Construction and design

Construction

Zalmans CNPS9900 mainly consists of copper. Only the attachement for the heatpipes is made of aluminium. The basis is a ground plate with a polished contact area. There you will also find six integrated Heatpipes which are connected to numerous fins arranged that they form a tunnel. Inbetween Zalman mounted their ZD1225BTR 120 mm fan which rotates 2200 times per minute and is pretty loud under load but also delivers a lot of fresh air.

Around the "tunnel" Zalmans CNPS9900 comes with a transport protection made of plastics. If you leave it on the cooler will perform about 3 degrees worse than without. The cooler will also be louder with the plastic ring on.

Design

With the round design Zalman sticks to its concept. Therefore they distance themselves from their competitors. With its blue illuminated fan the CNPS9900 is also a pretty eye catcher.

The fan which is 120 mm in diameter rotates with 2200 rpm if you leave the plastic ring on. When you take it off, the rpm will go down to about 1970. Such high rotating speeds on a 120 mm fan will make you appreciate the PWM function very much. Alternatively you can drive the fan also at 6 volts or less. In this case you'll get a constant 1350 rpm which we call subjectively audible.