Conclusion

With the CPNS9900 Zalman puts itself to the top of our charts. They prove in an impressive way what they mean with "high performance". Unfortunately these high performance level are also part of the subjectively loud fan which rotates at 2200 rpm.

The good performance seems to be down to a very well manufacturing process. We highly recommend removing the the transport protection ring around to cooler to improve the performance by up to three degrees.

The high noise level at 12 volts is the CNPS9900s only problem. Zalman therefore highly recommends the use of the PWM functionality. We will go one step further and recommend regulating the fan all the way down to 6 volts.

At 6 volt we can recomment the Zalman CNPS9900 LED tower cooler for the use in an actual system at a subjectively audible noise level. At 12 volts Zalmans latest offspring provides you with a lot of performance. It is even enough to hold an overclocked Core i7 CPU at adequate temperatures.

Soon you'll be able to buy the Zalman CNPS9900 LED at Brack Electronics.

Author: i.gigier@ocaholic.ch Revised by: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch