Verdict: Not the best heatsink we've kama cross...
A kama is a curved Japanese sickle that, much like a scythe, is used to harvest grass or cut down the living (if you felt so inclined). The name of this HSF therefore fits neatly with the rest of Scythe's HSF range. The 'Cross' comes from the manner in which three heatpipes of the Kama Cross intersect each other.
The 100mm fan is identical to that of the Katana 2, although its orientation means that air will be blown over the entire CPU socket area. The base of the Kama Cross is nickel-plated copper, which Scythe tells us is purely aesthetic and won't hinder its thermal conductivity.
Installing the HSF is a pain in an LGA775 motherboard, as the aluminium fins get in the way and make it difficult to secure the push-pins. However, it kept our overvolted quad-core Xeon cool enough to remain stable at 100 per cent load, even if it ran 3C hotter than it did with the reference Intel HSF. In fairness, however, the Kama Cross is much quieter than the Intel cooler.
In our AM2 test rig, installation is easier thanks to AMD's clip design. However, the Kama Cross was as ineffective as the Katana 2. The Scythe AM2 adaptor once again proved to be unconvincing, allowing one of the cores of the dual-core Athlon 64 X2 5000+ to become far too hot, which caused the system to crash when under full load. Given that Scythe's Infinity cools our AM2 CPU brilliantly, we're mystified that both of these products fail so badly.
Conclusion
The Kama Cross offers the same sub-standard cooling ability of the Katana 2 while costing more money.
While Scythe's Infinity cooler is one of the best HSFs on the market, this cheaper alternative doesn't offer enough raw cooling ability to make it worthy of consideration, even if it is very quiet.
