There is indeed something that needs protection there:
The ideally flat surface of the base, as I verified by the trace of thermal grease on glass, may make a good example for all other manufacturers.
Note also that the aluminum heatsink above the cooler’s base is smaller than the analogous heatsink in Scythe’s Infinity or Mine. I guess there won’t be installation-related problems with the Andy Samurai Master like those that would occur with the two mentioned models.
When it comes to installation, the Versatile Tool-Free Multiplatform System allows to mount Scythe coolers on any supported platform without any tools. The Andy Samurai Master cannot be installed on the obsolete Socket 462 (Socket A), but all other platforms are on the list of supported ones.
To install the cooler you only have to pick up the appropriate pair of fasteners, insert them into the slits in the cooler’s base, and then secure the cooler on the CPU. In any case, installing the new cooler from Scythe doesn’t require you to take your mainboard out of the system case. The user manual shows most effective, in the manufacturer’s opinion, variants of installation:
The double ring marks the most optimal orientation in terms of maximum heat dissipation efficiency. The ends of the heat pipes point upwards in that case. The single ring marks one more possible installation variant that should be used if the first variant is not possible for some reason. The third variant, with the ends of the heat pipes directed downward, is not recommended by the manufacturer.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t orient the cooler in the best possible way on any of platforms I had. I took an ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP mainboard as an Intel platform. I had replaced the mainboard’s default chipset heatsink with a Cooler Master Blue Ice Pro cooler and the side heat pipe of the new Scythe cooler would press against the chipset fan making it impossible to lock the fastening mechanism.
It is not because the chipset cooler is too tall. The mainboard’s default chipset heatsink is 30mm tall whereas the chipset cooler is only 29mm tall (I measured that myself). So, the new Scythe has limited compatibility with this very popular mainboard as it can only be installed on it in the second-best position:
There are some limitations, too, when it comes to platforms with Socket AM2 (which I used) and with Socket 754, 939 and 940. Besides the possibility of some tall heatsink getting in the way of the heat pipes, the cooler orientation depends on the position of the plastic frame around the CPU socket. To orient the cooler as to achieve maximum cooling performance, the plastic frame must be perpendicular to the rear panel of the system case (or parallel to the mainboard’s top edge). I was unlucky in this respect with my DFI LanParty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G:
Thus, despite the simplicity and reliability of the fastening mechanism, the Andy Samurai Master cooler cannot always be oriented in the best possible way on the mainboard.
The recommended price of the new cooler from Scythe is $54.
