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Zalman CNPS9300 AT


Date
: 10/3/08 – 01:14:59 AM

Author
:

Category
: Cooling

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Zalman

Zalman burst onto the computer cooling scene 9 years ago and brought a radically different view on heatsink design. Their 'flower' heatsinks brought a silence to CPU cooling when most were ramping up RPMs and noise with fans. Fast forward to today where Zalman has expanded beyond just cooling to also provide a range of products from power supplies to monitors as well.

Today I am taking a look at the latest iteration in their CNPS line of CPU coolers, the CNPS9300 AT. The 9300 AT takes the proven design of the 9700 and 9500 coolers and shrinks things down a bit. Read on to find out if this reduction in size takes the bite out of this proven design.

Page 2 : Package and Accessories

As we often do, let's start out with the packaging and accessories.

The box that the CNPS9300 AT comes packaged in continues the blue and black coloring of Zalman's recent products. There is a small cutout giving you a slight view of the cooler inside.

Turning to the back, there is a quick hitting list of compatible CPUs and features. Below this information are four pictures of the heatsink and the product barcode.

The left side of the box contains the specifications for the heatsink and fan. The right side just contains the company and product name.

When you open up the top, you can see the heatsink housed inside a clamshell and the accessories are tucked in back behind it.

Included accessories are mounting hardware for Intel socket 775 processors and all AMD sockets 740 and up. Also included is a small tube of thermal grease and instructions.

Page 3 : Specifications and Features

For specifications and features I took a jog over to Zalman's website and grabbed them here.

Specifications:

Features:

*Does not generate noise or vibration in Silent Mode.
*Compatible with all Intel Socket 775 based Single, Dual, and Quad Core CPUs, and all AMD Socket AM2+, AM2, 754, 939, 940 based Single, Dual, and Quad Core CPUs.
*100% copper heatsink with aerodynamically optimized ‘tunnel’ design for maximum cooling efficiency.
*Patented ‘figure 8′ heatpipe design for cooling performance of up to 4 heatpipes with the use of just 2.
*Low-noise 92mm PWM fan for automatic control of the fan's RPM according to the CPU's temperature.

Page 4 : Heatsink

With all of the information out of the way, let's dig in and see the heatsink itself.

As you can clearly see from the front, the heatpipes are formed in the aforementioned figure eight with the fan settled in between the upper half.

The view from the side shows how it is wider at the front and narrows towards the back.

Moving around to the back we can see the four pin PWM fan connector. On the back of the fan is the model ZD9225AUR; however a Google search turned up no results. Not a loss since Zalman includes the fan specs as we saw earlier.

In typical Zalman fashion, the base of the heatsink sports a mirror smooth finish. You can almost pick out the birds in the trees behind my house (ha).

Page 5 : Installation

Installation was pretty simple, so I won't spend a whole lot of time here, however it does require the removal of the motherboard for socket 775.

The first step is slapping on the backplate and attaching the clip support. One cool feature is the small little hole in the upper left that allows the socket retaining lever to still be opened with the clip support in place.

With the smaller design of the CNPS9300 AT, really the only compatibility issue I could see would be with the case itself. Zalman also gives you the ability to mount the heatsink in all four directions.

So we have installation out of the way, let's move on to some testing to really see what the CNPS9300 AT has in store.

Page 6 : Testing

The following system was installed and used to gather temperatures:

CPU: Intel E8400
MB: Gigabyte P35-DS3R
RAM: G.Skill 2x2GB PC2-8800
Video: Biostar GeForce 9600GT
PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
HD: WD 250GB SATA
DVD-Rom: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
Cases: Antec Three Hundred
OS: Microsoft Windows XP w/ SP2
Ambient Temperature: 24-25°C

Comparison Coolers:
Stock Intel HSF
Thermalright Ultima90 w/Yate Loon D90BM-12
CoolJag Falcon 92-AL
Zalman CNPS9300AT

For idle temperatures, the system was allowed to stand at idle for 3 hours before temperatures were taken. To achieve load temps, Orthos blend was run for three hours and the average peak temperature was recorded. While all but the Thermalright Ultima90 have PWM fans, I turned this feature off while testing.

First off we start with stock voltages at 1.225V. The CNPS9300 AT easily outpaces the stock cooler and the Falcon 92-AL, and only lags behind the Ultima90 by two degrees. Very respectable numbers for the smaller cooler, but now it's time to crank things up a bit.

Next I turned the voltage up to 1.32V to see how it handles the extra heat load. Here the CNPS9300 AT once easily beats the Falcon 92-AL and the stock cooler and again falls one more degree behind the Ultima90 under load in comparison to stock voltage. What kind of sticks out to me in this testing is that the 9300 AT really doesn't fall far behind the Ultima90 even though it employs far fewer heatpipes. I think this is a testament to Zalman's figure eight design.

A quick note on the stock cooler, while I have listed 73°C, that is the temperature I shut it down at as it was continuing to climb just about a minute into load testing.

With a noise rating of 20-30dBA, even at full speed the noise from the CNPS9300 AT was never really noticeable to me, though I will admit that what some find loud others do not. In comparison to the 4 case fans in the Antec Three Hundred, I found additional noise to be nonexistent.

Page 7 : Conclusion

While Zalman's CNPS9300 AT certainly isn't going to dethrone any of the top performance heatsinks, it is a very capable heatsink in a smaller frame than its older siblings. Installation is simple as long as you are used to removing the motherboard for Intel boards. Operation of the heatsink even at high speeds was quiet for me, though the amount of noise for something being silent can vary from application to application, however I wouldn't see the 9300 AT being a problem in a HTPC.

Quite honestly I cannot find any fault with Zalman's latest cooler other than the need for motherboard removal for installation, and honestly that is sort of nitpicking as just about all aftermarket coolers require this. Zalman has another great cooler in the CNPS9300 AT that would make most people happy in cooling their processor.

Positives

• Easy Installation

• PWM fan
• Quality construction
• Quiet operation

Negatives

• Motherboard removal required for socket 775

Overclockers Online would like to thank Zalman for supplying the CNPS9300 AT for review.