seems to have become a forbidden area that air-cooled radiators cannot reach.
Of course, there is no shortage of challengers in the market, and the flagship air-cooled radiator has greatly improved the heat dissipation power consumption of the air-cooled radiator by improving the process, adding heat pipes, and adding more wind-powered fans. Like the one we previously reviewed, the Terra Gaugie RZ820 has a cooling power consumption of 290W. Just when I thought this was the limit of heat dissipation power consumption of air-cooled radiators, Big Scythe launched another big snake air-cooled radiator with 8 heat pipes and claimed to have 310W heat dissipation power consumption. You know, this value is close to or even exceeds the performance limit of many high-end all-in-one liquid coolers. It can be seen that the big sickle and snake are challenging the flagship water-cooling radiator.
So, how does this flagship air-cooled radiator actually perform? Is it really superior or is it in vain? Next, we'll take a closer look at all aspects of its performance.
Product parameters
Heat dissipation power consumption: 310W
Heat Pipe Specifications: 8 Heat Pipes (6mm×8)
Fin material: Aluminum
Product size: 132mm×140mm×155mm
Tower process: reflow soldering
Base process: pure copper nickel plating reflow soldering
Compatible Platforms:
英特尔:115X/1200/1700;AMD :AM4/AM5
Number of fans: 2
Fan scale: 120mm×120mm×25mm
Fan bearings: double balls
风扇转速：900~3000+10%RPM
Fan airflow: 86.59CFM
风扇风压：4.53 mmH2O
噪声大小：38.7dB(A)
Warranty period: 6 years
Reference price: 699 yuan
Conventional designs
The Scythe Snake is a relatively traditional in appearance and simple in design, which adopts a double-tower structure, which is also a common structure used in many air-cooled radiators. Unlike other similar products, it does not use a fully enclosed enclosure, but directly attaches the fan to the heat sink fins through metal wires, which is relatively simple. Although this design doesn't have a lot of cool looks, it is more practical and easy to disassemble.
In order to enhance the aesthetics of the exterior while reducing wind resistance and noise, the Scythe Snake added an anodic brushed roof to the top of the twin towers. In this way, the overall look is more regular. Not only that, the bright silver metal-like logo on the top cover also gives the scythe and snake texture, making it more prominent in the overall style.
Equipped with 2 Gentle Typhoon GT-3000 PWM industrial-grade cooling fans
We know that one of the keys to an air-cooled radiator is the performance of the fan, and the performance of the fan will directly affect the overall performance of the radiator. In order to ensure the overall performance, the Scythe Snake is equipped with a self-developed high-end Gentle Typhoon series GT3000 industrial-grade fan, which adopts PWM speed regulation function and dual ball bearing design. According to official data, the fan has a speed range of 900RPM~3000RPM, and is capable of producing a maximum air volume of up to 86.59CFM while the air pressure can reach 4.53mmH2O. It is worth mentioning that this fan is the first in the industry to eliminate the Surge function at this thickness with a 25mm thin and light design, while still maintaining excellent quiet performance. Compared to the previous version, the new GT3000 fan incorporates two innovative technologies: first, the Surge function is eliminated to ensure efficient PQ performance; The second is to optimize the rear airflow and enhance the straight-line performance. This improvement allows the GT3000 to not only replace the 38mm thick fan, but also to perform well in terms of airflow, static pressure and PQ performance.
▲The Big Scythe Snake is equipped with 2 of its own gentle typhoon series GT-3000 PWM industrial-grade fans
In addition, the helical blades of the fan are combined with a 101mm diameter fairing to ensure that the generated wind direction is direct, while maintaining the airflow behind the fan at the optimum strength, further improving the overall performance of the fan.
▲The big sickle and the big snake use a fairing to ensure that the wind direction is straight.
This fan is equipped with 7 blades, and the spacing between the blades is kept within about 1mm. As we've said before, don't underestimate the seemingly inconspicuous 1mm blade pitch, which has a direct impact on the air pressure and noise level generated by the fan. Specifically, when the spacing between the blades increases, the resistance to air flow decreases accordingly, resulting in an increase in air volume but a decrease in air pressure. Many inexpensive fans on the market often have more than 1.5mm of frame blade spacing, which may bring more airflow, but the air pressure will be reduced, which will affect the heat dissipation effect.
▲The spacing between the frame blades of the large scythe snake is very small, only about 1mm.
However, too much spacing between the frames and leaves can also cause some problems. First, it can lead to a decrease in fan efficiency, as more air may escape through the gap between the fan blades and the bezel instead of being effectively channeled to the heat dissipation surface. Second, excessive spacing can also cause the fan to generate additional noise at high speeds due to increased instability in air flow.
