Zalman CNPS7000-Cu CPU Cooler Review
By: Matthew Fugler

The performance of the heatsink is outstanding. The test system I installed the Zalman CNPS700-Cu into is a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz on an Asus P4T533-C motherboard, inside a Coolermaster ATC201C aluminum case.

Documentation included with the heat sink is very informative, it included a folder with information about other Zalman products and detailed specifications about this heat sink. The weight of the heat sink is the first thing I noticed when I opened the package, there is over 700 grams of copper in this heat sink.

Installation instructions that were included were very easy to understand from the pictures and descriptions. Zalman also has flash animations with demonstrations on how to install the heat sink on their website. The actual installation itself was a bit more difficult.

The two clip supports (red arrow) that are loosely placed in the Intel holding brackets slide easily without the tension from the clip in the middle of the copper under the fan.

While trying to screw the tension clip (green arrow) into the supporting clips (red arrow) I had to pressure on the screwdriver to get the clip to bend down to come in contact with the screw hole. In the process the heat sink would swivel a lot on top of the die (cpu core) which could have scraped off some thermal compound. This process knocked the supporting clips out of the Intel support brackets.

This happened a couple of times while trying to screw in both sides and I think this could have been prevented with a different style clip which snaps into the brackets.

Once everything was secure, it felt very snug with no movement at all. The total installation time from thermal compound to power hook up was about 5 minutes. The installation was very simple and could be done by anyone with no experience prior.

I compared temperatures with my previous heat sink, a Thermaltake Volcano 7+. For the comparison I ran the Thermaltake fan at 3000 rpm, the closest I could get to quiet. I used Asus' probe program to determine the temperatures and fan speeds. Idle speeds were taken after 10 minutes of idle 0% constant CPU usage. 100% load temperatures were taken after 10 minutes of 100% CPU usage using WinRAR to highly compress over 10 gigs of data for 10 minutes straight.

=================
Volcano 7+ 3000 RPM
=================
IDLE
--------------
37 C / 98 F  CPU
30 C / 86 F Board

100% LOAD 10 Min
--------------
51 C / 123 F  CPU
32 C / 89 F Board

================
Zalman CNPS7000-Cu 1400 RPM SILENT // 2400 RPM NORMAL
================
IDLE
-------------
40 C / 104 F  CPU
31 C / 87 F  Board

100% LOAD 10 Min
-------------
54 C / 129 F  //  50 C / 122 F
32 C / 89 F  //  32 C / 89 F

The charts show that Zalman keeps competitive performance with the Volcano 7+, and is much quieter.

The Zalman CNPS7000-Cu is noticeably quieter when first installed and started up and on the lowest fan speed. When the CNPS7000-Cu fan speed is turned to the max on the adjuster (fanmate 1) it was still quiet as a whisper.

Using a decimeter from Radio Shack I measured the noise coming from my computer from 2 feet with the case side off. The Volcano 7+ made a high pitch noise when it was running, and at the different speeds became even louder:

The Zalman CNPS7000-Cu heatsink made less noise, and was even quieter then the four Coolermaster case fans and three Power supply fans that are running in my case.

The Zalman noise levels are both the same because at either speed they are both still quieter than the case fans. This is a major noticeable difference when the computer is running.

There are many good things about the Zalman CNPS7000-Cu heatsink such as it is very quiet, easy to install, and makes for low CPU temps. There is only one downside I can think of and that is weight - 773 grams! A little less then double what Intel rated the holding brackets at! Be careful when moving the computer!!!

I am very happy with the performance, and silence of this heatsink. My next step in making a quieter PC is to buy some silent case fans.

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Time stamped: 4:19PM, 09.02.2010