Zalman CNPS9900 NT CPU Cooler Review

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

Today we are testing another cooler from Zalman, CNPS9900 NT. Its design is curious, with two circular heatsinks with heatpipes shaped like the Greek letter Ω (omega) with a 120 mm fan between them. But what about performance? Let’s check it out in this review.

The box resembles the one used by CNPS9700 NT (also from Zalman), with shades of green and a window where we can see part of the cooler.

Figure 1: Box.

Inside the box we found the cooler, manual, installation hardware and a gray thermal coumpound syringe.

Figure 2: Box contents.

In the next pages we will see Zalman CNPS9900 NT in details.

[nextpage title=”Zalman CNPS9900 NT”]

CNPS9900 NT is amazing. From a front view (Figure 3) it looks like CNPS9700 NT, which also has the round-shaped heatsink with heatpipes inside the fins, made of nickel-plated copper, giving both durability and a nice dark looks.

Figure 3: Front view.

In a side view, however, the difference between those two coolers is clear: on the other model there is only one heatsink, while on the CNPS9900 family there are two independent heatsinks, one in front and another behind the fan.

Figure 4: Side view.

The front heatsink has only one heatpipe (with both tips connected to the base from the cooler), but the rear heatsink (shown in Figure 5) has two heatpipes. This, and the fact this heatsink is bigger and receives the direct airflow from the fan, made this heatsink responsible for the most of the heat exchange, and we can say that the front heatsink is an auxiliary one.

Figure 5: Rear view.

[nextpage title=”Zalman CNPS9900 NT (Cont’d)”]

In Figure 6 we can see CNPS 9900 NT from above and notice a good distance between the heatsinks. The fan is transparent and glows green when working.

Figure 6: Top view.

Figure 7: Base.

[nextpage title=”Installation”]

CNPS9900 NT supports sockets AM3, AM2+, AM2, 939 and 754 AMD processors and sockets 775, 1156 and 1366 Intel CPUs. In Figure 9 we see the AMD clip (left) and the Intel socket LGA1366 retention system (right).

Figure 9: AMD CPUs and socket LGA1366 clips.

In Figure 10 we can see the installation hardware for sockets 775 and 1156. With socket LGA775 you must use the black backplate on the left and the frame on the right. With socket LGA1156, however, the backplate is not used and the frame is attached to the motherboard using the black nuts shown at the bottom of Figure 10. In both cases you must have access to the solder side of the motherboard.

Figure 10: Sockets 775 and 1156 hardware.

In Figure 11 we can see CNPS9900 NT installed on our motherboard. Despite of its size, it did not interfere with any motherboard component, staying away from the memory modules and heatsink from the chipset.

Figure 11: Installed on our motherboard.

In Figure 12 we can see the cooler installed in our case.

Figure 12: Installed inside our case.

[nextpage title=”How We Tested”]

We are adopting the following methodology for our CPU cooler reviews.

First, we chose the CPU with the highest TDP (Thermal Design Power) we had available, a Core 2 Extreme QX6850, which has a 130 W TDP. The choice for a CPU with a high TDP is obvious. To measure the efficiency of the tested cooler, we need a processor that gets very hot. This CPU works by default at 3.0 GHz, but we overclocked it to 3.33 GHz, in order to heat it as much as possible.

We took noise and temperature measurements with the CPU idle and under full load. In order to achieve 100% CPU load on the four processing cores we ran Prime95 with the "In-place Large FFTs" option, and three instances of the StressCPU program, all at t
he same time.

We also compared the reviewed cooler to the Intel stock cooler (with copper base), which comes with the processor we used, and also with some other coolers we have tested using the same methodology.

Temperature measurements were taken with a digital thermometer, with the sensor touching the base of the cooler, and also with the core temperature reading (given by the CPU thermal sensor) from the from the SpeedFan program, using an arithmetic average of the four core temperature readings.

The sound pressure level (SPL) was measured with a digital noise meter, with its sensor placed 4" (10 cm) from the fan. We turned off the video board cooler so it wouldn’t interfere with the results, but this measurement is only for comparative purposes, because a precise SPL measurement needs to be made inside an acoustically insulated room with no other noise sources, which is not the case here.

Hardware Configuration

• Processor: Core 2 Extreme QX6850
• Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
• Memory: 2 GB Corsair XMS2 DHX TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX G (DDR2-800/PC2-6400 with timings 4-4-4-12), running at 800 MHz
• Hard drive: 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (ST3500320AS, SATA-300, 7200 rpm, 32 MB buffer)
• Video card: PNY Verto Geforce 9600 GT
• Video resolution: 1680×1050
• Video monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 2232BW Plus
• Power supply required: Seventeam ST-550P-AM
• Case: 3RSystem K100

Software Configuration

• Windows 7 Home Premium

Software Used

• Prime95
• StressCPU
• SpeedFan

Error Margin

We adopted a 2 °C error margin, i.e., temperature differences below 2 °C are considered irrelevant.

[nextpage title=”Our Tests”]

On the tables below you can see our results. We ran the same tests with the coolers shown on below tables. Each test ran with the CPU idle and the with the CPU fully loaded. On BigTyp 14Pro, TMG IA1, NH-U12P and ISGC-300 the tests were done with the fan at full speed and at minimum speed. The other coolers were connected directly to the motherboard and it controls the fan speed based on CPU load level and temperature on PWM models. ISGC-400, iCEAGE Prima Boss and Megahalems Rev. B were tested at minimum speed on idle test and at maximum speed on full load test.

