Customer Reviews

Zalman CNPS9700LED Ultra Quiet Cpu Cooler

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent cooler not just for people looking to overclock their computers, but also for anyone looking for a quiet cooling solution for their CPU. It offers great cooling as well as very low noise.

The design is excellent and extremely attractive to look at if you have a case that lets you see inside. The blue LEDs really set off the copper fins.

As others have mentioned, this cooler is *very large, so make sure you look at the dimensions to see if it will fit in your case. Odds are, if you have a 120mm exhaust fan in your case this should fit. The cooling fins are held above the motherboard, so you shouldn't have any trouble with motherboard heatsinks touching the zalman. Your main concern is the height of the cooler fitting in the case. This cooler can also be set in any orientation (providing you have the room) to blow air front, back, up or down depending on how you have your airflow setup. Most people will set this to blow air out the back of the case, and usually this will lineup directly with your case's exhaust fan.

Mounting is very easy, although you will definitely have to remove the motherboard from the case as it comes with its own backplate. The backplate and mount screw right in and after you apply thermal paste to the CPU (there is a zalman paste that comes with this, or you can get the better Artic Silver 5 also called AS5) the cooler screws right into the mount. The included directions and a little common sense are all you need.

Once installed, you can choose to plug this into your motherboard and let it decide the fan speed or you can use the included Fan Mate 2 controller to manually control the speed of the fan. I use the fan mate controller to turn the speed down all the way to "silent". At that setting it really is silent, as I can hear everything else including hard drives, power supply, video card, etc before I hear this fan. If I'm doing something where I know I need extra cooling, I just turn the controller up a little bit, but usually it stays in silent.

For me, the controller kept my Q6600 quad core at 28c (82F) at idle and 47c (116F) during full load with stock speed at 2.4Ghz. With the Q6600 overclocked to 3.2Ghz, temperature only increases to 30c at idle and 50c at full load. Those are very good temperatures and were achieved at a lot less noise than with the standard cooler that comes with the chip.

Other coolers that are comparable in both cost, performance and noise are the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme and Tuniq Tower.

I just built a new system using a Core 2 Duo E6750 chip and added this cooler with Arctic Silver thermal grease. I'm using the Raidmax Smilodon Extreme Black case (the one with the green LEDs). It's got four fans, two to bring air into the machine and two to exhale.

My machine runs in an air conditioned room, so I've actually recorded really low temperatures at idle. So far I've recorded a steady 27° C with this cooler. It's absolutely amazing. I notice that the fan automatically powers down (in RPMs) once the ambient temperature in my room hits 17° C (bringing the ambient inside the case to sub 20° C). The fan automatically speeds back up with the AC unit turned off. It's quite brilliant. The Zalman 9700's blue glow seen through my cases' side panel adds a nice counterpoint to the otherwise green LED fans inside the case and the Mushkin powersupply.

Great stuff. I highly recommend this to any DIY tech enthusiast. Make sure that you get the Arctic Silver thermal grease when you buy this. Don't use the thermal grease that comes with this unit. You won't get as low temps as you would without it.

Length:: 0:11 Mins

This was the fan I bought for my Intel Extreme Quad. QX6850 Intel Cpu Core 2 Duo Qx6850 3.00Ghz Fsb1333Mhz 8M Lga775 Extreme Tray
The processor was used but given as a gift, so I had no choice but to get an aftermarket fan since I wasn't given a cooler. I was aware of the cpu prone to heating, so I went with this fan.

I really had no problems following the instructions for installing this cooler. They were clear enough. I only had a bit of trouble because the fan is HUGE. So I was careful about installing the bracket. I just kept myself grounded and used cardboard (those Amazon boxes come in handy) while installing it to the motherboard.

If you do not have the right kind of cable management tower, you will have to take the motherboard out to put in the supporting bracket behind the motherboard. I'd say you'd still have to do it due to the weight of the device.

I installed this inside an Atec 300 case. I really advise making sure you have the right size case since this is a large cooler. It may also help to have a pair of gloves if you have sensitive skin prone to cutting as the blades can be a bit sharp. (I wasn't cut once during the installation).

Whether or not you need to use Artic Silver is debatable as my CPU temps are around 20-25C on idle. The grease is like nail polish, and I advise just coating one side. either on the cpu side or heatsink side of the fan is good enough. I've watched enough videos before doing this build to know how much to put on.

I used a Gigabyte Motherboard so the only bit of trouble was fitting the 8 pin ATX while assembling the PC. I just had to be aware of some wires, but I got used to it now.

Are there some troubles installing the cooler? Yes. Was it really hard to install? No. Let's put it this way. I have never owned my own PC, while I have have been around desktops at work, I never had one at home for the 11 years I've left home. So from scratch I was able to research and get the right parts around that Intel chip, including the fan. I've assembled the this unit myself. I got about all parts except the PSU (The Apevia Warlock in this video) and some memory from Amazon.com. On top of that, I'm female!

If I can assemble a PC from scratch with this huge thing, so can you.

Really this CPU cooler is excellent. Compatible with my Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 quad-core processor, LGA 775.
You must see how this work ! ! ! Simply with efficiency. The temperature is mantained in 54 degrees. I usually work with video editing. Until now No Poblem with heating transfering. I think it is the right CPU cooler I needed.
No noise and no vibration in Silent Mode.

