​Scythe Fuma 2 CPU Cooler Review: Reverse Jet Flow Power

Two Towers. Two Fans. Two Directions?

The Fuma 2 cooler (model SCFM-2000) from Scythe is a departure from their previous Fuma (SCFM-1100), building on the dual-tower, six heatpipe heatsink concept with a new asymmetric design and interesting ‘Reverse Jet Flow’ system. What is this system? The two Kaze Flex 120mm fans rotate in opposite directions, resulting in “higher static pressure and more stable airflow”, according to Scythe.

“The successor of the Fuma cooler, FUMA 2 is designed with new concept and inspiration. Utilize dual Kaze Flex 120 fans with Reverse Airflow concept, FUMA 2 offers up to 15% cooling performance than previous version. The asymmetrical and cutout design give unlimited compatibility to RAM zoom. Six sintered heatpipes with dual radiators provide top-tier performance, the 3rd fan is option to maximize cooling capability for highest demand such as gamers or overclockers.”

For its part the asymmetric heatsink allows for better compatibility with taller memory, particularly in quad-channel configurations where there are DIMMs on both sides of the CPU:

Image credit: Scythe

Design and Installation

Cooler Design

The Fuma 2 has a fairly large dual-tower heatsink, measuring 137 mm wide, 131 mm deep, and 154.5 mm high. The six heatpipes and the base are nickel plated, and the overall look and feel of these cooler is quite premium for its $59.99 retail price.

The included Kaze Flex 120 fans are actually two different models, and while we mentioned the Reverse Jet Flow system there’s another difference: thickness. The first fan is just 15 mm thick (17 mm including the anti-vibration rubber pads), while the second is a more conventional 25 mm thick (2 7 mm with the pads). This slim fan helps keep the installed cooler away from tall memory in the first DIMM slot, which is often a friction point with large air coolers like this. There’s also support for a third fan, with an extra pair of fan clips included if you have one to add – though I don’t expect performance would improve significantly.

Installation

The install process is identical to other recent Scythe coolers – which is to say it’s about as good as it gets. No, this isn’t some new concept, it’s just been refined beyond what you’ll see from other air cooler makers. I’ll explain: for an Intel system, it’s typical to get some sort of metal or plastic backplate, a set of four bolts that you need to push through the hole around the LGA socket, some spacers/standoffs, and then a metal bracket to mount the cooler on. Here Scythe offers a metal base plate with pre-installed bolts – and rubber bumpers on each corner to protect your motherboard’s PCB. And the spacers, generally just plastic even on high-end Noctua coolers, are lined with rubber – which creates enough hold to actually keep the base secure during installation. I commented on this in the Ninja 5 review, and I still find this to be the best ‘lowkey’ feature with mounting hardware.

With the cooler installed let’s check out the clearance, and this is very good thanks to the asymmetrical heatsink design and that slim outer fan.

Next we’ll see how this cooler performed on the venerable (read: arguable outdated) cooler testbed!

Performance

I’ll lead with an acknowledgement that yes, for cooler testing I am using hardware that is now more than two years old. I switched to a Core i7-7700K for these reviews back when Kaby Lake came out, and it has been such a tough test of cooler performance with its prodigious heat production that I saw no reason to switch to another CPU in last couple of years.

No, it’s not an i9-9900K, and no, it’s not an AMD Ryzen, either. But as far as Intel CPUs go this is a 14nm part, and Kaby Lake is based on Skylake architecture…kind of like every desktop Intel CPU available today!

Enough snarky commentary. Let’s just look at the performance numbers.

Temperatures

This is a big deal. The Fuma 2 easily bested even larger coolers in this group with identical hardware and benchmarks. I want to do some new tests with some of the other coolers just to confirm this, but with this i7-7700K at least the lead is very impressive – especially considering the relatively low ~$60 price compared to larger solutions. Seeing how this translates into cooling for a CPU like the Core i9-9900K or Ryzen 9 3900X will be interesting, and worth a follow-up post.

When I did quickly push things a little harder with the all-core Cinebench R20 test the Fuma 2 continued to impress, with an above-ambient high temp of just 54.6 C, and when you look at what I recorded with this system using the larger be quiet! Dark Rock coolers back in August, you’ll see why: this 54.6 C is 3 C lower in this test than the 57.9 C result with the Dark Rock Pro 4!

Now I’m seriously questioning how much ambient temps play a role in cooler testing, even when dealing only in delta temps. Oh well, on to the noise testing.

Noise Levels

Here we see that, as impressive as the cooling power from this Fuma 2 is, it does come at the expense of some audible noise. Not that 35.5 dBA is loud by any means! This is a very quiet cooler under full load, but not as silent as previous Ninja designs or the be quiet! models in recent tests. Fan speeds were still pretty modest, topping out at 1182 and 1178 RPM between the two fans. The quietest cooler I’ve ever tested was the Ninja 4 at its low fan setting, which limited speeds to just 800 RPM under load, and manual tweaking of the fan profile (mine is at the “normal” motherboard preset) would result in some lower noise.

Conclusion

The Fuma 2 provides a surprising amount of cooling power, bolstered by its unique ‘Reverse Jet Flow’ system, and while it isn’t as silent as some other options the overall package is going to be hard to beat at the $59.99 price level. In every way this feels like a more expensive cooler, but maybe I’ve just grown accustomed to dual-tower design that cost $79+.

More testing needs to be done to see how this cooler manages more demanding loads from the likes of AMD Ryzen 3900X and Intel i9-9900K CPUs, but this cooler provides a compelling alternative to coolers such as Scythe’s own Ninja 5, as long as you are willing to accept slightly higher load noise levels in the ~35 dBA range. Of note, the Ninja 5 currently sells for $5 less ($54.49, Amazon) than this new Fuma 2 ($59.99, Amazon), though the Fuma does have a coupon to use at present and they are about the same overall cost.

I continue to be impressed with the air coolers from Scythe, and their price/performance offering continues to be as good as any in the industry. Low-cost coolers such as the famous Hyper 212 EVO certainly offer great performance for the money as well, but if you’re looking to take air cooling to the next level this is a great option.