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Zalman CNPS Coolers


Date
: 06/8/01 – 01:45:10 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Zalman Tech

OC Online would like to thank the peeps from Zalman tech for supplying us with their latest coolers!

Introduction

New heatsinks and fans are born around the world every day. Every manufacturer tries to engineer the best and most effictive cooler, but few manage to deliver a product that is good enough for a cooling job. A good cooler consists of many things … first of all, the heatsink and fan must perform good enough to keep a CPU cool. Second in row comes the retention clip that makes it easy or hard to install the heatsink. And last but certainly not the least and probably even the most important things for some is the looks and quality of their heatsink. After all, what’s good about a cooler that fall apart after 2 days? Especially guys who leave their sidepanel open or who’s rig has a plexi window will love a very special limited edition heatsink to show of at their favorite LAN parties. Yes, I’m talking to you :p

This is were the CNPS coolers from a Korean company called Zalman Tech Co. Ltd. come into play! Don’t know what CNPS means? Well, me neither before I started this review :) I will explain it later together with all the other technical stuff … ‘Flower power baby!’ Sorry … that expression suddenly crossed my mind when I was looking at the pictures.

Which Zalmans do we include in this review? :

• Zalman CNPS 2005
• Zalman CNPS 3000
• Zalman CNPS 3100

We will discuss the difference between these heatsinks in a litte while …

How do we test heatsinks around here? Well, let me tell you I like to test an heatsink very thoroughly before I draw any conclusions or write a review about it! I always use the HSF for at least one hour with RC5 and Prime95 running together with our occasional email program and ICQ. This way our CPU creates as much heat as possible under full load. That heat stresses the fan and heatsink as much as possible and that’s what we want to see. Next step is to measure the temperature by using a nifty little program called Motherboard Monitor (latest version at this time is 5.07b). Then we shut down all CPU eating the programs like RC5, Prime95 and let the CPU rest for a while … About one hour later, we measured the idle temps. Just one more thing : it might just be good for you to know that our testbed didn’t use a case. The mainboard and other components were installed on my desk …

These Zalman coolers are different from all other heatsinks you’ve ever seen before! Now, isn’t that a good reason to have a closer look at each Zalman heatsink?

Page 2 : Zalman CNPS2005

Zalman CNPS2005

Parts

1) FHS :ZM65BC-AL
2) ZALMAN NP FAN(ZM-F1) & Bracket :FB176D(E)
3) Thermal grease
4) Screw bolts (Inch-sized/mm-sized bolts)
5) Clip
6) Noiseless connector

FHS Specification

- Dimension: 95~110 mm Length / 52 mm width / 65 mm Height
- Fin Length: 65 mm
- Number of Fin Groups : 53~60
- Fin Thickness : 0.3 mm
- Base Material : Aluminum
- Mass : 119g
- Total Surface Area : 2800Cm2
- Thermal Resistance : 0.42deg C/W (5V Silent Mode), 0.40deg C/W (12V Normal Mode)

Let me first tell you that all three heatsinks in our test are all based on the same design. That’s why they all look so similar and in fact, they actually are pretty similar too.

The first Zalman heatsink we will investigate is the CNPS 2005. This is the aluminum based model. And when I say aluminum, I mean completely 100% aluminum. The main principle of these FSHs (Flower HeatSinks as we like to call it) is that heat will escape a lot faster because the surface area is up to 10 times bigger than this of a tradional cooler. You will find out if this theory really works when we head over to the tests later on.

The 2005 has about 55 fins (thickness : 0.3mm and length : 65 mm) to dissipate the heat of the CPU core. All the fins together result in a total surface area is 2800cm. Now that’s a lot! The complete heatsink (not just the fins) measures 110mm x 52mm x 65mm and weighs about 120g … it looks quite big when it’s installed on a motherboard actually. That’s all there is to know about the heatsink, but what about the fan?

I remember that I promised to tell you what CNPS means, didn’t I? Well, in full CNPS means Computer Noise Prevention System. This ‘technology’ should cut traditional fan noise down to 20dBa. How is this possible? It’s fairly simple actually … every Zalman cooler package is shipped with a ‘noiseless connector’. This connector has to be installed between the fan and the motherboard. This way the transistor on the noiseless connector acts as a RPM controller and lowers your fan’s RPM. This results in a much more quiet system. The fan itself is 80mm fan with a bracket. I was not able to determine the manufacturer of this fan. You will learn more about how to install this heatsink and how to attach the fan when we get to the installation part.

What do you get when you buy a Zalman CNPS cooler? All you need actually … the FSH and the fan of course, but also the clip to mount the heatsink, some screws, the noiseless connector and a shot of thermal grease can be found in the package. All this is packed nicely in a solid box!

Now, let’s see what’s different about the CNPS 3000 …

Page 3 : Zalman CNPS3000

Zalman CNPS3000

Parts

1) FHS :ZM65AC-CU
2) ZALMAN NP FAN(ZM-F1) & Bracket :FB176D(E)
3) Thermal grease
4) Screw bolts
5) Clip
6) Noiseless connector

FHS Specification

- Dimension: 95~110 mm Length / 52 mm Width / 65 mm Height
- Fin Length: 65 mm
- Number of Fin Groups : 40~45
- Fin Thickness : 0.3 mm
- Base Material : Copper
- Mass : 238 g
- Total Surface Area : 2300Cm2
- Thermal Resistance : 0.37deg C/W (5V Silent Mode), 0.30deg C/W (12V Normal Mode)

I already told you that these three Zalman heatsinks in our review are pretty much the same. That’s why I will stress the differences between the three!

