Introduction and appearance
ZALMAN CNPS7000-CU S478/754 COOLER
Zalman Technology Company have impressed us with their aim of producing quality cooling peripherals that concentrate on lowering the overall sound levels emitted by your PC. Using a mixture of clever engineering, high-quality components, and sensible pricing, their profile has been on the rise recently. With a 3.2GHz P4 just around the corner, aftermarket cooler manufacturers have their work cut out if they're to manage the inevitable performance versus noise trade-off. Zalman feel as if their latest offering, the CNPS7000-CU, presents the perfect compromise between sound levels and performance. Always eager to put manufacturers to the test, we have that model in for review today. Is it up to scratch ?. Read on.
Bigger is almost always better in the heatsink world. Zalman certainly believe that claim to the letter. The huge heatsink, taking up an area of 109mm x 109mm, is the biggest we've seen. Opening up the package reveals the CNPS7000-Cu in all its copper glory.
Aesthetically pleasing too. The fan's an oddly-sized 85mm in diameter. Simple mechanics tells us that a larger diameter fan can push a greater CFM of air given the same RPM as a smaller one. Alternatively, you can lower the rotation speed to achieve the same air displacement as the smaller fan. That's why the CNPS7000-Cu's maximum rotational capacity is 2400RPM +/-10%. The all-copper fins, 65 of them all told, create a huge dissipation area of ~ 3170cm². Copper's a great conductor of heat, so excellent heat transfer + large dissipation area + high volume fan should = great performance at a low noise level.
The 7000-Cu integrates a fan within its copper fins, so it doesn't stand as high as you may think. You can see that the fins start becoming splayed as we look upwards, presumably for maximum heat dispersal.
The copper fins converge at the bottom to form a perfect base. The flash from the camera hides the super-smooth bottom finish. The mounting system is excellent and supports both Socket 478 and Socket 754 processors (AMD Hammer). A steel clip traverses the heatsink and holds the fan in place. The clip then has two holes drilled on each side; the inner two for S478 and the outer two for S754.
Comparative sizing is always beneficial when showing just how large the 7000-Cu is. On the right is the formidable Alpha 8942. It's made to look relatively small by the literally massive 7000-Cu. Constructed almost entirely out of copper and being almost 110mm x 110mm, it weighs in at a hefty 773g. Intel's recommended maximum heatsink weight is 450g, therefore it's well over official specification.
