Finished Looks

Compare it to other tower coolers with ordinary flat fins, and the Scythe Katana's fin design stands out. That and its minimalistic design, makes it a good fit for nearly any system, while looking good in the process.


The included black fan improves its appearance, but sadly lacks sleeved wires, which stand out in an ugly way compared to the Katana's other parts. Yet the cooler is still rather pleasing to look at because of its simple but classy design with a bit of flair from its angled fins.


The Scythe Katana 4's small size not only looks good, but offers excellent clearance around the socket. Users won't have any problems connecting that 8-pin EPS connector with this cooler installed.


Memory clearance is where the Katana 4 falls flat compared to other Scythe designs. The fan looms over two DIMM slots, and while the fan can be adjusted slightly for more room, it is still a missed opportunity that could have made the Katana shine. The Ashura cooler I reviewed earlier had me hope that Scythe would take the offset design and apply it to future Katana revisions, though users still won't have any issues installing standard-sized memory with this cooler. The room it provides should also allow for the use of medium-sized memory, including GSkill's Ripjaw Z series and others. Just keep in mind that memory as tall as Corsair's Dominator Platinums will not fit under the fan on the Katana 4. That said, users will be happy to know that the Katana 4 is small enough not to interfere with the first expansion slot on the motherboard.