< td align="center">39 °C

CPU Fully Loaded
Cooler	Room Temp.	Noise	Fan Speed	Base Temp.	Core Temp.
Intel stock	14 °C	48 dBA	1740 rpm	42 °C	100 °C
BigTyp 14Pro (min)	17 °C	47 dBA	880 rpm	43 °C	77 °C
BigTyp 14Pro (max)	17 °C	59 dBA	1500 rpm	35 °C	70 °C
Akasa Nero	18 °C	48 dBA	1500 rpm	34 °C	68 °C
Cooler Master V10	14 °C	54 dBA	1900 rpm	24 °C	52 °C
TMG IA1 (max)	16 °C	47 dBA	1500 rpm	27 °C	63 °C
TMG IA1 (min)	16 °C	57 dBA	2250 rpm	25 °C	60 °C
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme	16 °C	51 dBA	1900 rpm	24 °C	50 °C
Thermaltake ISG-100	18 °C	50 dBA	1800 rpm	58 °C	93 °C
Noctua NH-U12P (low)	15 °C	42 dBA	1000 rpm	28 °C	59 °C
Noctua NH-U12P	15 °C	46 dBA	1400 rpm	25 °C	54 °C
Noctua NH-C12P	17 °C	46 dBA	1400 rpm	37 °C	76 °C
Thermaltake ISGC-200	21 °C	48 dBA	1900 rpm	42 °C	68 °C
Scythe Kabuto	22 °C	47 dBA	1200 rpm	38 °C	63 °C
Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro	20 °C	51 dBA	2300 rpm	49 °C	85 °C
ISGC-300 (min)	18 °C	42 dBA	800 rpm	36 °C	64 °C
ISGC-300 (max)	18 °C	46 dBA	1400 rpm	31 °C	56 °C
SilverStone NT06-E	21 °C	66 dBA	2600 rpm	39 °C	96 °C
Zalman CNPS9700 NT	22 °C	56 dBA	2600 rpm	34 °C	63 °C
Scythe Mugen-2	17 °C	46 dBA	1300 rpm	28 °C	54 °C
ISGC-400 (max)	17 °C	47 dBA	1400 rpm	36 °C	69 °C
Cooler Master Vortex 752	20 °C	55 dBA	2300 rpm	48 °C	92 °C
iCEAGE Prima Boss (max)	22 °C	53 dBA	2000 rpm	35 °C	59 °C
Evercool Buffalo	17 °C	51 dBA	1850 rpm	32 °C	67 °C
Scythe Big Shuriken	20 °C	50 dBA	1500 rpm	51 °C	85 °C
Cooler Master Hyper TX3	21 °C	53 dBA	2700 rpm	39 °C	66 °C
Titan Skalli	20 °C	47 dBA	1550 rpm	37 °C	69 °C
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev. B	21 °C	61 dBA	2600 rpm	30 °C	51 °C
Zalman CNPS9900 NT	23 °C	56 dBA	2000 rpm	34 °C	54 °C

The next graph shows how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during our idle tests.

 

The next graph gives you an idea on how many degrees Celsius the CPU core was hotter than room temperature during our full load tests.

 

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

Zalman CNPS9900 NT main features are:

• Application: Sockets 1366, 1156, 775, AM3, AM2+, AM2, 939 and 754 processors.
• Fins: Copper (nickel-plated).
• Base: Copper.
• Heat-pipes: Three Ω-shape copper heat-pipes.
• Fan: 120 mm.
• Nominal fan speed: 2,000 rpm.
• Fan air flow: Not informed.
• Maximum power consumption: 9.6 W.
• Nominal noise level: 38 dBA.
• Weight: 1,61 lbs (730 g).
• More information: https://www.zalman.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 60.00

* Researched on www.newegg.com on the day this review was published.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

Zalman CNPS9900 NT has done very well in our tests. Its performance was on the same level as the best coolers we reviewed to date.

An intriguing detail was the fact that its fan has PWM control, but it did not work, and the fan was forever spinning at its minimum speed. So when we tested it with our CPU fully loaded we decided to connect it to another fan connector on the motherboard with no PWM pin. This way during this test the fan worked at its full speed. This may have given a little advantage to CNPS9900 NT compared to other coolers where the fan did not reached its maximum speed. We didn’t discover the cause of the problem, if it was a problem with our motherboard or if the reviewed sample was defective.

Anyway, besides its great performance, CNPS9900 NT has a great looks, differing from the sameness of the coolers based on the tower design. It will surely claim for attention at LAN parties if you install it on a computer with a transparent side window. The green glow of the fan is weak but is also a plus.

Installation was tricky, but not too
difficult. It demands you to remove the motherboard from the case, even if the motherboard tray has a hole to give up access to the solder side of the motherboard, because you need to hold the cooler in place while you screw the frame to the motherboard and this task can be very hard to do with the motherboard installed inside the case.

Zalman CNPS9900 NT is not inexpensive, but its price is compatible with other top-shelf coolers.

For all those characteristics, Zalman CNPS9900 NT deserves the Hardware Secrets Golden Award.