Maximum PC Zalman RSS Feed

Zalman CNPS 10X Extreme

Nathan Edwards — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:00:35 -0500

The radial-copper-finned stalwart tries something new

The Zalman CNPS line (especially the long-lived 9000 series) is known for its distinctive copper-finned air coolers, which are nearly always organized in a circular pattern around the fan. This arrangement worked well for a long time, with the CNPS9700 and 9900 garnering rave reviews in these pages. But all the top-performing coolers we’ve tested recently (July’s Thermalright U120-eXtreme and August’s Noctua U12P) have had one thing in common: a skyscraper formfactor, whereby a tall stack of closely packed cooling fins jut upward, with one or more 12cm fans strapped to the side. Now, Zalman is getting in on the game with its latest CNPS cooler, the 10X Extreme, which takes the skyscraper-and-12cm-fan design and adds variable-speed fan control.

The Zalman CNPS 10X Extreme sports five heat pipes running through a closely packed array of black nickel-plated fins. It’s a great look, and proves that Zalman doesn’t just do copper well. The fan remote can be slotted into the plastic cowl at the top of the heatsink or, more usefully, be routed to the outside of your case with the included extension wire. The fan has three auto-speed settings: low (up to 1,500rpm), mid (up to 1,950rpm) and high (up to 2,150rpm), and one manual dial, for fine-tuning between 1,000rpm and 2,150rpm.

Like similar coolers, in order to mount the heatsink to your motherboard, you have to remove the cooler’s fan. But unlike the Thermalright and the Noctua, which use clips, the Zalman’s fan is screwed on, making installation difficult. Worse, the fan’s (very short) four-pin connector is routed behind the fan inside the cowl, which makes it very painful to install. Aside from the fan issue, mounting the Zalman on a Socket 775 motherboard is easier than installing most of its peers. There’s no backplate, and the mounting bracket attaches with a pin mechanism that is quite sturdy. The retention mechanism is the same as on Zalman’s previous coolers and attaches with four spring screws.

The Zalman CNPS10X is even bigger than its similarly shaped peers.

Unfortunately, though the Zalman 10X’s form matches that of the category’s top coolers, its performance does not. In our tests, the Zalman (at maximum fan speed) couldn’t match our current champion, the Thermalright U120, with one fan. Idle temperatures from the Zalman were within two degrees Celsius of the U120, but temperatures at full CPU burn were four degrees C higher than with the Thermalright cooler.

The 10X is even bigger than its peers, too: At 5.3 inches tall, 4 inches deep, and 6.3 inches wide, it’s slightly larger in every dimension than the Noctua U12P, and it weighs more than two pounds. The 10X comes dangerously close to being too large—some orientations just don’t work because the heat pipes bump capacitors or the northbridge heatsinks. Both the Noctua and Thermalright coolers can mount additional fans—the Zalman doesn’t have that option, nor (because of its fan-connector placement) can you easily replace the included fan with a higher-performing one, as many air-cooling users prefer.

We appreciate Zalman’s efforts to hit a higher performance mark with its products, and we like the CNPS 10X’s looks and fan control. Zalman also gets points for including mounting brackets for Core i7, Core i5, and AMD motherboards. But the performance isn’t quite at the level of our slightly smaller, more-customizable champions, and the price is higher.

And we really wish manufacturers would stop calling their coolers “Extreme.”

Zalman Shows Off Gargantuan Cooler With Remote Control

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:29:14 -0500

Unveiled just this week, Zalman’s new CNPS10X cooler is the first CPU cooler with a removable remote.

The CNPS10X rocks a total of five heatpipes in order to conduct heat away from the processor, all of which feeds into a huge group of fins. These fins are kept cool by a sizable, high-CFM fan.

And, of course, there’s the remote, which will let you adjust the speed of the fan, or lock it into auto mode. The remote can be plugged into the heatsink itself, or work via extension cable. The remote features two LEDs, a surface button and a wheel for all of your speed adjusting needs.

The CNPS10X will be available in several different colors, but no word on when it’ll arrive or how much it’ll cost.

Image Credit: Tom's Hardware

Zalman's Newest CNPS Cooler Ditches Circular Design

Paul Lilly — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:05:23 -0500

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

Zalman CNPS9900 LED

Nathan Edwards — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:00:00 -0500

When Zalman told us its new CNPS9900 LED was the best CPU air cooler ever, we took the news with a grain of salt. For more than a year, the company’s CNPS9700 LED had been our top air cooler, until Thermaltake’s DuOrb usurped Zalman’s place at the top of the heap in our July 2008 issue. Can the CNPS9900 retake the cooling throne for Zalman?