In addition, if the spacing between the blades is set too close, the fan blades may be affected by centrifugal force and rub against the frame when the fan is operating at high speeds. Not only does this create a harsh noise, but it can also damage the fan blades or reduce the overall performance of the fan. In addition, spacing too close can limit the cooling effect of the fan because the air flow is hindered. When designing a cooling fan, in addition to the spacing of the blades, there are many other factors to consider, such as the effects of thermal expansion and contraction and the way the fan is installed. For example, a hoist-mounted fan needs to withstand additional stress from its own weight and vibration, which can have an impact on the setting of the blade spacing. Similarly, gravity factors in a vertically mounted manner can also have an impact on the stability and performance of the fan. Therefore, manufacturers need to consider these factors when designing and producing fans to ensure that the fans provide optimal performance and cooling under a wide range of conditions. This is also the reason why fans with good performance are not cheap.
One of the highlights of the GT3000 fan is its excellent self-protection features. In contrast, some fans cannot automatically power off when they are faulty or stuck by objects, which can cause the motor to burn out or affect other equipment wiring. The GT3000 intelligently realizes automatic power-off self-protection. Not only that, but it also automatically monitors the status of the fan, and once it returns from a stuck state to an open state, the GT3000 will automatically resume rotation, ensuring stable operation of the equipment. It is worth mentioning that GT3000, as the flagship series fan of the Scythe brand, has naturally been recognized by the market for its performance and quality. The price of its single fan is 159 yuan, and the price of the two GT3000 fans equipped with the big sickle and snake radiator exceeds 300 yuan, accounting for about 45% of the price of the entire radiator.
▲A list of accessories for the scythe and snake
It adopts 8 heat pipes and reflow soldering process
The Scythe Snake is positioned as a flagship-level air-cooled radiator, and to embody its "flagship", it is equipped with 8 heat pipes. You must know that there are not many air-cooled heat sinks with 8 heat pipes at present, most of them are 7 heat pipes. Its heat pipes are blackened to prevent oxidation. At the same time, the black coating also increases heat radiation and enhances heat conductivity. Unlike the 8mm+6mm combo of 8 heat pipes that we experienced before, the overclocked triple RZ820 comes with 8 heat pipes. However, from my measurements through the micrometer, some of the heat pipes of the Scythe Snake are less than 6mm in diameter, and some are only about 5.6mm.
▲ The 8 heat pipes used in the Scythe Orochi
▲The diameter of the heat pipe of the Scythe Snake is about 6mm, and some are less than 6mm.
The fins on both sides of the scythe and serpent tower are designed to be uneven, which in the eyes of many people is just to enhance the aesthetics of the appearance, but it is not so simple. Actually, this involves a technical term in fluid mechanics: boundary layer. In the case of heat sinks, a boundary layer is formed on the surface of the fins as the airflow generated by the fan passes through the fins. This boundary layer isolates high-velocity airflow from the fins, reducing heat dissipation efficiency. In order to solve this problem, the fins on both sides of the tower body of many radiators are uneven or other wavy or matrix type. This design not only reduces the impact of the boundary layer on heat dissipation, but also reduces the windcut sound, resulting in better performance and noise performance for the user.
▲The fins on both sides of the scythe tower are designed to be uneven, which can reduce the influence of the boundary layer on the airflow.
In order to make the fins more tightly connected to each other, the fastening and folding Fin process is used between the fins to ensure that the gap between the fins is minimized. However, due to the traditional Fin process, the fit between the heat pipe and the fin cannot reach 100%, which will inevitably leave some small gaps, which will affect the heat dissipation efficiency to a certain extent. To solve this problem, Big Scythe Big Snake has adopted a better reflow soldering process. Compared with the ordinary fin process, reflow soldering can completely fill the gap between the heat pipe and the fin, thus greatly improving the thermal conductivity efficiency. The welding process ensures that the contact area between the heat pipe and the fins is maximized, and the heat can be transferred more quickly and efficiently, so that the efficiency of the entire heat dissipation system can be significantly improved.
▲The big sickle and big snake use a large nickel-plated copper bottom, with a size of 43.5mm × 40mm.
In addition, the Scythe Snake also features a large copper bottom design, measuring 43.5mm × 40mm using a micrometer to measure its base, which can completely cover the surface of the flagship desktop processor. The surface of the copper base is also nickel-plated, which improves its corrosion resistance and heat dissipation performance. The same reflow soldering process is used between the copper base and the heat pipe to ensure a tight fit between them, thus further improving the efficiency of heat transfer. The copper bottom of the big sickle and big snake is not pre-coated with thermal grease, and there is a silicone grease included in the package, the thermal conductivity is unknown, and it can be applied about 2~3 times.
Adapts to mainstream platforms
It's not easy to install
Scythe Snake is compatible with Intel LGA 115X/1200/1700 and AMD AM4/AM5 mainstream platforms. It is not easy to install, taking the Intel platform as an example, you need to fix the baseplate and fasteners first, especially when installing the baseplate, you need to hold it up with your hand and the motherboard, then put on the rubber pad, and then use screws to fix the fasteners. After the fastener is fixed, install the radiator tower and memory, and finally fix the cooling fan.
▲The fastener of the big sickle and the big snake is not easy to install, and when installing the bottom plate, you need to hold it up with your hand together with the motherboard, and then put on the rubber pad, and then use the screws to fix the buckle.
