[section_title title=Installation and Testing]
Installation
Fitting the cooler was a nightmare… well, that’s how I expected to start this paragraph so I decided to stick with it. Actually it was pleasantly simple. Fitting the backplate and support bars was simple, even for someone with shaky hands, thanks to the thumb-screw assembly system to get the backplate fitted and then just screwing the crossbars to those thumbscrews.
Next came what I expected to be the tricky part, getting enough access to fit that cross plate. I took the fan off and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of space available to me when it came to accessing the screws from the top.
I actually managed to fit the cooler in my existing build simply by removing the ram to give me access through the side – really simple and deceptively there was plenty of hand room underneath to get the Grand Kama Cross 3 fitted.
Once the ram was installed again it was on to the benchmarks.
Testing
I tested the Scythe Grand Kama Cross 3 using the following components:
- CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k
- Motherboard: ASRock Z87 OC Formula/AC
- Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) Team Group 1800MHz
- Graphics Card: MSI Gaming G1 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti
- CPU Cooling: Scythe Grand Kama Cross 3
- Thermal Paste: Noctua NT-H1
Thermal performance
Thermal performance is judged on four factors overall; the idle temperature at stock and overclocked speeds, as well as the loaded temperatures at stock and loaded speeds. During the testing, whether that be the idle or loaded testing, the system is either in idle or full load for a duration of five minutes before any readings are taken. The average temperature across all four cores is then noted down and used as the results. All room temperatures are recorded beforehand as well as during the test to ensure that the delta temperature is as accurate as possible.
With the maximum fan speed of only around 1400rpm, I wasn’t expecting much in terms of thermal performance but definitely anticipated a fairly quiet test even when overclocking. I wasn’t disappointed as far as acoustics are concerned, that fan was really quiet at low speeds and maxed out. As for temperatures, I was pleasantly surprised. Idle temps don’t look too impressive going by the graphs alone but when it came to ramping up the CPU the Grand Kama Cross 3 put its back into it and got the job done. It’s worth remembering that this is done with a fan running at 1400rpm, if that was replaced with something with a bit more oomph those temps would drop quite nicely. Of course, doing that would sacrifice silence, but these things are al a bit of give and take.