In a word, yes. This copper-finned monster outperforms the Thermaltake DuOrb across the board, keeping our test bed’s CPU an average of three degrees cooler than the DuOrb was able to at both idle and full burn, making it the best CPU air cooler we’ve ever tested.

Each of Zalman’s CNPS9000 series coolers has been larger than the last, and the CNPS9900 is no exception—at 3.7”x5.5”x6.24”, it’s about half an inch wider than the 9700 and almost three-quarters of an inch taller. That’s big, all right, but still not the largest air cooler we’ve tested—not by a long shot. The CNPS9900 is instantly recognizable as kin to the rest of the CNPS9000 series, although this time its trademark copper radial-finned heatsinks are on either side of the 120mm blue LED fan, with two in the front and one in the rear. A plastic shroud surrounds the fan and gives your fingers a safe place to grasp, but it can be removed for better performance, though doing so increases the risk of chopping up errant cables or fingers. The CNPS9900 is slightly louder than the CNPS9700 at full bore, but certainly not deafening.

Installation is easier than it was with the CNPS9700, although if you’re on a Socket 775 or 1366 board you’ll still have to remove your motherboard to install the back plate.

Be warned, however: Like its predecessors, the CNPS9900’s fins are apt to draw blood from the careless installer. But given this cooler’s performance, we figure maybe the CNPS9900 simply requires a blood sacrifice to kick-start whatever unholy deal it made in exchange for ultimate cooling power. And we’re OK with spilling a little blood to get top-notch performance.

Zalman Z-Machine LQ1000

David Murphy — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:30:14 -0600

We were apprehensive when we first saw Zalman’s Z-Machine LQ1000 case. From the outside, the chassis looks like a combination of the company’s Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 case (reviewed February 2007) and its Reserator XT external water cooler (reviewed December 2007). But this case isn’t simply a slapped-together hybrid of two products. Zalman packs a number of improvements into the LQ1000.

The LQ1000 abandons the frustrating billion-screw design of its predecessor, the FC-ZE1, for a thumb-screwed side panel. The case’s drive bays use the same tool-free design as the FC-ZE1, but the mounting mechanisms for the case’s four 5.25-inch bays are all tool-free as well.

A monstrous 10x14.25-inch reservoir attaches to the inside of the case’s side panel. It uses 3/8-inch tubing that connects to a 79.25 gallon-per-hour pump attached to the bottom of the chassis. Zalman supplies one of its own water blocks, the ZM-WB5, for your CPU, and it’s compatible with both Intel and AMD systems.

The water-cooling loop’s performance crushes that of a stock cooler and even outpaces that of our top air cooler, Thermaltake’s DuOrb.

However, we dislike the lack of tubing between the pump’s outflow and the water block’s input. It’s an extremely short run that doesn’t leave much room for tube routing. Similarly, the inside of the case is tight. An 8800 GTX videocard brushes up against the hard drive bays.

On the case we received, the connector for the front-panel power button was mislabeled as “HD LED,” and the connection didn’t work. Also, the side panel holding the motherboard tray didn’t line up against the panel covering the drive bays, letting a sliver of light sneak through the case. It’s a minor flaw, but frustrating if you plan to pack the inside of the case with swanky lights.

While this is certainly one of the better water-cooling chassis we’ve tested, it’s not perfect. Zalman has made some improvements to its previous designs, but the LQ1000 could stand a bit more polish.

Zalman CNPS9300 AT

David Murphy — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

We did not expect this. When we first got our hands on Zalman’s CNPS9300 AT, we assumed the company had pulled a “Honey, I Shrunk the CPU Cooler” on its flagship product, the bulky CNPS9700. That’s certainly true if you consider the tale of the tape: The CNPS9300 is 80 percent smaller than its big brother, and its total thermal dissipation area has been nearly halved, from 5,490cm² to 2,583cm².

Zalman is keeping the current black-fan version of the CNPS9300 for now but hasn’t ruled out making an
LED-fan version that matches the CNPS9700’s look.

