Zalman CNPS9500 AM2

Peace and quiet doesn't always have to mean a case-dwarfing monstrosity of a HSF.

Zalman’s newest AMD cooler was launched alongside NVIDIA’s nForce 5 range, and has been slapped with a great honking ‘Recommended by NVIDIA’ logo. It’s gone so far as to light the fan with a green LED in case you weren’t sure.

A sticker on the fan proudly proclaims it’s ‘Optimised for NVIDIA nForce’, but unless we’re missing something this could be what we call in marketing speak ‘a lie’.

Fortunately, NVIDIA did pick a great partner, as the 9500 is a great heatsink. Two sets of three heatpipes curve up from the base and wrap around each other in a squashed figure-eight shape, fins radiating from the centre. A single 92mm transparent fan sits in the middle, its speed alterable by the included Fan Mate 2 controller. The Fan Mate 2 is a pot so you can set speeds variably instead of being restricted to the typical ‘low/high’ settings.

At its highest speed the noise is obvious, but presents more of a whooshing sound than an annoying whine. At its lowest, you can only hear it if you put your ear right next to it, making it an excellent partner for our Seasonic PSU and 7900GTXs – stand two metres away and you wouldn’t even know the system was on.

The retention clip seems a little odd at first, having to be first threaded through the heatsink, then anchored on one side to the socket positioned on a notch on the base of the heatsink. Then another clip needs to be added to the other side to connect to the second socket notch. Despite the odd design, it stands as one of the easiest clips we’ve used.

In an ambient temperature of 27°C, the Zalman returned an attractive 45°C at its highest fan speed, and a slightly higher 47°C at its lowest – putting it nearly in the range of the Scythe Ninja, a considerably larger heatsink.

If you don’t like the idea of hanging one of the monster tower coolers off your motherboard, the CPNS9500 AM2 will give you close to the same performance with a lot less weight.