The Killer Chiller

When you think cool, you think of Zalman.  Or you think of Prince.  Either way you have one Killer Chiller.  Today my subject is none other than the Zalman CNPS9500.  When you take the classic Zalman flower design and combine it with an ultra-quiet fan, a unique heat pipe array, and a little LED bling, you know that you're going to have the coolest CPU temp in the room, with a little extra flavor.

Any time I get my hands on a Zalman I get that little urge to do an Irish jig.  Wooden shoes and all.  Oh, wait... that was the Dutch.  But you get the idea.  Zalman is the first and last name in processor cooling, and today I get the opportunity to test their latest monster, the 9500.  While I am a fan of Zalman, I am also a born skeptic, and decided to shove this thing on top of an Intel 2.4Ghz processor and run the crap out of Call of Duty 4 for a little while.  Hey, what better way to test a cooler than to punish the processor it's meant to protect?  I love PC masochism. 

In the box, I found the Zalman 9500 with the super quiet fan already installed.  One thing I found particularly sweet was the way the heatsink's flower design was turned on its side and supported by a series of three “figure 8” heat pipes that start and end in the heatsink's copper base.  Actually, this thing is pretty much 100% copper from top to bottom, aside from support bolts.  And since these don't even play a part in cooling, it doesn't matter that they are not copper.  The rest of it?  Pure copper baby, and ready to chill the shiznit out of your processor.  There was a little bag of various installation parts to enable this cooler to fit a variety of sockets, some thermal grease, and an instruction booklet.  I figured there would be a personal thank you letter from the executives at Zalman for helping them pay their Bentley payment this month, but I guess that will come in the next one.

Features

• Does not generate noise or vibration in Silent Mode
• Pure copper heatsink with component layout optimized for maximum cooling efficiency
• Innovative, patented, and curved heatpipe design for a heat transfer capacity of up to six heatpipes with the use of just three
• Ultra slim fins (0.2mm) for minimized weight and reduced airflow resistance
• Equipped with Zalman's low noise 92mm fan
• Supports all single and dual core CPUs of Intel's Socket 775/478 and all single and dual core CPUs of AMD's Socket AM2/754/939/940
• The adjustable fan speed controller (FAN MATE 2) enables control of noise and cooling performance

 

FHS

Dimensions 85(L) x 112(W) x 125(H) mm Weight 530g Base Material Pure Copper Dissipation Area 3,698? Thermal Resistance 0.12 ~ 0.16°C/W

FAN

Bearing Type 2 Ball-Bearing Speed 1,350rpm ± 10 % ~ 2,600rpm ± 10 % Noise Level 18.0dBA ± 10% ~27.5dBA ± 10%

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