Logic only dictates that this cooler should perform far worse than the Zalman CNPS9700. But the built-for-silence CNPS9300 AT nearly matches its big brother’s performance—as well as that of our top cooler, Thermaltake’s DuOrb (reviewed July 2008).

Since it eschews the CNPS9700’s fan controller in favor of a four-pin motherboard connection, the CNPS9300 AT’s fan can be controlled through the BIOS or by using a utility such as SpeedFan. We welcome the change, as it’s much easier to adjust the cooler via a software application than by opening your case and turning a knob.

Cranking the CNPS9300 to full throttle elicits a loud whirr, but it allows the device to match the quieter DuOrb degree for degree. Letting the BIOS automatically decide the fan’s speed drops the device’s cooling power by about five degrees; however, it is much quieter when set on auto mode.

The CNPS9300 still relies on a tiresome and frustrating installation mechanism. The backplane requires motherboard removal, perhaps the least irritating part of the process. The cooler’s mounting bracket barely fits atop the voltage regulators of our EVGA 680i motherboard. And the amount of force we applied to the screws on the CNPS9300’s retention bar to affix it to the mounting bracket had us seriously concerned about the welfare of our processor.

Because of the CNPS9300’s installation shortcomings, the DuOrb remains our reigning cooler of choice, despite its gargantuan size. We love the performance Zalman has achieved with its mini-cooler. Attaching it to our CPU is where we start to sweat.

Zalman ZM-M220W 3D Display

David Murphy — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:05:09 -0500

Rarely do you see a 22-inch display float near the price points of superior 24-inch panels. It’s just unheard of, for a smaller display would have to offer some kind of fantastic upgrade over what we typically find in this size classification to be worth the additional cost.

How about an extra dimension?

Zalman’s ZM-M220W is the company’s first 3D display and it’s every bit as expensive as some of the best midrange monitors we’ve tested. We appreciate Zalman’s attempt at breaking through the fourth wall using a 3D technology that’s far cheaper than what we’ve seen on similar displays. But we would still trade this extra dimension for a better-looking picture in a heartbeat.

We’re pleased to see the ZM-M220W reproduce an extreme amount of detail when increasingly darker shades of gray are arrayed against a solid black background. The display’s precision on its darker grayscales even rivals those of some of the best monitors we’ve tested, including monitors of different sizes and panel types. But this excellence falls apart on the opposite end of the spectrum, as the ZM-M220W’s ability to produce lighter grayscales against a white background is less impressive than even some standard 22-inch displays. Compared to the similarly priced Samsung 254T 24-inch LCD (with its S-PVA panel), Zalman’s display gets whooped in overall grayscale detail.

While we saw no outstanding defects in our gaming tests, save for the aforementioned detail loss and general image paleness, we did see a good amount of banding in real-world color gradients. These dark lines of compression ruin the smoothness of gradients, and they extend into the white values of an 85-shade gradient on our DisplayMate tests. This is worse than what we normally find with banding, as these lines usually tend to pop out in the darker grayscales of a 128- or 256-shade gradient.

The ZM-M220W also has trouble producing lighter shades of red, blue, and green hues against a white background. This weakness in coloration sets the ZM-M220W slightly below the quality of Envision’s G2219w1(our favorite 22-inch screen) and well behind the 254T in our real-world tests. The ZM-M220W's inability to produce accurate representations of light grayscales and color results in diminished detail and vibrancy in still images, games, and movies. This is especially noticeable on skintones, which appear washed out and powdery, and on elements that demand vivid coloration, like the huge flames of BioShock’s opening scene. And don’t even think about using the ZM-M220W’s included display presets to improve the picture: the gaming, movie, and sports modes each destroy anything you’re looking at to varying degrees of oversaturation, discoloration, and detail loss.

As for the monitor’s 3D prowess, the ZM-M220W is able to produce accurate 3D imagery using Nvidia’s Stereoscopic drivers on only a smattering of games (Steam downloads not included; you have to install the game from a CD for the drivers to work their magic). Built into the drivers is a list of options and verdicts for 3D compatibility across a wide range of gaming titles. It’s quite inaccurate. Oblivion is rated a two on the three-level compatibility scale. The game is nevertheless unplayable no matter how much you use the drivers’ hotkeys to adjust the stereo separation of the images.

