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Introduction
When I think of things that are big, I think of things such as the blue whale, an elephant, Andre the Giant and the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu. One of Zalman's newest coolers in their lineup, the CNPS7000A-Cu comes in at a hefty 773g, dwarfing the Swiftech MCX462 but falling just shy of our current weight champion the recently reviewed 3DCooler ULTRA. What the CNPS7000A-Cu lacks in weight, it makes up in volume. It is easily the largest heatsink that we have worked with yet.
Zalman is a familiar name in the enthusiast community because of their work on quiet cooling solutions when the creed for everyone else seemed to be faster and louder. Zalman got into the market at a good time as enthusiasts became less willing to trade off performance for extremely loud cooling solutions marking a migration to alternative cooling solutions including thermoelectric and water cooling. For the hobbyists who are not comfortable with such exotic solutions there were fewer choices and this the niche that Zalman is looking to fill. The last four years has seen Zalman come from the brink of obscurity to one of the leaders in PC cooling. Recent high profile products include their passive cooling solutions for video cards and their totally fanless heatsink case.
| Heatsink | Weight |
| Swiftech MCX462 (heatsink only) | 650g |
| Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu | 773g |
| Gigabyte 3DCooler ULTRA | 780g |
Specifications
| Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu | |
| Dimensions | 109(L) x 109(W) x 62(H) mm |
| Dissipation Area | 3170 |
| Base Material | Pure Copper |
| Weight | 773g |
| Thermal Resistance | Silent Mode 0.27 Deg.C/W
|
| Speed | Silent Mode 1350 RPM +-10%
Normal Mode 2400 RPM +-10% |
| Noise Level | Silent Mode 20.0 dB +-10%
Normal Mode 25.0 dB +-10% |
| Bearing Type | 2-Ball |
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"The fins themselves are flexible as they are made of fairly then copper sheets."
s/then/thin/
-Ken
Best. Period. My 80mm case fans are louder than this thing. My A64 3000+ is OC'd to 2.2Ghz and running at 47C.
I can understand why you had some reservations about design, but for a heatsink with that much weight, I think personally that I would feel awkward using a clip to mount it. It needs to be mounted through holes in the board using screws IMO, and I don't consider that a drawback myself. It's more secure, and I personally don't want to mount 700g of copper over my CPU unless it's locked down to the mobo with screws so I know it isn't going to rock when I stand the case up or need to move it.
Also, at 3.5dB above ambient on it's highest setting, I find it hard to consider the internal fan controller a drawback. More like a superfluous addition to the packaging IMO. Like I said, a pair of 80mm fans on the back of the box are louder than the CNPS-7000cu. Again, subject to opinion, and you do give it a good score, but I do think that complaining about a fan speed controller that moves you from ambient noise to 3.5dB above it is nitpicking.
Just my 2c.
same to typo cop Gxcad
Glad to like the CNPS Noubourne. I dont know if you are familiar with the Gigabyte 3DCooler but the mounting mechanism on it is very slick and the copper version of it is just as heavy as the CNPS. Like I said, bracket removal is not a huge deal just a bit of extra work.
It is true that the CNPS at the high setting is only slightly above ambient noise but the lab here is on the noisier side with a ventilation system going as well as traffic passing outside. That said the CNPS will likely be barely audible inside a case. Some people are just more fanatical than others about that so the option of being able make the fan more or less completely silent is a bonus. Still if Zalman puts forth the effort into making a rheostat, it would be better if it was more usable. I cant see making the controller sit in a PCI slot being much more expensive than the little device they include. But like you said it is a fairly minor issue but just a little something could be improved upon in the future
I have the Gigabyte in my HTPC running a P4 2.4 at default speed and am not all that happy with it. Although it is very quiet on the lowest speed the noise is a low frequency that passes through the case and is quite noticeable in its home theater environment, at high speeds it is REALLY LOUD. The Gigybyte does not seem to handle heat well at low speed, once the temps get up they do not recover very fast. I also felt the Gigabyte was a royal pain to install but a lot of that could have been the fact I installed it in my Antec Overture HTPC case and there was not a lot of room to work, in fact the Zalman was originally for the HTPC but it wouldn't fit becaues the PS is so close to the edge of the motherboard by the CPU socket.
I am going to replace the Gigabyte with the Scythe Kamikaze as it has been getting raves for quiet performance in HTPC message boards.
Edit:
The Gigabyte cooler I have is the Pro, not the Ultra.
This message was edited by Yelapaboy on Apr 05 2004.
i usually have a lot of space to work with so the installation of the 3dcooler is a breeze. it literally takes me only about two minutes to remove the 3dcooler from an athlon64 and move it to a p4 for example and that is where its strength lies imo. of course this functionality isnt as important for a lot of other people though and if they arent the type that needs to move the heatsink around i would recommend the cnps without hesitation