The size of the heatsink is 132mm×140mm×155mm, and the bottom of both sides of the tower also has a memory avoidance design, so that users can easily disassemble and assemble the memory without disassembling the radiator. At the same time, the height of the heatsink is 155mm, and it will not conflict with the side panel of the case, and the height limit of the heatsink of the general M-ATX and ATX cases is mostly more than 170mm.
From our experience, the cooler's fan is fully compatible with our ROG Z790 DARK HERO motherboard without any adjustments. The motherboard is equipped with HOF EXTREME D5-7200 memory, the height of the memory is 48mm, if the fan is installed on the memory side, then the height of the heatsink fan needs to be adjusted after installation. After adjustment, the fan will be about 7mm higher than the tower.
▲After installing the 48mm high HOF EXTREME D5-7200 memory, you need to adjust the height of the radiator fan, and the fan will be about 7mm higher than the tower after adjustment.
The temperature limit is lifted, and the heat dissipation power consumption is close to 310W
The official nominal heat dissipation power consumption of the Big Scythe Big Snake is 310W, so what is the performance? Next, we will test it. On the platform of Core i7-14700K processor, ROG Z790 DARK HERO motherboard, Filmrun HOF EXTREME D5-7200 memory, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 D graphics card, I restored the motherboard to its default settings, and after more than 30 minutes of single-baking the FPU with the processor using AIDA64 System Stability Test, You can see that the power consumption of the processor is released by about 274.3W, and the package temperature of the processor is 100°C (room temperature 27°C). The processor has overheated and underclocked, and the performance core is at 5.3~5.4GHz with a voltage of 1.24V.
▲In the core i7-14700K conventional mode, the use of the big sickle snake heatsink will overheat and reduce the frequency, the performance core is 5.3~5.4GHz, the voltage is 1.24V, and the power consumption release is only about 274.3W.
Next, I unlocked the temperature limit on the processor in the BIOS of the motherboard, and used the AIDA64 System Stability Test to test the processor again for more than 30 minutes, and monitored the temperature and power consumption changes with HWiNFO software. After 30 minutes of testing, the voltage of the processor reaches 1.32V in the default state, and the turbo frequency of the performance core is 5.5GHz, I noticed that the power consumption of the processor has rushed up to about 309W at the highest level, and finally stabilized at 305.3W, and the maximum packaging temperature of the performance core of the processor is observed through the HWiNFO software to be stable at about 107°C, which is not much different from the official nominal 310W heat dissipation power consumption.
▲When the Core i7-14700K uses the scythe and snake in the limit state after the temperature limit is lifted, the temperature will reach a maximum of 107°C, and the processor power consumption will be released by 305.3W.
Compared with a certain 8-heat pipe air-cooled heat sink that we have previously reviewed, its heat dissipation power consumption is only 290W, which shows that the heat dissipation power consumption that can exceed 300W is already very powerful. On the surface, the processor has a higher package temperature, but in fact, it can suppress the Core i7-14700K at high frequencies and high voltages of 5.5GHz and 1.32V, while also not overheating and reducing the frequency of the same price air-cooled heatsink is rare.
In addition, as the processor is fully loaded and the heatsink fan speed is full, the "roar" of the fan can be clearly heard. I used FanControl software to monitor that the speed of these two fans was around 3000RPM. Since there are 2 fans running at full speed, the noise they produce will be noticeable. I measured its noise level at a distance of about 30cm from the fan with a decibel meter, and the fan noise was about 55dB(A) with ambient noise of about 45dB(A). However, our tests were conducted on an open platform, and if we were in a closed chassis with longer distances, we could hear much less noise.
▲The maximum speed of the two fans of the Scythe Snake can reach about 3000RPM, and the fan noise at full speed is about 55dB (A) at a distance of 30cm.
Judging from the tests, it would be a bit far-fetched to use the Scythe Snake to fully unleash the performance of the Core i7-14700K under regular conditions, but after removing the temperature limit and limiting power consumption, its performance can meet the heat dissipation needs of high-end processors under high loads. However, we do not recommend this because the temperature of the processor is too high after the temperature limit is lifted, and the high temperature will affect the life of the processor.
Write at the end
Compared with ordinary air cooling, although the 8 heat pipes it uses are only 6mm in diameter, which is even slightly lower than the specifications of some 8 heat pipe heat sinks, its performance can catch up with higher specifications. Exploring the reason behind this, I think the biggest contributor is the GT3000 industrial fan, which can burst out 86.59CFM at 3000RPM. It is also the addition of high-speed and high-airflow fans, 8 heat pipes, reflow soldering and other processes that can make the heat dissipation power consumption of the big sickle and snake close to 310W, but this needs to add a final sentence: in the limit state after the temperature limit is lifted. In daily use, the Scythe Snake can meet the cooling needs of the 14th Gen Core with K processors in high-load scenarios, such as graphics rendering and gaming, and it is easier to suppress the lower power consumption of AMD Ryzen processors. In particular, the price of 699 yuan seems to be very sincere, compared with many 8 heat pipe air-cooled radiators on the market, which are often nearly 1,000 yuan, it is very cost-effective, and it is worth a try for fans of air-cooled radiators.