1. These comments only apply to Intel Socket 775 installations.

2. For an initial installation into a clear-sided enclosure, this device is acceptable. For an upgrade, it may not be worth the effort, and it is definitely not worth the cost. Noise reduction is not that much when compared with 20 dollar CPU fans (as determined by ear and meter for both push-pin and bolts-with-back-plate installation designs), and not at all noticeable if you are running six or more drives (which I am). So the main selling point is how it looks, which is pretty spectacular (wasted if your enclosure does not have a clear side or you can't live with an enclosure panel removed).

3. To read the instructions, you will need a magnifying glass! And they are misleading and incorrect when it comes to inserting the S-type clip into the base of the device. But this misinformation becomes obvious with a dry-run installation (highly recommended). Also, a very long, thin Philips screw driver will come in quite handy.

4. The "better" installation process is to first insert the S-type clip into the fan base, and then attach and fully tighten the fan to the clip support (the black-plastic thing with "legs"). Do this before attaching the clip support to the motherboard (MB) and the back plate (the black-plastic thing that goes behind the MB). Then insert the longer clip-support fixing bolts. Tighten the bolts alternately and carefully, since a fair amount of force will be exerted on the MB (and the processor).

5. If you have access to the back of the MB opposite to where the processor goes, the MB does not need to be removed. However, the MB will always have to be horizontal during the installation.

6. Once installed, the fan can be rotated in any direction using the thermal grease as a lubricant. Very cool indeed.

7. Be careful to position the wiring harness that delivers and controls power to the fan so that it does not end up caught in the cooling blades (or the fan blades).

8. Bottom-line: Not for the faint of heart or the budget minded.

WILLIAM FLANIGAN

If anything, this is probably more cooling than you need and that's exactly what you want. I've yet to see CPU temp exceed 34 C (12 degrees over ambient) on my E3110 overclocked to 3.75GHz.

Exceptional cooler. Only caveats are weight and size. Do some research and make sure it will fit in your case. As to weight, it exceeds Intel's weight limits and says specifically that the PC should not be moved with the cooler installed. This is not a cooler for a LAN party machine.

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB)
Intel Xeon E3110 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2
ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm
Antec Nine Hundred
PC Power & Cooling 750 Silencer

This is a great fan. It works great and runs pretty quiet. I like to over clock my CPUs and this fan really cooler the CPU down. At idle I was at 46C to 49C, and load I get about 55c to 58C on a Volcano 11+. When I installed my new fan, I get about 35C idle and 45C load. Great CPU air cooler, for you overclockers out there.

OK,

I have a massive workstation, custom-built Quad Core 2.6GHz with 4 GBs of DDR2 RAM and two super ATI Radeon 2900XTs in Crossfire with quad-pathed 512 MB GDDR3 each (which I tweak into overdrive on occasion, but usually, even when playing Day of Defeat in HD, its at default clocks because there is enough video horsepower).

I had a regular, comes with the processor Aluminum fins with the fan. Those A fins are tiny and tightly packed, often clogging up with dust.

~ CPU Temp during normal desktop idle - 50C
~ during normal desktop use - 56-60C (the high end with Excel using all
four cores running calculations)
~ during gaming in HD - 66C

I come to Amazon to shop for an alternative. Because even with Arctic Silver compound (which has excellent thermal transfer) I would be near the boiling point.

Automatic thermal protection shutdown was enabled. Good part - saved the Quad Core. Bad part - trashed my iPhone updated in progess and had to restore it and re-download all the apps today)

Zalman arrives just in time (picked slow shipping, cheaper). I open the box and right away I can tell this is one of the best products I have ever purchased (next to the new Sony 52 inch HDTV 240Hz - {insert grunt here}).

This thing is not mil-spec, its like NASA grade. 100% pure copper and it is enormous!! Make absolutely sure you have the case space to install this monster of a cooler. Wow, simple yet perfectly designed. The giant fins and the radius of the space the fins are perfect to displace the heat. It follows the First Law of Thermodynamics to a tee.

Why is this cooler two or three times the price of others?!? The manufacture is dealing with historically high copper prices, so costs have gone way up. But copper is the perfect metal to use, so, if you really want a good thermodynamic response - use pure copper.

Now, installation is NOT for beginners. WARNING!! Go back and re-read that first part. You MUST install a back grid under the motherboard where the CPU mount is located. This requires deassembly of the entire computer to perform with most cases. This unit is a heavy object in the computer and it must be firmly pressed to the top of the CPU cover to press out the thermal grease and create a good thermal gateway. If you need help, go to a shop or something and have some install it for you. It is well worth the $50 bucks. I did it myself (I am a pro geek).

CPU Temps with the massive Zalman installed!!

Idle desktop - 30C which is EXCELLENT the S.M.A.R.T monitor says the temp is actually too low, funny

Normal ops desktop - 36-38C

With game in HD running (along with Rhapshody, iTunes, Outlook PTRG and Y!IM running on the second desktop) - 40C with all GREEN in the S.M.A.R.T. monitor with the fan running at ~2446RPM.

If you have a tower system with high end CPUs and video cards - BUY THIS CPU COOLER! Can't go wrong (as long as it fits your case!)

This is was easy to install and kept my Q6600 @ 3.2 Ghz cool 36C idle, 62c load.

Nice cooler, my quad core CPU is icy cold. Cooler is big so make sure it will fit in your case. If you have a case that uses duct work, you will be asked to remove the duct work so the cooler will fit. The only thing I would personally change is I would remove the blue LED, but that is so minute a deal.