Reading Hardware

Zalman has finally released a heatpipe based CPU heatsink and fan. What does this mean for those using it? Superior cooling and heat distribution. After all, wouldn't you expect a heatsink that looks like this to cool like crazy?

I've ordered one, and it wasn't very cheap (82$ shipped). I expect premium cooling, and will update this based on my experiences. I will be testing it's ability to cool a chip at stock frequency, overclocked, and otherwise. Stay tuned, guys!

I should be ashamed of myself.

Well it seems my review is a tad bit overdue, but I guess it needs to be written nonetheless.

First Impression:

This thing is huge. When I say huge, I mean HUGE. It's the first heatsink I've own that was overweight past motherboard specs (which is 450g). It's a good 4 to 5 inches in diamater and all copper!

After fitting it to the motherboard, which, with the mounting brackets can be quite hard to do, as you have to squeeze the mounting brackets through the various heatpipes without ruining everything, which was the only hard part of installation. Flipping it on, I realized this heatsink was a bit louder and a bit whinier than other designs by zalman. As to why, I do not know, but it cools way more efficiently than other designs I've owned, so those higher RPM's that bring the noise (all zalman coolers, when running on low, are virtually silent and still cool as effective, or more effectively than stock cooling) and since mine is controlled by a zalman rheobus, I never have to hear that noise unless it's determined I don't mind.

All the other majour review boards have decided that this heatsink is pure awesomeness, and I can't help but agree. My CPU (overclocked by a very meager 200mhz because first gen amd64's sucked) runs at 51 to 55C under maximum load. With a cnps7000-alcu, it ran roughly at 49-51C under maximum load. With this new cooler, I've had hard times keeping it above 44 to 46C. In short, it's massively effective in comparison to other coolers, but i fear it's effectiveness is wasted on the core design of my CPU, as it refuses to overclock. :\

Anyway, if you are in the market for a CPU cooler, this is the best there is without turning to water. It's focused on cooling the equipment quietly, and cooling it effectively. And hot damn does it look awesome!

I should be ashamed of myself.

Heh, turns out I was installing it backwards... and still got good results. Right now that machine is out of commission ( I broke the power supply ), I'll be able to discourse on the cooling efficiency assoon as it's alive again.

I should be ashamed of myself.