Scythe Mugen-2 Rev.B SCMG-2100 74.25CFM 26.5dBA Quiet CPU Cooler for LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775, AMD AM3, AM2+: SCMG-2100 (PWM, Retail)

by Scythe

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.9 x 5.1 x 6.2 inches ; 1.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 16 pounds
• ASIN: B002SCPH9W
• Item model number: SCMG-2100
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,165 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 16, 2009

Product Description

Scythe Mugen-2 Rev.B SCMG-2100 26dBA Quiet CPU Cooler for Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775, AMD AM3, AM2+: SCMG-2100 (PWM, Retail)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cools very well, but a pain to mount., February 24, 2009

By 

rogue (tucson, arizona USA) - See all my reviews

I purchased this cooler when I was having overheating problems after adding a Radeon 4870X2 video card to my system. I am running a Q6600 with the tape mod OC'ing it to 3.0ghz.

The cooler supports many different types of CPU. I'm using it for LGA775 but it also includes mounting hardware for intel sockets LGA1366 and Socket 478, and AMD sockets 754, 939, 940, AM2, and AM2+.

The first thing you will notice when you take it out of the box is that it's HUGE. It has 5 heat pipes, attached to an aluminum base which has it's own heat sink. Then there are hundreds of thin aluminum fins which give it it's excellent cooling capabilities. It includes a 1300 RPM 120MM sleeve bearing Scythe fan which can be mounted on any of the four sides of the cooler. It can also actually take up to 4 fans on the cooler, one on each side although you only get clips for one included with the fan.

It's kind of a pain to mount it on any of the supported sockets because you will need to remove the motherboard from the case and put the backplate on the bottom of the motherboard. You then attach the appropriate clip for whichever CPU you are using directly to the heatsink and tighten the screws from the bottom of the motherboard into the clip. The cooler comes with some cheap thermal grease so make sure you get some Artic Silver 5 or IC-7 diamond thermal compound. Also as a hint, the easiest way I found to mount it is to put it upside down on your desk, apply the thermal compound to the CPU, and then put the motherboard face down on top of the cooler and tighten the screws. The other hint i'll give you is to put the fan on BEFORE you put the motherboard in the case, because unless you have a really big case it's a pain in the ass to get the fan clips on the heatsink once it's all mounted down.

Cooler performance seems very good. I've seen reviews where it's about the same performance as the Thermalright Ultra Extreme (aka TRUE) 120 cooler which is probably one of the most highly rated air coolers ever. I'd post my temps but my stupid DG33 intel motherboard has a problem with the included 120mm fan which causes the fan speed to not go above 100 RPM. Even with the fan only spinning at 100 RPM, My reported processor thermal margin never gets to the threshold which intels desktop utilities report as dangerous, even playing games and having the 4870x2 add alot of heat to the case. This is the situation I bought the cooler to solve and it has fixed it although I'm disappointed that I can't get it cooler than it is because I can't get the fan to spin faster than 100 RPM. I'm going to wire the fan directly to the powersupply and run it at top speed, because it's so quiet anyway. Either that or get a new motherboard, lol.

anyway, bottom line is that it's going to give you top of the line performance at a price that's about half of the top of the line TRUE-120 cooler. Can't argue with that. If I were to buy it over again and I were not planning on getting an i7 LGA1366 processor, I might get a cooler that has the standard intel LGA 775 pushpin install so I don't have to remove the motherboard. However, this cooler will work with any modern socket! So in summary, for LGA1366 or someone who has an LGA775 and is planning on upgrading, get this one! Unless you want to spend $100 USD and have to lap the heatsink, then you can get the TRUE-120 and get a few (1-4) degrees cooler. If you only have LGA 775 and are not going to upgrade, I'd probably get the Xigmatek HDT S-1283 because it's easy to mount.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Cooler, However needs proper installation for optimum cooling performance, January 23, 2010

By 

Jojy (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Used this cooler for a core i7 920 processor. The installation is time consuming. The cooler and the backplate sandwiches the processor and the motherboard. This allows the cooler to be attached to the processor tightly. However, I had an issue with the initial installation. I didn't want to apply too much pressure to the screws on the backplate fearing I might damage the processor (>$200) or the motherboard (~$250). Ran the pc, and the cpu temperature was pegging at 50șC from start up and the core temperatures were at >70șC (when idle!). Had to take out the motherboard (and everything else connected to it) and tighten the screws quite a bit. Now the cpu temperature is 24șC on idle and 45șC when running Prime95 for more than 8 hours. The core temperatures are 35șC-40șC on idle and around 51șC-58șC on Prime95 for more than 8 hours. I had a nervous time tightening the screws at the back without any way of knowing when to stop. I also had to eyeball the end of the screws on the cooler side of the motherboard to tell if the screws were tightened equally. (Don't know if this is my inexperience assembling pcs!)

Some documentation about how much to tighten the screws, or a way to control the maximum tightening possible on each type of motherboard by not having threads beyond a certain point on the screws would have gone a long way in assuring a smooth installation. Also, some foolproof mechanism to tighten the four corners equally would be great.

The enclosed fan is good, and silent. Overall, I am definitely satisfied with the cooling performance.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GREAT cooling, pain in the butt and huge, December 14, 2009

By 

A. Wiersch (Lantana, TX USA (near Dallas)) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This seems to be a fantastic cooler. It's quiet and supports a variety of sockets, but I have to subtract a star for the cons.

Pros:

* Great air cooling

* Quiet

Cons:

* Pain to install (the most complicated cooler I've ever installed). Requires removal of back plate and installation of a new one.

* Huge - requires careful thought of how to install.

Other notes: I installed the heat sink on the MB before installing the MB into the case. I carefully had to think about how to install the heat sink and fan so it would fit with my EVGA X58 132-BL-E758-TR motherboard and blow air in the proper direction. I even had to install a couple of sticks of RAM before installing the cooler, because I'm not sure if I would have been able to with the heat sink in the way.