Zalman CNPS5X-SZ COPPER/ALUMINUM 3-HEATPIPE 92MM Hydraulic Bearing Fan LGA1155/1156/1366/775/AM2/AM3

Comment:
This heatsink/fan is much noisier than I expected. The tall heatpipes create  a suspended mass that the fan vibrates in a fairly loud low-pitched hum. I can feel the vibration not only through my case but through my whole desk. This "strumming" will also find any rattle in your case, believe me...Before I lost my sanity I found I could turn down the fan based on CPU temp through my motherboard BIOS because it's a PWM fan. Whew...at 1800 RPM the noise is acceptable, not much louder than a stock cooler but hardly silent. At full speed (2700 RPM), I just can't stand it.The good news is that this is an excellent cooler. My Phenom II X3 is barely running above ambient...26 C. Under load it hardly gets above 30 C. This may be due to an overly optimistic thermal diode, but it does seem to do a very good job. I used Arctic Silver 5 rather than the included thermal paste, maybe that helps as well.Also even though it's large, it's smaller than other HSFs of this design (Corsair A50/A70 for example). It will fit in a mid-tower case like my Antec Sonata III and it does clear my northbridge heatsink as well as my RAM, even on my mATX board. There is a review on the web where it does hit the NB heatsink so watch out (it's the projecting "wing" that's the issue). There isn't much chance of it hitting the RAM actually, the fan is placed inside the radiator fins so it doesn't project out from the CPU edge at all. It's also not very heavy so there's no concern of it putting undue stress on the motherboard.Installing it was only a little tricky - you really had to back the screws out to get the clips to seat on the processor bracket tabs and as soon as you tightened one down the other would pop out. I eventually got it though.If you can turn the fan down - recommended! This review was modfied by poster @ 04-30-12 07:52 PM

Comment:
Not bad, but not very good either. I have a cooler master hyper 212+. This Zalman is halfway between the 212 and a stock cooler in terms of cooling. I would not use this for any processor over 130W. This thing is not very noisy but definitely not silent. Mount design is one of the major flaws of this cooler. If you want to replace a socket 775 processor, you have to remove the cooler and the plastic ring or the processor won't come out. Try it and you'll see why. Prepare to wait 4+ months for the rebate. It will eventually arrive. For $9.99 I cannot complain about this thing at all, but for $15, you can get a Hyper 212+.

Comment:
Good cooling performance and acceptable noise. However, it is not easy to install without taking the motherboard out of the system, as there is very little room around the socket to fiddle with the two retention screws.

Comment:
A friend of mine purchased this one on my recommendation for their Pentium 4 LGA775. I helped him install it and here's the story...It was an Asus board, and the chassis had an air duct that had to be removed to make room for the cooler. P4 was one of those bad boys clocked at 3.06 GHz, with a history of running hot. The stock thermal pad had been thoroughly cooked, and they had been suffering from random slow-downs & hangs, and a variety of other classic symptoms of an over-heating processor. Immediately after a cold-start with the old stock cooler, the processor was at 60C according to the BIOS. After a few minutes, the room started to smell like burning electronics.After shutting it down and letting it cool for a couple of minutes, I popped the stock cooler off. It was pretty rough. I then pulled the processor and carefully wiped/brushed the thermal pad residue off with a soft cloth. Next, I mounted the LGA775 retention ring, re-socketed the processor, applied a thin film of Arctic Silver III (using a piece of cereal-box cardboard to apply it evenly) to the bottom of the Zalman cooler. I then attached the cooler with the clips. It was pretty easy.Upon restart, the BIOS reported 39C. Under light duty, it never cracked 45C. Since it was a new Windows install on this machine (to minimize software malfunction from the equation), I didn't get to see the temp under full load, but I am confident it would only get more efficient as the Arctic Silver gets worked in.This thing put out less than half the noise of the stock cooler.Highly recommended. I will likely pick one up for my own machines.

Comment:
Bought one when it was on sale for $20. Definitely worth it at that price. Easy to install and it does it's job, no problems at all.