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Zalman CNPS7500-CU LED


Date
: 03/24/08 – 01:22:00 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Zalman

Price:
$45.95 US

Not too long ago I had the opportunity to try out Zalman's newest water cooling system, the Reserator XT, and their latest heatsink aimed at the HTPC and small form factor market, the CNPS8700 LED. Today I am taking a look at one of their desktop products, the CNPS7500-CU. The 7500-CU follows suit with Zalman's long line of 'flower' heatsinks and looks to continue their reputation for quality and silence. Read on to find out how their latest heatsink performs.

Page 2 : Package and Specifications

The packaging is pretty much identical to the packaging of the CNPS8700 LED that was reviewed earlier. You get a clear view of the heatsink inside and you are clearly told that it is compatible with the latest Intel and AMD CPU's.

Both of the left and right sides of the box are identical with just the product name.

The back of the box gives a thorough listing of the features and specifications of the CNPS7500-CU LED. With a weight of 848g, it far exceeds the maximum of 450g recommended by both Intel and AMD, so it probably isn't the best cooler to be used in a PC that will be moved often.

Here is a closer look at the product specifications and features for the CNPS7500 LED taken directly from Zalman's website:

1.Does not generate noise or vibration in Silent Mode.
2.Pure copper base materials ensure excellent heat dissipation.
3.Compatible with all single and dual core CPUs for Intel Socket 775/478 and AMD Sockets AM2/754/939/940.
4.The high intensity blue LED installed silent 110mm fan inside the heatsink maximizes cooling performance.
5.The adjustable fan speed controller (FAN MATE 2) enables control of noise and fan performance.

Page 3 : Contents

Once you open up the top of the box, you are greeted with the two bags containing the accessories. Accessories include mounting hardware, a small tube of Zalman thermal grease, a Fan Mate 2, instructions and a case badge.

Here we can see the plastic shell that encloses the heatsink within the box. When snapped shut it's a tight fit, however when I received mine it was unsnapped in two corners, and the result was a few bent fins. I don't believe that this is a problem with the packaging and feel this is just a one off instance seeing how tight of a fit the shell has when closed. The 110mm fan nestled in the center of the heatsink will allow good airflow through all of the fins.

This is the view from the side of the CNPS7500-CU. You can see the fins go all the way from the bottom of the heatsink to the top. The fins are formed from one large piece of copper and the weight of this cooler certainly agrees with that.

Here you can see the openings on either side for the clip. The clip on the CNPS7500-CU is already installed unlike the clip for the CNPS8700 LED that was reviewed earlier.

You can see the heatsink base and you can further see how the fins all span out from this solid copper base. The base doesn't quite have the mirror finish of previous Zalman products, but it is still a smooth finish.

With the fan removed we get a better view of the structure of the heatsink. Everything is fitted together solidly with no visible gaps.

Page 4 : Installation

Installation was quite easy so I will just make note of a few things.

Engaging the clip was a simple process and didn't require a large amount of force like some mechanisms tend to.

The CNPS7500-CU comes close to the memory modules, but should not pose a problem unless you have taller RAM heat spreaders installed.

From this view you can see that clearance of any components shouldn't be an issue unlike some tower style heatsinks.

And the action shot; the CNPS7500-CU LED will obviously go well with a case window. Installation was a breeze, now to test it out and see how it compares to some other coolers.

Page 5 : Testing

Below are the system specifications that will be used for testing. Also listed are the comparison coolers. All coolers are tested using Shin Etsu thermal grease to even the playing field.

CPU: Athlon64 3700+
MB: DFI LP NF4 Ultra-D
RAM: G.Skill 2x1GB PC-4000
GPU: XFX 7800GT
PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
HD: Western Digital 40GB IDE, Seagate 80GB IDE
DVD-Rom: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
Case: CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000
Comparison Coolers: Stock Opteron HSF ,Thermalright SI-128 w/ Panaflo H1A 120mm and Zalman CNPS8700 LED
Ambient Temperature: 24-25C

To produce load temperatures I fired up F@H and let it run at 100% load for an hour and used temperature readings through MBM 5.

To start off I used stock settings on my Athlon64 3700+. I tested both the lowest and highest fan setting using the Fan Mate 2.

With a weight almost double that of the CNPS8700 LED, I really expected the 7500 to outperform it but puts up nearly identical results. This really surprised me, however I think this shows just how effective heatpipes are; the smaller and lighter 8700 utilizes the same fan but incorporates heatpipes where as the 7500 uses a solid block of copper. Will the CNPS7500 differentiate itself when more heat is applied?

Again nearly identical results when I overclock the 3700+. While still pretty decent numbers for a near silent heatsink, I really expected it to at least outperform the CNPS8700 LED.

Page 6 : Conclusion

I came into this review expecting the CNPS7500-CU to differentiate itself from its small form factor brother; the CNPS8700 LED. What I found was a heatsink that is a good deal heavier that performs almost identical to the CNPS8700 LED. Keep in mind, this is not really a bad thing as it does not disappoint, it does a solid job at a near quiet noise levels. Installation was a bit easier than it's HTPC equivalent and you can save a little bit of money with the CNPS7500-CU if you don't have any space restrictions.

In the end I really had sort of a mixed feeling with the CNPS7500-CU. For all intents and purposes it felt the same as the CNPS8700 LED aside from the weight. It is a bit harder to make a case for the CNPS7500-CU; while yes it is a little bit cheaper, but it is not as compatible with different applications such as SFF and HTPC's.

Positives

• Quiet operation

• Included Fan Mate 2
• Quality construction

Negatives

• May interfere with taller memory heat spreaders.

• Heavy

Overclockers Online would like to thank Zalman for supplying the CNPS7500-cu for review.