Zalman FX100 CPU Cooler Review

Installation (Cont’d)

After installing the heatsink, put the cover back in place. At the end of the process, it was one of the most annoying mounting systems we ever saw.

Figure 14: Cover back in place

We tested the FX100 without any fan, and also with a 92 mm fan, which we removed from a Cooler Master Hyper TX3 cooler we had on hand. This fan has 2,800 rpm nominal speed, airflow of 54.8 cfm, 35 dBA of noise level, and 3.12 W power consumption. Figure 15 shows the cooler with the fan installed.

Figure 15: Fan installed

We detected a little mounting problem with the Zalman FX100: as shown in Figure 16, the transversal bar is too long and touched the heatsinks of the motherboard. The cooler was firmly installed, but it may have lost a little pressure because of this problem.

Figure 16: Mounting problem