We fared far better in a three-dimensional romp through Gears of War, but the 3D effect still comes with a fatal flaw. Aiming accuracy takes hit in first-person shooter titles due to the display’s split-crosshair effect. The drivers attempt to make up for this with a “laser sighting” feature that overlays a neon targeting crosshair onto the game. It does a better job at helping you pinpoint where you’re aiming, but it’s an ugly substitution.

A similar stereoscopic deficiency permeates real-time strategy titles. These have a tendency to slap the HUD in the foreground as a 2D layer riding on top of the 3D action setting. It looks awkward, but not as awkward as the 3D units you’re controlling. Unit names are split and very difficult to read (or directly click on) in World in Conflict as a result of the same stereo separation effect mentioned earlier. Fixing this issue is a compromise: dial down the settings to improve the quality and the 3D effect is lessened.

We wish other manufacturers would take a gander at the ZM-M220W, but not for its extra dimension. This display is one of the few 22-inch displays we’ve ever tested that allows you to pivot, swivel, and tilt the panel just like a higher-priced 24-inch panel. It’s unfortunate that this exceptional feature is balanced out by the ZM-M220W’s paltry list of connection inputs: DVI and VGA, with no support for any other video connections, USB inputs, or media readers. The display’s included speakers are equally anemic. Their audio quality is poor enough due to their size. But since they’re rear-facing, you never quite get the accurate stereo reproduction that two front-facing speakers would provide.

Three dimensional monitors are as much of a niche as physics cards and PC wind simulators. Even if we never used this added feature and just considered the ZM-M220W for what it is, we’d be looking at an overpriced and underperforming 22-inch display. For the ZM-M220W’s price, we’d much prefer to have a monitor that delivers an awesome picture in a mere two dimensions.

Zalman GS1000

David Murphy — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:28:30 -0500

At first glance, Zalman’s GS1000 chassis looks like it’s a going to be a tool-free computer builder’s dream. And in many ways, it is. Zalman peacocks the hot-swap bays for your hard drives by placing them right on the front of the case, eschewing the more traditional combination of side-facing drives with a front-facing cooling fan. And many of the case’s screws are spring loaded. It prevents the accidental (and often frequent) loss of any of the case’s helpful thumbscrews.

Zalman’s gone to great lengths to ease the building process with these innovations. But like your bank robber friend who bails on you once the cops arrive, the company leaves case enthusiasts in the lurch. The GS1000 still comes with a fair share of building hassles, contradicting its attempts to turn rig creation into a fun, fast, and painless process.

The PCI card holders on the 26.4-pound chassis use thumbscrews. We’d pardon this minor transgression given the good behavior of the case’s other ease-of-use features, but there’s more on the rap sheet. Installing an optical drive into the chassis is far more complicated a procedure than it need be. Removing the front-bay coverings—often just requiring a quick punch from the rear in other cases—forces you to pop off both side panels and remove two thumbscrews. The optical drives mount using four more of the Zalman’s loss-free screws. Drive rails would have been a stronger choice, tying directly into the tool-free motif of the case’s front drive bays.

About those. The case comes with only a single backplane, rendering a mere three drives truly hot swappable. We’re neutral on this exclusion since six hot-swap bays push the limits of usefulness. We’d much prefer to fill that space with a water-cooling reservoir. But we can also see the argument for a single additional hot-swap bay: Suppose a user wants a standard RAID 5 setup with an accessory drive for media or backups. We would much prefer to just add that drive into the case when needed as opposed to having to constantly connect an external enclosure.

The interior of the case leaves plenty of room for parts, even more so for cables. No fewer than seven separate holes are present for stringing cables around, behind, and between the various bits of one’s rig. Two 12cm fans woosh air out of the rear and top of the case, and you can add up to three more using the case’s pre-drilled holes and grills—at least, in theory. We found that the plastic design on the underside of the GS1000 blocked one of the fan’s holes completely. The case also comes with no active cooling for any of the hard drive areas. This isn’t an ideal situation as-is, but it's made worse if you plan to pack three drives in close proximity to each other.

We’ve seen lesser cases offer a ton of front-panel connection support, so we’re not sure why Zalman includes only two USB and one FireWire connection on the GS1000. But it does help round out the motif of this case, in that the GS1000 has a few things that are great about it, a few things that are average, and a few things that elicit a starry-eyed look or two. In short, this is an average to above-average chassis. We like some of its features, but its lackluster installation process and general design inconsistencies are enough to make us pause before putting this one under our desks.