As the name suggests, the Ninja Rev.B is an update, in fact technically this is the third revision. The first, known simply as "Ninja" didn't support socket AM2 and was not bundled with a fan. It also lacked simple s775 installation (the four push clip method). The second "Ninja Plus" added a Scythe branded 120mm fan to the equation. The third, the Rev.B improves installation by including screw on brackets for all the various sockets. Ease of Installation is now much improved apparently.

At the time of writing, the Ninja Rev.B can be found for around 26~£35 depending where you look. This means if you look around (and not really that far as i've linked to it) and get a decent price, it's actually quite few pounds cheaper than other high end coolers, so potentially not bad value.

The Ninja Rev.B is big, really big. The overall dimensions without the fan are 155H * 110W * 110D (mm). The height could be a concern in some cases, its best to check beforehand to see if you have enough space to fit it.

There are 23 aluminium fins and 12 copper heatpipes along with a copper base. Scythe's own website lists this cooler as having 6 heatpipes, but there are 12 heatpipes protrusions through the aluminium fins (as you can see in the above pics), so technically it is 12. As you would expect for a heatsink of this size, it's not light -- 660g without a fan, 770g including. However, the bulk of this weight is because of the copper and most of this is in the base, so there shouldn't any great concern with regards to socket stress. Overall build quality is excellent. there were no erroneous manufacturing issues.

The Ninja rev.B comes with a new mounting mechanism, we tested the s775 variant which now uses the standard push clip method as found on the retail Intel heatsink and many other coolers. You have four push clips that when rotated into the correct position and pushed down into the surrounding motherboard holes will makes a faint "click" when fully through. Though this method is not ideal, it does seem to work fine and the big bonus of course, is that technically with this solution you normally do not need to remove your motherboard for installation. The Ninja rev.B's main problem in using the push clip method is that the heatsink is just too big for it to work without causing a bit of pain during the install/removal process, and because of this you'll probably find yourself removing the motherboard afterall. If you do remove your motherboard, Installation is OK, mainly because the tension of the clips is less then you would find on most coolers, but removal is still a pain.

The push clip method works by having to be twisted anti-clockwise and the pulled upon, but all the clips are positioned directly under the heatsink, you can't get a screw driver to it, you just have to try your best to get your fingers to them and hope you can twist them with your own grip. With many new high end motherboards showing up with passive, heatpipe assisted cooling right around the north bridge and voltage regulators it becomes a real concern. The P5W-DH was problematic, with one of the push clip extremely difficult to twist and therefore free the cooler from the socket.

Another more serious issue was encountered on the P5W-DH Deluxe. The s775 mounting plate actually rested on top of the capacitors at the top edge of the board, meaning that contact between the Heatsink base and CPU was minutely hampered. On our board it was enough of a concern to get out a small saw and hack off the protruding metal to make absolutely sure there was full contact. Scythe do have a motherboard compatibility list for the Ninja Rev.B on their website which I urge you to check, but on this occasion they listed the P5W-DH as compatible.

In the image below you can see how if the plate continued onwards and over the caps, it clearly would have rested on them. You can see that the bottom edge of the mounting plate is actually below the cap on the right. The faint red line is an artists impression of where the rest of the plate would have gone if i hadn't snipped it away.

Apparently Scythe have corrected this by introducing a slightly modified s775 mounting plate, so issues with the P5W-DH should no longer be a problem. More info on this at the very end of the review.

Moving onto the fan, it is one of Scythes own, the now discontinued DFS122512L. On Scythe's own website they claim the Ninja Rev.B comes with a 1200rpm fan capable of 49.5 CFM, but the fan included and listed in the above link is a 1600rpm, 60 CFM fan. We'll assume its the 1600rpm fan, as it is labeled as such. This fans dimensions are: 120H * 120W * 25D (mm) and claims 27.9 db(A) at 12V. The fan doesn't support PWM.

And finally, Scythe offer a 2-year warranty.