The CNPS 3000 is the first of two copper based coolers in the review. (the second is the CNPS 3100, more about this one later) Now what are the differences between the 2005 and this 3000 expect the material that it’s made out?

Well, this one has about 10 fins less than the aluminum version resulting in a drop of total surface area to 2300cm. You might think this heatsink weighs less than the aluminum one because it has less fins, but then you probably forgot that this 3000 is copper based and copper weighs more than aluminum. (Doesn’t that remind you at school? I hate it! :p) It weighs about 240g; that’s twice as much as the 2005 alu version!

So far, so good … let’s continue with the last one, the CNPS 3100.

Page 4 : Zalman CNPS3100

Zalman CNPS3100

Parts
1) FHS :ZM65BC-CU-(GOLD)
2) ZALMAN NP FAN(ZM-F1) & Bracket :FB176D(E)
3) Thermal grease
4) Screw bolts (Inch-sized/mm-sized bolts)
5) Clip
6) Noiseless connector

FHS Specification

- Dimension: 95~110 mm Length / 52 mm width / 65 mm Height
- Fin Length: 65 mm
- Number of Fin Groups : 53~60
- Fin Thickness : 0.3 mm
- Base Material : Copper
- Mass : 296 g
- Total Surface Area : 2800Cm2
- Thermal Resistance : 0.35deg C/W (5V Silent Mode), 0.28deg C/W (12V Normal Mode)

The CNPS 3100 is the easiest cooler to discuss in this review because I already discussed all of its specs when I talked about the CNPS 2005 aluminum cooler about 2 clicks ago.

The ONLY difference between the 2005 and the 3100 is the material it’s made out. While the 2005 is made out of aluminum, the 3100 is made out of completely copper based, just like the CNPS 3000. The heatsink weighs an impressive 300g!

Page 5 : Installing & Removing

Installing & Removing

The Zalman cooler package comes completely unmounted, so you’ll have to mount it before you can begin to install it. Well, ‘to mount it’ is a little exagerated … you’ll see what I mean. First of all, it might be useful to know that installing and removing this heatsinks and fan is the same on the 2005, 3000 and 3100 models. Here we go …

Installing : You should first install the clip on the heatsink. This is done by letting the clip fall down to the bottom in the middle of the FSH. This part is pretty easy, although it may sound a little hard … don’t worry, you’ll manage :p Then comes the most difficult part of the mounting : attaching the FSH onto the CPU socket. Because the clip is really hard and you do not have that much space next to the socket, you’ll have to be very careful when you push the clip down with one of your fingers. Now that you know how to install the FSH, we can continue with the installation of the fan. Because this is all just too easy, I will explain this in only one sentence. Here it goes : Take the fan bracket out of the box, hold it into your case (make sure the fan sits on top of the CPU) and screw it down together with your AGP card! That’s it … now that’s what I call easy!

Removing : Of course, you can always change your mind about this cooler. If you used it for a while and you’ve come to the conclusion that this just isn’t the cooler for you, then you might want to remove it from your case/CPU. Basically, the removing proces is the installation proces in reverse … remove the fan bracket by removing the screw from the AGP card bracket. Then, use a screwdriver to push the FSH clip down and remove it from the socket. Please be VERY CAREFUL when you do this. If not, you might damage your motherboard and/or CPU! We don’t want that to happen, do we!

… And just when you start to fall asleep, here we come with the performance results …

Page 6 : Testing

Testing

Test System :

- No case!
-
AMD Duron 850 @ 1050MHz (1.85v) – 52.5W

- A non-conductive shim was used to protect the CPU (Supplied by CPUfx)
- AOpen AK73Pro(A) KT133A Motherboard
- 128MB OCZ Value PC133 SDRAM (Supplied by OCZ)
- Hercules Kyro II
- IBM 30GB UDMA100 7200RPM
- Windows ME + VIA 4in1 4.32

As you can see all three Zalman coolers manage to keep the temperatures of our overclocked Duron 850 down to less than 50C without the noiseless connector attached between the fan and the motherboard. When we do use noiseless connector, the fan delivers less airflow and the temperatures rise above 50C. Did you also notice that the aluminum Zalman cooler (CNPS 2005) performs about 3-5C worse than its copper based brothers.

Page 7 : Summary & Conclusion

Summary & Conclusion

Now let’s summarize and compare all this Zalman goodness :

CNPS 2005

• alu design
• surface area : 2800cm
• # fins : about 55
• dimensions : 110mm x 52mm x 65mm
• weight : 119g

CNPS 3000

• copper design
• surface area : 2300cm
• # fins : about 45
• dimensions : 110mm x 52mm x 65mm
• weight : 238g

CNPS 3100

• copper design
• surface area : 2800cm
• # fins : about 55
• dimensions : 110mm x 52mm x 65mm
• weight : 296g

Well well well now, how can we end this review? The Zalmans are engineered to be very quiet coolers and that’s just what they are! But nothing more than that actually :( The results were quite a disappointment … I wouldn’t recommend these coolers for overclocking purposes and certainly not for the ‘HOT’ Athlon 1.3GHz CPUs and above. It’ll work, but temperatures will reach unseen heights! That’s never a good thing of course … stability?? The Zalmans are great looking coolers but as you can see once more, looks won’t get you anywhere when it comes to overclocking and cooling a high performance CPU! Zalman Tech really did their best to provide you with a nice innovative heatsink … and that’s what you will get when you buy this FSH … nothing more and nothing less!