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Zalman's Newest CNPS Cooler Ditches Circular Design

Posted 05/29/09 at 08:05:23 AM  by Paul Lilly

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Zalman has attracted more than a few fans of air cooling (pun only slightly intended) with its CNPS line of high-end heatsink/fan combos, and the company's newest entry -- the CNPS 10X Extreme -- trades in its signature circular heatpipe design in favor of a block design.

The new cooler supports a variety of sockets, including Intel's 775, 1366, and upcoming 1156, and AMD's AM3, AM2+, AM2, 754, 939, and 940. The nickel-plated cooler also comes with what Zalman says is the "world's first RPM controllable PWM fan speed controller," which overrides the motherboard's PWM signal for manual fan speed control, or can alter the signal for low, medium, or high. Best of all, Zalman says the PWM mate can be installed on the case's exterior, when far too often that isn't the case.

Five heatpipes run up through the 10X, which checks in at a hefty 920g. Other specs include aluminum fins, copper base, and noise levels between 20 - 30dBA.

No word yet on availability or price, though you can spy a handful of pics here.

Image Credit: Zalman

COMMENTS:5
TAGS: cooling, heatsink, Cooler, Zalman, hardware, build a pc
COMMENTS
avatarThe More it's the Same

Submitted by DrMD on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 9:20am

Just looks like an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro to me, I don't know who sold this "style" first but more of the same.Wonder if price is going to be reasonable.

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avatarDoesnt look too bad. 

Submitted by Kaldor on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 8:31am

Doesnt look too bad.  Zalman has always made quality products.  I own a 9700 which handles an E8400 @ 4ghz with little problem.  Not the quietest though.

Looks to be an OK design.  You can change the fan.  Fan controller is decent.  Only fail I see is the inability to add a second fan to the back side.  Probably will be a better than average cooler.

I wont be buying one.  The Prolimatech tower cooler is probably the best out there atm.  However the TRUE and any of the Xig coolers still hold their own.

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avatar I want to know why the

Submitted by Caboose on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 7:40am

 I want to know why the fluck they insist on making their HSF's so bloody heavy! This new HSF is almost 1KG which is not light. And when you're putting that sort of weight stress on the motherboard, it's just asking for trouble!

 

-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-

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avatarcopper is an ideal

Submitted by kiaghi7 on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 1:45pm

copper is an ideal conductor, nickle is an ideal coating material to prevent oxidization of the copper...

 

Copper and Nickle are both relatively heavy, and to get temperatures down to just a matter of degrees above ambient, it takes a LOT of material both in pipes and fins. On top of the heatsink's weight, you of course often need an active cooling solution like a fan to move the air across the fins, and as such that weighs a bit too.

 

All told, it's not a huge concern as long as you use a screw-down method for attaching the CPU, any form of "clip on" nonsense where there isn't a backing plate behind the CPU and thus spreading the load over a larger area, is then asking for trouble.

 

I've seen the Scythe Orochi in action, which is hands down the quietest and easily among the largest if not by far the largest heastink on the market, and if mounted properly it's not a terrible strain on the motherboard.

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avatarI'll wait for testing and

Submitted by kiaghi7 on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 7:06am

I'll wait for testing and results, but it looks like Zalman is just taking a note from every other heatsink manufacturer and going to the most efficient design.

All anyone ever needs to do is go to the common heatsink enthusiast sites out there and see the top heastinks on the market and NOTHING from Zalman is even in contention for top honors in cooling or quietness, the two key factors in picking a heatsink of course.

If they were smart, they'd have started with something like the Scythe Infinity/Mugen (NOT Mugen 2), or the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer, two of the most tried and true designs that have been copied countless times by countless others with great success. Heck the Core Contact Freezer is still considered in the top five heatsinks available regardless of the imitators. Anyway, Zalman should reverse engineer it (it's heatpipes and fins for petes's sake...) for an even more efficient design that can mount a single, dual, triple, or even quadruple fans with a SCREW DOWN backplate mounting methodology.

Using super quiet 120mm fans it could move an enormous amount of air with the same noise level as some of its quietest competitors... But of course, that's down right logical and likely not in keeping with Zalman's usual "advertise it more rather than making it better" approach.

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