Performance: 37 out of 40
While no one will confuse the Big Shuriken 3’s performance with that of the Mugen or Ninja series, for a moderately low-profile CPU cooling design this is about as good as you are going to get this side of dual bay AIOs.
Ease of Use: 19 out of 20
Even though this is a squat 120mm fan wielding cooler the Big Shuriken 3 is almost absurdly easy to install. Some of this is thanks to an upgraded HIPS 3 installation hardware, but mainly it is because of the great engineering that went into the 3’s new design. Add in the fact that the stock fan comes pre-attached and this cooler is almost as easy to install as an AMD stock cooler.
Build Quality: 19 out of 20
This cooling solution simply exudes quality. Everything from its highly advanced cooling tower design, to its mirror shine polished base, to its improved fan mounting setup. All the components are about as good as you are going to find in the air cooler market. Quite honestly, we would put this build quality up there with Noctua… just without the typical Noctua asking price. Color us impressed.
Value: 17 out 20
The value of this CPU cooling solution device is going to be a bit varied. For the typical consumer who doesn’t really care about the height of their cooler… its performance is going to be hard pressed to justify its asking price. However, for the targeted demographic the value is darn near unbeatable. Good performance, good installation process, few worries over compatibility problems. This really is the cooler to beat if you are looking for a low-profile cooling solution that will not cost you an arm and a leg.
Final Score: 92 out 100
To summarize the Big Shuriken 3 in just a few words we are reminded of an old ad campaign from the 1990s that went “those who like it like it a lot”. This CPU cooling solution is not going to be right for everyone. That is fine. This is not a jack of all trades cooling solution. Instead, it was designed with a laser-like focus on offering small form-factor builders a great cooling solution. At this, it is an amazing success. Such as success that we can see few reasons to ever opt for single 120mm bay AIOs, and even fewer reasons to opt for the more expensive Noctua Low Profile models. This really will be the cooling solution you want for moderately small builds.
