Josh Saddler

Hi, how did you managed to install the Ninja on the K9N Platinum?
With the AM2 mounting clip the largest heatpipes touch two capacitors so that the Ninja base does not match exactly the cpu surface (it's moved away by 2 mm) and the clip cannot be hooked into the retention bracket. Indeed, just after I bought the Ninja, I found from Scythe's website that it's not compatible with K9N Platinum.

That's not true. There are no such clearance issues in my setup. No part of the Ninja touches any other part of the motherboard. The only issues I had were that the clips on the Ninja didn't seem long enough to reach down to hook over the prongs on the CPU socket. Temporarily bending them down and outward let them reach far enough down to grab an extremely tight, secure hold on the socket.

I'm using the K9N Platinum Ultra, and I've heard from others that use the Platinum SLI that their setups also work with the rev. B Ninja.

Thanks for your explanation, you gave me hope.
The site I was referring to is http://www.scythe-e%75.com/en/support/compatibility.html.
Does your mobo look like this? http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K9N_SLI_Platinum&class=mb
Look at the capacitors near the AM2 socket; do your Ninja heatpipes lay above those capacitors or they don't even reach them?
If I rotate the Ninja by 90

As I just said, I have the non-SLI version of the motherboard. However, with the exception of the PCI-e slots, the boards have the same physical layout. The capacitors and heatsinks are identically placed.

I have no clearance issues; my Ninja rev. B doesn't touch anything, and neither does the 120mm fan mounted on it. I haven't heard of any K9N SLI owners complaining that the Ninjas they have installed touch the 'board, either.

I wonder if you got some weird version of the Ninja -- are you trying to use some other add-on AM2 clip that it wasn't originally designed for? Are you using the original SCNJ-1000 instead of the SCNJ-1100?

The first link you posted to scythe-e%75 is a dead link, by the way.

Ok, so we have the same mainboard. My Ninja is the SCNJ-1100 Plus Rev.B and I'm using the original AM2 clip coming with the Ninja.
I noticed that the heatpipes are 8.5 cm wide on one side and 10 cm wide on the other side; the clip can be screwed on the shorter side only, and the holes on the clip confirm that.

The link I posted is http://www.scythe-e%75.com/en/support/compatibility.html (it's the european site, I had to replace the u with the %75 since this form wasn't accepting that link until I deleted the u or replaced it; it works for me).

I've just found this note about a Asus motherboard, that could be valid for all manufacturers, and that could be the reason:
"Please note that this compatibility may not apply to all the motherboards as the manufacturer randomly tend to change the components (capacitors, condensers, etc) used for their motherboard without informing to the public. Hence, the height of the capacitors and condensers maybe higher depending on the production lot of the motherboard."
(http://www.scythe-e%75.com/en/support.html)
My capacitors are 23 mm high, maybe yours are shorter.

Then I found this on a German site (http://www.effizienzgurus.de/main/index.php?content=article&action=view_spec_article&article_id=68) (automatic translation)
"The Scythe Ninja, which is the reference in passively gekhlten systems, was unfortunately inkompatiblel to the used test board MSI K9N SLI Platinum and can therefore here not with be compared (see Scythe Kompatibilittsliste)."