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Zalman's CNPS10X Quiet heatsink is equipped with a 120mm fan that ranges in speed from 1400RPM to 700RPM, which in real world terms means that noise levels are moderate to whisper quiet. As a low noise heatsink the CNPS10X Quiet maintains good thermal levels on Frosty's AMD/Intel test platforms, and at full tilt it qualifies as a performance heatsink.
True to their company slogan "leading the world of quiet computing solutions", Zalman identifies each of their silent CPU coolers with CNPS in the model number. CNPS stands for Computer Noise Prevention System. The new 10X represents Zalman's first foray into the more conventional rectangular-fin tower style. There are two models to choose from, a basic no-frills Quiet version and the more advanced performance-oriented Extreme, both of which we will be looking at today.
It has been just over a year since we've had the opportunity to review a Zalman cooler, so you can imagine our excitement when Zalman shipped us one of their latest products; the CNPS10X Performa heatpipe cooler. Like all of its brethren in the CNPS10X series, the Performa sports a copper base, multiple heatpipes, a ton of aluminum fins, and a very quiet 120mm fan.
Throughout the reviewing and testing, there wasn't really a whole lot I could pick as a problem with this cooler. It's cheap, quiet, cost effective, built well and best of all, it performs just like any other premier coolers I have tested on the market.
Despite us being a review website that works with most companies in the industry, there is the odd company that often eludes us for various complex reasons I won't go into. Zalman has been one of those and in my time as the cooling reviewer at eTeknix I have only ever managed to scrape one Zalman product, that was the Zalman ZM-NC3500 Plus notebook cooler. Yet today I am quite excited as I have managed to get my hands on another Zalman product for review courtesy of the awesome guys over at Quiet PC.
Today we have a budget CPU cooler offering from Zalman in the form of the CNPS10X Optima Shark's Fin CPU cooler. As you can see from the above image it conforms to the typical style of CPU cooler that we'd expect to see in the "budget tower heatsink" market at the £20-£25~ price point. In fact on the face of things it looks practically identical to the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, Evercool Venti, SilverStone AR01 with the exception of the fan and some marginal design differences on the heatsink.
Thankfully the Zalman CNPS10X Optima Shark's Fin comes in at the lower end of that price point with a tiny retail price of £20.57 as we write, so let's see what £20 really gets you these days and see how much this Zalman CPU cooler delivers.
Zalman CNPS10X Optima heatsink is a fairly standard tower cooler in most respects; it offers pretty good thermal performance, accomodates a front and rear fan and has an exposed copper heatpipe base. The CNPS10X Optima CPU cooler stands 153mm tall so it should fit into most mid tower chassis and weighs in at moderate 630 grams.
The Zalman CNPS10X Flex heatsink ships without any fans, so users can install one or two 120mm fans of their own choosing. In all other respects the CNPS10X Flex is identical to Zalman's CNPS10X Quiet heatsink, so today's review is not going to be a huge departure from what we saw from the Quiet
As with other Zalman products I've reviewed, the CNPS10X Flex is a well-engineered product that does what it should do and does it very well. The build quality is great and it performs admirably. Installation was very simple thanks to the included manual. The heatsink is also compatible with many different sockets and it even supports the latest Intel socket 1156. Furthermore, the ability to use 120mm fans of your choice is a plus.
The Zalman CNPS10X Flex follows a slightly different path than other CNPS10X models. When compared to other CNPS10X models, the fans are not included and the heatsink is now able to take full advantage of two fans.
Die Kühler von Zalman waren für zwei Dinge bekannt. Zum einen besaßen sie ein spezielles Design, welches gerade zu zum Markenzeichen der koreanischen Firma gehörte, zum anderen lies sich der meist recht laute Lüfter nur mit erheblichen Aufwand austauschen. Mit der CNPS10X-Serie bestreiten Zalman einen völlig neuen Weg. Weg vom Fächer-Design, hin zum gewöhnlichen Tower-Kühler präsentiert sich die neue Serie nicht nur optisch in einem neuen Gewand. Auch der Lüfter kann nun problemlos getauscht werden und beim CNPS10X Flex verzichten Zalman sogar komplett auf einen Lüfter. Der Anwender kann so frei entscheiden, was für Lüfter er auf dem Kühler verbauen möchte und kann sogar zwei 120-mm-Lüfter anbringen. Ob das Konzept von Zalman aufgeht, erfahrt ihr auf den folgenden Seiten.
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