Roundup of Noiseless Coolers for SocketA. `2002 Q2
Zalman CNPS3000 Plus
http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/intro.htm
I first got to know that miracle from some news website and didn't attach any importance to that since they said it would unlikely be imported to Russia. To my great surprise, I saw them later on stores some time later, in three makes: aluminum-copper, full copper and gold-plated copper :). All I could afford was an ordinary copper cooler.
The cooler was packaged in an impressive box with a plastic window.
I unpacked the box and took out the following items: a radiator, a 92 mm fan with the special fastening, a pack of screws, 2 metal clips (surprisingly, absolutely identical ones), a thermopaste syringe, an adapter (more precisely, an extension cord) with a soldered resistor (rated at 57 Ohm) and a mounting device. The User's Guide deserved a special praise for its detailed and clear desciption of every installation step.
The installation can't be simpler and no User's guide would be needed for a smart user. Apply some thermopaste on the processor and place the radiator on top. Then fix the radiator with an iron clip. For that, we used a special device made of a thick iron rod.
It rests conveniently in the hand, with the other end easily gets into a special hole on the clip. The same device was also used to remove the radiator.
By the way, first devices of the kind for cooler installation were suggested by the Japanese company Canopus.
Then, with the fastening device we install the fan on top of the expansion boards and fasten it to the case with the same screws which fix the PCI(AGP) boards in place.
note the two slits on the arch - its shadow is clearly seen (in fact, no shadow is there :)
Note that the fan is fastened to the metal plate with a screw conveniently corrugated for fingers. That is, we can slightly loosen the screw, change the fan position and fix it again by tightening the screw. Followng this mounting scheme, we can also replace the fan if the latter breaks down. These 92 mm fans are sold as separate pieces (e.g. Zalman ZM-F2), but you can install any other, e.g. a 80 mm piece, if necessary.
Zalman CNPS3000 Plus has one more advantage - on the metal arch/plate where the fan is mounted you can install at least one more cooler for cooling the video card (or improving the air circulation). Only a bolt, a nut and a pair of spacers would be needed for that.
Well, done with the installation.Now looking closer at the radiator. First off, it's quite heavy and weighs 238 g, with the dimensions 105x52x65 mm. That it weighs much and the clip hooks up to only one tooth of the socket is definitely a flaw.
The radiator is made of copper plates (which are 42 in number, 0.3 mm in thickness and 65 mm in length each). The plates are joined and tightened with an aluminum plate using two pins. Therefore, we get a copper foundation whose edges are made of aluminum (the base of the model CNPS3100-GOLD is full copper). Zalman engineers say the radiator was made with the Flower Heatsink technology. Indeed, the name is quite to the point- the radiator looks very much like a blossomed out flower.
Note especially that the radiator plates are not solid but have several slits. Therefore, the passing air flow is efficient. The surface area reduced but anyway it is quite large - 2300 sq. cm (!).
The radiator base is finished to the mirror-like gleam (the best among all the reviewed coolers).
Now the most annoying, the noise. Two previous coolers were able to control the fan speed depending on the load applied to the processor. With Zalman CNPS3000, the situation is absolutely different. Option one. We plug the cooler straight to the motherboard and get the rotational speed around 2500 rpm. The air flow amounts to 38 FM, and the noise level declared by the manufacturer is as high as 36.1 dB. Another option. We plug the fan via the extension cord with the soldered resistor. This switches the fan to the Silent mode and it starts running slower at a speed around ~1500 rpm, while the air flow amounts to 31 FM and the noise level declared by the manufacturer is 20.0 dB. More about the fan.The first models of Zalman cooler had third-party 80 mm fans (presumably, made by ADDA). I wouldn't recommend buying a cooler with such a fan because it does not have a tachometer and the80 mm fans are a bit noisier.
the right 92 mm Zalman fan
Additionally, the noise level in the normal mode is about the same asproduced by Asus FSCUG9C-6FC. In the Silent mode with the fan cover closed it doesn't make any noise. However the PC hasn't become quieter. The noise coming from the fan installed in the power supply turned louder.
We can't ignore the cooler's drawbacks. First, it's the high price which is as high as ~750 rubles (about $25) for a model with fully a copper radiator compared to 500 rubles ($16) for a Volcano 7 and Asus FSCUG9C-6FC.
An aluminum-copper radiator (Zalman CNPS3000) costs around 550 rubles ($18), and (CNPS3100 GP) with a gold-plated radiator - 1100 rubles ($34)
Secondly, in some systems installation of this cooler will be problematic. This especially refers to systems where the motherboard is installed with the socket on the edge (classical example - Abit KR7A) and where the ATX case is smaller in height. This may force one of the radiator edges rest against the power supply. The plates bend easily and the cooler anyway can be installed, but part of the plates will be pressed closer to each other, and the cooling efficiency will suffer.
Cases where the power supply overhangs the processor are absolutely unsuitable for Zalman coolers.
For boards with the socket turned by 90 degrees such a problem was not observed. Examples of such boards are Epox 8KHA+ (on the KT266A chipset), and 8K3A (KT333).
That the cooler is made up of an independently running radiator and a fan gives the cooling system maximum flexibility of arrangement.For example, I can set the fan in a way so that it can simultaneously cool the radiator on the processor, the radiator on the motherboard's Northbridge and that on the memory module.
If we place the fan strictly above the processor, then the temperature difference amounts to 2-5 C.
Finally, I tried cooling the processor with the radiator alone. Clearly, it does not make sense to use a powerful processor (like Athlon) for that purpose. That is why we took a Duron 700 whose normal voltage 1.5V (series ANDA) was pushed down to 1.45V and the fan switched off. So what? The temperature started to grow rather fast, then stopped at 64 C and only in two hours reached 67 C. This shows that it's quite possible to set up a completely noiseless computer in the home environment, however, a few prerequisites must be met.
First, the case cover must be kept open. Secondly, a software like Vcool or some other that monitors the temperature and processor load has got to be started. Then, you can't start resource-hungry applications on such machine. The list of programs must be limited to Internet aplications, office suites etc. Finally, I wouldn'trecommend using Win9x operating systems because as far as I remember (haven't used them for the past two years) some powerful applications may hang and the processor reaches 100% (most frequently that occurred with IE and Word running, which wasn't noticed by the user).
Those who couldn't get a Duron system running at decreased voltage can try using a raditor from Zalman CNPS6000-Cu cooler that has wider plates and is heavier - 462 g. See the photo at the end of the review.
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