Scythe Mugen 3 Rev.B CPU Cooler Review

Most people who buy a CPU cooler will tend to use the supplied fans and plug them straight into the PWM CPU fan header. As a result noise does change quite a lot between stock and overclocked configurations due to the PWM alterations.

We think using PWM fan speed, instead of fixing fans to say minimum or maximum is a better way of doing things, since very few people will buy a CPU cooler and then a 5v, 7v or 12v fan cable to fix its fan speeds.

At stock speeds you can see all coolers perform reasonably well. In fact the Scythe Mugen 3 is quieter than the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced at idle. At load it gets edged out slightly but all three coolers are very quiet and we could only tell the difference thanks to our decibel meter.

At overclocked settings you’ll nearly always have higher temperatures than at stock. As a result the PWM (pulse width modulation) controls on the fans will act to raise the fan speed to try and lower the temperatures. The Scythe Mugen 3 was the worst performer from our testing, but what you have to consider is that 45 dBA is still very quiet (the background noise level is approximately 35 dBA on our decibel meter). It is only marginally louder than the Hyper 412 Slim and Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced cooler, yet it performs significantly better.

It’s also worth noting that these tests were done with 100% CPU usage using Prime95 for a period of 10 minutes. During gaming and other everyday activities your CPU usage will be much less, as a result so will the sound levels because the PWM controls won’t need to raise fan speed as much due to lower temperatures.