The Scythe Mugen 5 rev. B may not be a massive improvement over the original Mugen 5, but that is not a ‘bad thing’. If there is one thing that Scythe know it is how to make excellent air-based CPU cooling solutions that just plain work. Put another way, if you have a winning design you do not throw the baby out with the bath water. Instead you listen to feedback and improve upon an already winning design. This is the mark of experience, as instead of change for changes sake the tweaks have only been done to improve the owner’s experience… not win ‘internet points’.
The end result of this calm, and rational approach to CPU cooling design is the best Mugen cooler to date. This in turn translates to one of the best medium sized air-cooling solution available. For all intents and purposes buyers of the latest Mugen get most of the benefits of ‘slim’ coolers – such as the Noctua U12S and U14S – but also get nearly all the benefits of mega-sized cooling solutions like the Noctua D14/D15 models. Furthermore, the ability to actually take full advantage of second fan – unlike ‘slim’ models – means that the performance gap between this moderately large cooler and mega-sized one is further reduced. There still will be a difference but for most this difference will not be significant enough to justify the increased weight, form-factor, and generally frustrating installation issues that go along with 1KG plus cooling designs.
This best of both worlds approach to CPU cooling design is why the Mugen 5 Rev.B in specific, and Scythe in general, deserve to be on most buyers short, short list. It is not perfect but for most it will reside in the ‘sweet spot’ between ease of installation/use and performance.
With all that said there is still room for improvement as, in its current form, the Mugen 5 Rev.B suffers from a few issues. The first is obviously the price. At nearly fifty dollars, though it usually can be found in the $40 range with little difficulty, some will find it hard to justify the extra cost over say a more entry level CM Hyper 212 Evo series cooler. By the same token $50 is not that big an investment for a lifetime cooler (sans fan of course which will eventually die), and is downright inexpensive compared to the D15’s of the marketplace. Put another way it is in the sweet spot for price vs performance… but some builds only require ‘good enough’ cooling and the added expense may not be justified.
The other issue is a bit more concerning. This of course is the fan that is included. Yes the Mugen 5 Rev.B is not a high static pressure design that requires buzz saw fans with a ton of static-pressure abilities. It does however require a good fan. While the included fan is really good in the noise vs performance department, and in the longevity it offers, it is not an optimal solution. We would have much preferred to have seen a fluid bearing based fan that could run faster than 1200rpm. A bit more ‘horsepower’ (rotational speed / air movement) with a bit more ‘torque’ (static pressure) would have been a good idea for cooling Intel’s HEDT fireballs, or just when pushing the boundaries of overclocking more mainstream systems. Since Scythe already makes such a fan – and it comes with LEDs! – we are puzzled why Scythe did not significantly upgrade the stock fan along with the mounting system when they decided to create the Rev.B.
Even with issue taken into account the stock fan is more than adequate for most users. As such we would recommend a ‘wait and see’ approach to upgrading it. If at some point you do find it to be sub-optimal… swapping it out for an after-market fan(s), or adding in a second KAZE Flex is a pretty easy fix. This will increase the cost, but will actually make the difference in performance – for most scenarios- between it and a dual fan D15 even less… and still cost less than a Noctua D15. If you opt for the LED variant you can even add a surprisingly large amount of customization and make the Mugen 5 Rev.B really ‘work’ with darn near any custom color scheme you can dream up.
Whether or not these issues will impact you, is up to you to decide. Most will not find them overly onerous or rising to the level of ‘deal breaker’. Simply keep them in mind and make a decision that is best for your needs and your build. We do have a suspicion that most will like what the Mugen 5 Rev.B offers. Either way the Mugen 5 does live up to its promise of near infinite possibilities. This really is not just a pretty face and rather is a high flexible model that you will not want to throw out when you upgrade your system in the future. Instead it will provide a lot of cooling performance for your new system, the system after that, and probably (assuming socket mounting compatibility) after that.
The Review
Scythe Mugen Rev.B
With its combination of ease of use, good performance, and nearly silent performance the Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B really does offer nearly the best of both worlds. It offers nearly the ease of ‘thin’ cooling solutions while offering nearly the levels of performance of massive air-based CPU cooling solutions. Now that is impressive.
