Scythe Fuma 2 Rev.B Review

Introduction

Scythe has been one of the most underappreciated CPU Cooler and Fan manufacturers for way too long. Let's take a closer look at their Fuma 2 Rev.B cooler and find out if it is really as good as people believe it to be!

What's in the Box?

The Fuma 2 Rev.B CPU cooler comes in an all- Scythe-Style packaging featuring a bunch of manga-inspired decorations. Inside the box, we will find the following items:

• Fuma 2 Rev.B Heatsink
• Installation Hardware AMD
• Installation Hardware Intel
• Thermalpaste
• Fan Clips x3
• Screwdriver
• Scythe Kaze Flex II Slim
• Scythe Kaze Flex II

Down below you will also find a summary of the spec sheet:

Compatibility

Due to the perfect timing of the new B revision, Scythe was able to offer LGA 1700 support out of the box. Although supporting every relevant new socket, Scythe also made sure to include many of the old ones as well. Down below you will find a full compatibility list.

Individual Components

Fan

The Fans used on the Fuma 2 Rev.B are called the Scythe Kaze Flex II. As indicated by the "II" iteration, those are not the regular Kaze Flex PWM fans that you will find on Scythe's website. 

Both spinning at 1500RPM, they are pushing 67.6 & 39.4CFM while pushing 1.5 & .96mm/H2O respectively.

While one of the fans included is a regular 25mm thick 120mm fan (27mm if counting the rubberized corners), the other one is a slim version at only 14mm thickness (15 if counting the corners). But this Slimmer fan is not included as part of a cost-saving measure. One of the fan clips included in the box has a little mark on them indicating that is has to be used with the slim fan. Mounted on the right side of the cooler, the slim version of the Kaze Flex II fan allowed the fan to NOT protrude over the ram slots. Thanks to this slimmer fan, the Fuma 2 Rev.B comes with 100% ram compatibility, allowing us to use ram as high as we like.

Base

The base of the Fuma 2 is made out of nickel-plated copper big enough to cover most of the now available CPUs. From the base, there are 6 heat pipes traveling up the heatsink until they end inside a black painted plate with a Scythe logo on it.

Heatsink

Although the dual tower heatsink looks quite regular from afar, once closer we can see that it is not so regular after all.

Traditionally, heatsinks are just a big stack of fins soldered to a heat pipe. This stack can then have some sort of shape or form, but it is pretty much a block. On the Fuma 2 however, the fins are not in a zig-zag shape with one fin standing out on one side while being indented on the other one. The fin above that then does the same in reverse. 

At a closer look, a two-set of fins then create a scissor-like appearance from top to bottom. If this benefits performance in any way will however be impossible to isolate so we will need to trust Scythe that this was not just done for the funny look.

Appearance

Being mounted inside a PC, the Fuma 2 looks both massive and compact at the same time. with one fan being installed in the center and the other one on the right side, it definitely looks like it can handle the job while the overall Matt-Black paired with heat sink-silver color scheme makes it easily intergrade into any build.

However, at the same time the cooler measures "only" 154.5mm in height, which compared to many other dual tower coolers are a relatively small form factor. This low-profile build type makes the Fuma 2 Rev.B an interesting mix of performance and compactness.

Benchmarks

We benchmarked the Fuma 2 Rev.B using our usual 3900x setup.

Letting both fans spin at their max 1500RPM, the Fuma 2 managed to keep the CPU at 53°C above ambient. This places it into the same category as an Arctic Freezer 35 eSports or a be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4, pretty solid.

Over on the Noise-to-performance side, the Fuma 2 managed to completely outperform things like the Silverstone Hydrogon, however, it did not manage to beat its own single-fan Mugen counterpart.

Lowering the fan speed did not immediately benefit the Fuma, but once the fans were spinning slowly enough, they were able to catch up to the Mugen.

Conclusion

All in all, as an independent product, the Fuma 2 offers a solid package. Surprisingly low profile, solid build quality, compatible with pretty much everything, and both raw-performance and noise-to-performance wise, it ended up in a pretty good position.

The only issue that it has is that the Scythe Mugen exists. Build with pretty much identical compatibility features, the Mugen was generally the better cooler, from start to finish. Something that we have not expected considering one is a dual-tower cooler and the other one is not. 

Therefore, we can recommend the Fuma 2 Rev.B as an independent product. Its performance is pretty solid and it will get the job done for most builds. However, if you are not "only" aiming for the dual tower look but for the best bang for the buck and the best bang generally, we would recommend taking a closer look at the Mugen 5. It is just overall a bit better.