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Product: CNPS 5000
Manufacturer: Zalman
Homepage : www.zalman.co.kr
First Look
Nice little box sitting all on its own in the corner of the room, but the Rhino made a mistake - he showed it to me! I had attached and removed the Silverado so many times that one of the centre little plastic pegs that the clip mechanism HSF's tend to use had been weakened. Add to this a small but fairly firm slip of a flat head screw driver to unclip the Silverado and pop the little tab had had enough. It left a little bit behind, and I found that the Silverado would actually re-attach to the socket - I was overjoyed.
Falcon 4, if u like shooting things this has to be the ultimate fighter sim for the PC. I got me a nice little set up, a Saitek X36 Hotas and X35 throttle, and a pair of rudder pedals/brakes. My Viper had been bearing down on a Mig29 and I was just about to stuff a AIM-9P right up his jacksy when he sideslipped slightly out sight. I carried on applying backwards pressure to my stick, ramping up the G's to outturn that 'commie' ahead when all hell brakes loose. Tom Cruise thought he had a flat spin haha, damn here was I, well up the creek without the proverbial paddle. At about Angels 3 I was spinning rapidly downwards trying to regain some control over the attitude of my aircraft. I pressed hard forwards on the stick pushing the nose into the spin and hard left on the rudder to try and turn in when .........BANG!
My foot slipped off the rudder pedal heel first and came to rest with a small bump but the sound effect was really good. I was dead in the water (or hillside to be more accurate) and the sound effect was great, as were the visuals or lack of them. Hang on I thought, whats going on here? Has Falcon crashed ??? And what was that metallic sounding crash ??? I reacted very quickly, the thought process took less than a second or two before I realised that Falcon had not crashed the whole PC had died. Oh (expletive) the Silverado has fallen off!!! I hit the master power switch within 5 seconds but alas I was too late. A few minutes later and the tragedy was clear to see. The weighty Silverado had dropped clean off the Socket A and right onto the GeForce 2, before tumbling down the inside of my ATC201 wrenching out the fan headers as it fell. Closer examination showed a tell tale little bump on the surface of the core.
Amazingly everything else seemed and later proved to be undamaged. But I was left with two problems. Firstly and most obviously I had just fried the CPU, and secondly, assuming I could get a new CPU how would I cool it? The socket tab is not repairable easily (superglue did not work).
So I set off to look at HSF reviews with particular interest in the method
of attaching the HSF to the CPU. I reckon that the single clip solution is used
by 90% of all HSF combinations. However I did find a few that used other methods
and of these the Kanie Wing and Hedgehog looked interesting but it was the Zalman
that peaked my interest. The only problem was there
was little to no information about this cooler and no reviews. Indeed nor was
the Kanie Wing in production at that time, the only one I could find any reviews
of was the Hedgehog.
Next morning I arrived unannounced at Chillblast's very smart office development
and hardware superstore suitably located on the fashion mecca that is the Kings
Road. I was about to approach one of the many legions of helpers who were marching
around the store like ants in a nest when I was approached by an Armani clad
gentlemen. He asked me if he could be of any
assistance, and I proceeded to explain my traumatic experiences of less than
24 hours earlier. As we were talking he guided me through the cavernous interior
of the Chillblast operation and soon we were in his penthouse overlooking the
Thames sipping expresso's that had been meticulously prepared by a felinesque
blond, approximately 7 feet tall with the right bits in the right places and
the face of an angel.
Amil explained to me that he was unable to supply me with a new 1.4 T'Bird as the very last of these rare beasts had been shipped out only the night before, but that I could 'borrow' a 1.33 model until the new stocks arrived. I graciously accepted this kind offer and the conversation moved on to how I might be able to keep my replacement CPU cool. It was then he made his mistake ...
From the mantelpiece of a grand marble fireplace Amil showed me a box he had apparently received that very morning. I was interested, but unable to read the small writing across the 40 foot long room. He explained that this box was obtained it for his technical department to test to the very limit. As the box approached my curiosity peakedand then I read the words ... Zalman! Had I just stumbled upon my holy grail, surely not. But unbelievably as the packaging was discarded there in my hands was the masterpiece of extruded copper engineering. It took me some time to reach an agreement, he was reluctant to let it go but I eventually left the palais d'chillblast with the one and only Zalman CPNS 5000-Plus.
I nurtured my packages carefully all day, whilst I awaited my opportunity to allow them to flourish into perfect harmony upon my return to my humble abode/chateau. Soon the hour arrived ...
OK to cut to the chase - installing the Zalman is a pain in the arse. This is the one of the few performance HSF where the entire motherboard has to be removed for installation.
There are other reviews written by far more experienced writers than I, but here are the basics.
The 5000+ is cleverly designed to fit both a Socket A and a P4 motherboard and is actually quite a light and compact system. The extruded copper core is elegant to look at (elegance in design often equates to efficient engineering), but you do not really see any of it when installed. Around the core is a plastic shroud atop of which sits a 3.2V sucking fan. The fan connects to the motherboard fan header. Supplied in the box are two cables with resistors soldered into the middle ( I can't remember off hand how to decode the coloured stripes on a resistor) to allow the fan speed to be selected (5600/3200/2000 rpm). Also supplied are baggies of screws, washers, copper bits and a hologram! There is also a manual - but I warn you that even I with 20/20 vision struggle to read the incredibly small type of the instructions. Careful reading of the instructions is necessary! The screws supplied look similar but are for different motherboards and CPU's. Realistically you can figure out how which bits to use reasonably easily, the manual tends to confuse me <G>. Anyway within ten minutes you should have your bolts, washers, springs and nipples (!) in the correct order places and holes. Once assembled you get the feeling that only a bomb will get this cooler off your processor.
After another 10 minutes of tidying up my cabling I was ready to feed the Zalman and T'Bird with their life juices. I chose not to use the optional resistors as the weather at the time was quite warm and I had been concerned with my temperatures before the disaster. The unit itself seems quite quiet, but I have a reasonably noisy system with 6 case fans to aid the airflow. I can hear it mostly because of the different tone of the fan to the other larger ones. Apparently reversing the airflow - ie blowing rather than sucking (ohh lala) actually reduces the audible tone and increases cooling efficiency, but I have not yet tried that tweak.
In terms of cooling performance, I have done no scientific tests. My impression is that it is better than the Silverado I had previously. My current temps are 30 degrees system and 44 degrees cpu (on a 1.3Ghz T'Bird) compared to results of around 35/55 with the Silverado on a 1.4 T'Bird. Under load (Falcon 4) the temperature reaches a peek of approximately 50 degrees, but I have found that increasing the airflow through the case (place an 8" fan in front of the intakes!) can actually reduce this by 3 or 4 degrees, so I feel that the airflow in the case is not optimal at all.
I recommend the Zalman 5000-Plus but there are a couple of caveats. Firstly it is irritating to install, however once installed it is secure and the removal of the CPU is actually easily done, the unit unscrews from the brackets on the mobo. Secondly it is not nearly as quiet as a Silverado (and apparently the Delta screamer is even louder if you wish to fit one instead of the supplied fan). At £36.99 (or about $55) its not the cheapest, but it is actually quite reasonable when you consider the quality of the product and its accessories.
Get one from Chillblast and/or read another review at Anandtech
Irksome