Scythe Fuma 2 CPU Air Cooler Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Although purchase options are limited at the time of writing, the Scythe Fuma 2 is expected to retail for a price in the region of £50-£60. Taking one of the more obvious points on board for starters, this is a heck of a lot of cooler for that money and as our tests showed, it more than warrants (and indeed exceeds) the price tag it has.

To put the price into context, for a similar design from a more well-known manufacturer, you’d easily expect to pay an addition £20-£30+. Based on this, the Scythe Fuma 2 is a more than attractive proposition.

Overview

While some people may not like the chunkier style of air-coolers, in terms of the design and aesthetics, there’s practically nothing to fault here. Scythe has put a lot of work into this cooler to make it as solid to use as it is easy to work with.

The installation was substantially easier than you might have experienced from other manufacturers and this, in itself, gets a huge thumbs up from us!

In addition to this, Scythe has also opened the doors to further improvements here by providing you with the brackets, and mounting system, to install a third fan. Although this isn’t supplied, it’s an interesting concept if you did want to explore the overclocking potential further.

Yes, overall the concept itself is rather basic and, again, borrows a lot of inspiration from other designs. It is, however, simply hard to fault what Scythe has achieved here.

Should I Buy One?

To us, the Scythe Fuma 2 is very firmly attempting to place itself as an excellent budget alternative to many of the other twin-fan air-cooler manufacturers. Scythe may, of course, disagree. It is, however, the overall ethos we take away from the Fuma 2 and, in full credit to Scythe, they go a substantial way in achieving it!

While the Fuma 2 may not have the high-end performance of some of its competition, it comes remarkably close and at a significantly lower price. Yes, it may not have the legs to handle overclocking on a significant scale, but if you place a greater priority on noise and solid stock performance, the Scythe Fuma 2 is an excellent and inexpensive alternative to its better-known competitors.

Pros

• Solid bullet-proof design
• Easy to install (particularly for such a big cooler)
• A strong aesthetic without having to rely on any RGB lighting effects
• Excellent noise levels
• Performs at a level well-beyond expectations
• Highly competitive price to performance ratio
• A legitimate option to upgrade with the installation of a third fan

Cons

• None

Neutral

• Lacks the ‘out of the box’ ability for comfortable overclocking. Although improvements can be found if you’re willing to trade-off a higher fan speed (and noise) for lower CPU temperatures
• If you do plan to overclock, acquiring a third fan would undoubtedly be advantageous
• No RGB lighting – Make of that what you will!