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Conclusions

Zalman definitely made an impression with the CNPS7000A-Cu. Not only does it cool better than competing solutions, but it is much quieter as well having a 10-17 decibel difference in noise compared to its competitors (2 to 4 times quieter!), yet cooling just as effectively if not better. The quiet mode of the fan is near silent and users will be hard pressed to hear it inside the case. Even at the maximum fan speed setting, the noise level is amazingly low; rivaling the Gigabyte 3DCoolers at their lowest settings and even the Thermaltake SilentBoost (which you've probably heard people raving over in various forums).

Although the performance of the cooler was excellent there are a couple things that we would like to see changed in future iterations of this product. First off, the Fanmate control unit is not very useful. Unlike competing solutions which use a PCI bracket or a spare drive bay for the rheostat, Zalman chooses to include a small plastic box located inside the case as its method of fan control. This is not particularly useful for the enthusiast who may want to tinker with fan speeds depending on the situation. The way that Zalman has it setup, adjustment of the fan is very inconvenient because it forces the user to adjust the fan to a noise level that they find acceptable and leaving it as is.

The mounting method of the CNPS7000A-Cu could use some work also. It is not nearly as elegant as the Gigabyte solution as mounting requires the removal of the back plate and bracket on the Athlon 64. On the Athlon XP side, the Zalman requires mounting holes around the CPU socket area, something that is not found on quite a few boards. While installation was not difficult, it lacks the elegance of the tool-less design employed by Gigabyte.

In short, the Zalman gets an extremely enthusiastic recommendation from us for not only being the quietest solution, but also the best cooling one. There are some minor gripes we had about the design but as far as performance goes, the Zalman is the one to beat and its competitors have some way to go to match the effectiveness of the CNPS7000A-Cu.

9.0 / 10