You’d be forgiven for thinking this Zalman cooler was a donut. Hmm... donuts...
Zalman has been the creator of a very many popular heatsinks for both CPUs and GPUs over the past couple of years. With a penchant for exotic shaping, interesting designs and a tendency towards the quiet end of 'did you hear something?', we decided to grab its latest design and see how it stacks up to our current best, and whether or not it's worth your time.
True to form, and perhaps carrying more meaning in there than we intended, this heatsink is based off the preceding CNPS9500 series coolers. It consists of three heatpipes, each originating at the base, curving upwards through the circular array of fins, and finally ending in the base once more. This gives an effective six paths for heat to travel, and being soldered to the 0.2mm thick copper fins means that the transfer and radiation of that heat is excellent. A very polished copper base forms the perfect surface, and is perfectly flat - we couldn't feel any scratches at all!
Mounted in the centre of the radial fins is a frameless 12cm fan, mounted instead by plastic clips. It's PWM powered, blue LED lit, and has ball bearings meaning that this fan on all accounts should be quiet. What we recorded was an idle noise of 55.5dBA and a load of 61.8dBA, meaning that this heatsink was quite audible throughout testing, and it created enough vibration to be felt throughout the whole motherboard - make sure you secure both the board and cooler securely.
The performance of this cooler is quite good compared to the Thermalright (which is $30 more), and should definitely serve you well if you're intending to get some Nehalem overclocking action done. It's also compatible with LGA775 and AM2+, so you're covered on all bases! If the looks are appealing, this is a very nice alternative to the stock cooler.
Issue: 111 | April, 2010