Installation
The installation is straight forward due to the excellent access to the mounting area. There is substantial clearance around the CPU area with most if not all memory clearance issues resolved too. We mounted the Scythe Grand Kama Cross 3 on our usual Asus Rampage V Extreme testing motherboard and had no issues at all.
Test Set Up
We tested the Scythe Grand Kama Cross 3 for sound and cooling performance using our standard i7 LGA2011-v3 set up. We tested two configurations, stock and overclock both with turbo. The i7 LGA2011-v3 set up is basically a high end set up that will stress the CPU cooler under stock load conditions and when overclocked. This is our basic test set up for most of our reviews, compatibility permitting.
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
- Processor: Intel i7-5820K
- Motherboard: Asus Rampage V Extreme
- Graphics: MSI GTX 970 GAMING Twin Frozr V
- Memory: 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 @2666Mhz
- Drives: Crucial BX100 500Gb SSD
- PSU: Corsair HX1000i
- Chassis: MicroCool Banchetto 101
Software used for load tests and temperature capture;
- HWiNFO64
- AIDA64 Engineer
We ran the AIDA64 Engineer stability test in 30 minute batches and recorded the results. We used the Core Max result as there was typically a variance across the cores of a couple of degrees.
We only selected the cache, FPU and CPU tests, so no other component would generate impacting heat during the tests. We always “run in” our CPU cooler installations, essential to maximizing the performance of the cooler before testing begins.
Scythe Grand Kama Cross 3 CPU Cooler Review
Package - 8
Performance - 7.4
Price - 8
Consumer Experience - 7.5
7.7
The Kama Cross 3 is a competent cooler, and looks really good too. With memory and CPU area clearance sorted too, the Kama Cross 3 gives you an extra couple of reasons to buy one over the other standard looking single and dual fan tower coolers.