Sweet nothings: Zalman CNPS 9900 MAX review

Bennett Ring
09 March 2011, 8:49 AM


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If you've been bitten by the overclocking bug, you'll know there's a fine line between keeping your overclocked CPU cool, yet quiet.


If you've been reading our Overclocking 101 guide and have been bitten by the overclocking bug, you're probably in the market for a new heatsink/fan combination. You'll need something that can tame a CPU roaring along at 4GHz, yet won't sound like a Huey full of Banshees lifting off. This Zalman cooler promises to fulfil those two requirements - does it deliver?

Utilising Zalman's unique circular design allows this cooler to have quite a large number of cooling fins, without encroaching on your valuable motherboard real estate. The fins are lifted off the contact plate by six heatpipes, each of which use Zalman's proprietary composite heatpipe design, promising to remove heat 50% more efficiently than traditional heatpipes.



As is standard for high-end coolers, this kit includes mounts for all of the popular AMD and Intel CPU sockets. The instructions are very clear, and total installation takes just five minutes... provided you can get to the back of your motherboard to install the backing plate. Fan speed control is very rudimentary; either full speed or silent mode, with the use of a resistor cable to switch between the two. With the resistor cable in place the cooler is very quiet and will be largely inaudible once tucked away inside a case. However, at high speed it's quite loud, so this mode of operation will be unsuitable for most users.

We measured performance on our usual testbench - an i7-870 mounted on a Gigabyte GA-P55A-U - in both silent and high speed modes. At the louder setting it was just one degree hotter than our favourite air cooler, the Noctua DH-D14, but it was definitely louder. Dropping to silent mode saw the temperature increase another couple of degrees, topping out at 48°C - still very respectable performance given the silent operation.

While the Noctua DH-D14 remains our favourite air cooler, not everybody has the room for such a massive slab of cooling. The Zalman offers similar cooling performance in a much smaller package, making it easy to recommend for those with space restrictions.

Available from Zalman, retailing for $80.
APC rating: 7/10


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reginald (User):

i am not impressed with the fan design of the zalman, i really prefer and use the xigmatek red scorpion, its got a better base unit with the h.d.t, heat pipe direction touch and comes with a 120mm fan with rubber mounted anti vibration and has four red led's in the fan it also fits all configurations with very easy installation.

09 March 2011, 3:59 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

ok, these Xigmatek HSF are crud. i have i client that i repaired his system on and off over the last 2.5yrs... Constant odd failures, (mothboard died, 2 out of 4 150gb raptors died, memory failed...), just one of those systems that's just unlucky

to just a long story short, the system runs an X9650 C2D, and the Stock Extreme CPU HSF, once i replaced the faulty X38Quad GT board, fouled on the memory HS's, so i replaced it with one of these xigmatek's.

System failed again, random restarts. when i got it, @ idle. boot from cold, in bios, 90-93deg C.

OK, reseated HSF, new thermal grease, 68-70degC. Replaced it with an Entry Level Zalman 7500ALCU HSF, (ally and copper, no heatpipes, 90mm fan), 31-33degC.

Using Artic Silver 3, and i cleaned the old stuff with 2 part Artic Clean, so i did that properly...

and it's not that the Xigmatek wasn't working, the air was hot coming out the other end, it just wasn't drawing the heat away fast enough.

on paper it should have.

(not sure if it's exactly the same as the one you are mentioning, but it's got 4 heatpipes, direct contact to CPU like you discribe, 90mm fan, @ full tilt, so loud...)

11 March 2011, 10:58 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

reginald (User):

Its not the same unit as mine, I also use the same heat grease, arctic silver and it needs time to cure about two weeks after application. Go to overclockers forum and have a look at the remarks on the xigmatek's there, Why yours did not work i do not know and without seeing your setup, i cannot comment.

12 March 2011, 3:35 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

setup and cure time is/was irrellivent, but open air on test bench, P5Q-Pro, and like i said, C2D Extreme QX9650.

System started randomly shutting down, when i got the system, it was ok till it was warm, pulled system apart to check for damage to the hardware, (after checking memory, PSU, video card, all tested fine).

Board placed on techbenched, powered up using different memory, video card, psu, system crashed, check temps, (should have done that before, but the system'd been running that Xigmatek HSF for more then 18months, and no problems until recent), 95+degC.

you know the rest of the story.

And cure time, doing so will increase the paste's effectivness sure, but honeslty, only by a few degC, and as it was a direct comparison of the heatsinks, so the cure time was irrelivent.

honestly, i was expecting there to be no difference in the temps, (not a 30degc different), and i was about to tell the client that his, then , $1400 cpu's Thermal sensor's failed, and going into thermal shutdown.

and sorry, not a big fan of overclockers forum

12 March 2011, 8:46 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

honestly, the base design isn't the problem. i've seen a comparison were they had both bare heat pipe vs ones with the base plates, and there was nothing in them.

Infact the best one was one with the base plate, and they put it down to the fact that it's almost imposible to get the bare heatpipe ones to be perfectly flat. The winner had a mirror finish and was perfectly lapped.

This meant you didn't need as much thermal grease.

The above coolers not a great design, due to the fact that most of the air flow's either flowing in , or flowing out of the sides. one whole side of the HS isn't going to get as much air as the other.

lot of aerodynmic design goes into the blades edge and shroud. Infact, if Zalman addes a metal or even plastic surround to the middle of that HS, temps'd probably drop 4-5deg under load.

well.. not with out the fan pushin the air @ a high static pressure. which means noise.

anyway, out of all the coolers i've ever used, my Noctura NF12 is still the best one i've ever that wasn't a water cooling setup. infact, noise asside, i managed to get it to cooler better than a water cooling setup. wasn't very quiet thou.

meh. The Zalman looks the goods thou :) if i was building a system for looks alone, i'd definately use one

09 March 2011, 8:57 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

reginald (User):

You're right about the water cooling its the best way to go with computer cooling and i do like the Noctura fan coolers, I have used everything from Golden Orbs to Noctura's. I agree with you about the Zalman's basic fan design of the unit its centrally located and really only cools half the unit. We seem to pretty much agree with most things about the Zalman.

10 March 2011, 2:23 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

ss-rotel (User):

didn't actually say water cooling was the way to go, just that the Noctua coolers i've played with are good enough to almost be rated with watercooling setups.

would rate is as good as the Corsair h50, (? think that's the one...)

Meh, i've not played with water cooling since s/754 AMD. got me an engineer's sample, (the then black edition), and managed to get 3.2ghz out of it, (1.2ghz overclock back then, that was awesome), with watercooling. Custome kit, ehiem pump, custom made CPU GPU NB blocks, and a motorcyle radiator, all in a steel Thermaltake armor case... ran 3-4 deg c above ambient, and the system weight was almost 60kg, (was was 20kg dry...) (weighed in more then my 21inch flat sony CRT)

Was a mission to LAN back then...

10 March 2011, 10:39 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

todd_h86 (New user):

I just got the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus. Decent sized heatsink with 4 Heat pipes that directly touch the CPU etc. Comes with 1 120mm fan but with the clips for a second. I have it on my i5 760, which would sit at 80 degrees at full load, and idle at 40 with the stock cooler, now sits at 50 at full load (performing hash calculations 24/7) and 25 - 29 at idle, with one fan that cannot be heard over the case fans. Also, a lot cheaper than this Zalman one. I paid $40 or something for it about 2 weeks ago highly recommended!

I dunno about the fins on the Zalman, to me they seem they would bend at the slightest tap, not that a cpu heatsink gets tapped much i guess, but Im also not a fan of the fan (ahhhh) in the middle, would much rather 2 on either side for push/pull.

14 March 2011, 11:13 AM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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