Reviews for Zalman CPU Cooling Fan

Cool and Quiet

Strengths: Quite, Keeps CPU cool, Weight within motherboard specs, Variable speed control, Looks good

Weakness: A little expensive

I was building a new computer and heard how noisy the stock Intel cooler was for the Pentium 4 CPU chips. I checked reviews for the Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu which said it was an effective and quiet cooling solution. There is also an all copper version. However, that version is about twice as heavy and will exceed the CPU heatsink weight specification of your motherboard. The reviews I checked showed the all copper version lowered the temperature only 3 to 4 degrees over this one. If your computer runs so hot that a 3 or 4 degree decrease will make a big difference, you have bigger problems than the heat sink.

I installed this Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu using Artic Silver for the thermal paste. Once you apply the thermal paste and put the heatsink in place, you are not supposed to lift it as this will introduce air into the thermal paste and compromise the thermal seal. Since you have to apply a good bit of pressure to get the mounting screws started, the unit has a tendency to flip off the CPU. This happened to me and I had to get some rubbing alcohol, clean the thermal paste off the CPU and Zalman, and redo it. To prevent this, you have to be careful to hold the unit on both sides as you screw it down. Other than that, it is not hard to install.

I have been using this with a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 Northwood core 800MHz FSB CPU on an ASUS P4P800E-Deluxe motherboard. This motherboard has a Q-Fan feature which adjusts the speed of the CPU fan depending on the temperature. Without the Q-Fan enabled, I found the Zalman speed control will vary the fan from 1500-2500 RPM. At 2500 RPM the fan is audible but still quiet and can't be heard over my two quiet 14 dbm case fans running at 1500 RPM. At idle with Q-fan enabled, the Zalman fan runs at 2000 RPM and is inaudible. My CPU temperature idles around 40C and goes up to 56C while under load playing video games. This is in a room where the temperature is around 90F. If I take the side off my computer case the temp at idle drops to 34C.

Although the price is a little expensive, I don't feel there is a better heatsink/fan available so it is worth the price.

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Cool but Oversized

Strengths: Cools great & extremely quiet

Weakness: Too big!

It cools great and even at top speeds is very quiet - as quiet as I could ask for.

However, the size is the killer for me. I can't swap drives in & out without removing it. It's in the way of plugging memory DIMMs in & out. My IDE ribbon cables from the top 2 bays have to stretch over the top (right in front of the fan); the cables are not long enough to go around it. The cables from the lower bays have to be bent around below the Zalman.

I would recommend this fan, but if you don't have an oversized tower, do yourself a favor & think carefully about how much room this thing will take & how it might interfere with the other components within your PC.

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Good heatsink.

Strengths: Good cooling, Ability to control fan speed, Quiet.

Weakness: Cost, Size.

I've been using this heatsink on my P4 2.6GHz Northwood for about a month now. It does a good job of cooling with little to no sound. My CPU does run a little hot, but I believe that has more to do with the lack of airflow in my case. This heatsink+fan is easy to install. Just put a little of the included thermal grease on your CPU, put in the brackets, screw it down, plug in the fan and you're done. The fanmate allows you to manually control the fan speed which is cool. It is a bit expensive (I paid about $32) and I wonder if a cheaper heatsink might do the job just as well. It is rather large as well, so make sure there is enough clearance around your CPU socket before you buy this.

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Zalman CPU Cooling Fan

Strengths: Effective cooling for P4 CPUs; Quiet operation; Easy to install

Weakness: A little pricey

I have been running one of these in my half tower for 6 months now. My processor never gets above 40C. I purchased another a couple of weeks ago for use in a mini PC with an Antec Aria case and ASUS P4P800-VM mother board. Well it fit, but not by much. Does a good job keeping the CPU and nearby northbridge cool in the confined space. Very easy to install with all the accessories you will need. I have been running it at less than 2000 rpm using the included Fan Mate 2 and temperatures max out after an hour at about 48C, with 100% loading on a 1.9GHz P4 (about 87 watts). My son just bought one with a blue LED in it and he likes it also.

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Zalman CPU Cooling Fan

Strengths: keeps cpu really cool, near quiet

Weakness: not absolute silent

i think that this is good for the price. its near silent. there's little vibration though. i thought this would be more quiet but this is good enough. this could keep a athlon64 3000+ at under 35C.

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Zalman CNPS 7000B AlCu

Strengths: very efficient cooling

Weakness: fan bearing noise

The Zalman CNPS 7000B AlCu is a very nice cpu heat sink / fan. It cools my AMD Athlon XP 2500+ cpu (overclocked to 3200+) very well. My only complaint is that it isn't silent; air turbulance noise, when the fan is undervolted using the included Zalman Fanmate2, is minimal. However, the fan bearings make some noise (which probably would be drowned out by other noises in a computer not specifically built for silent pc uses). If you are handy with a dremel, you can replace the stock fan with a much quieter one (e. g. Nexus; technique can be found at silent pc review's website).

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Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu

Strengths: very quiet; very efficient cooling

Weakness: bulky and heavy; more expensive than most other cpu heatsink/fan combos

This is a great CPU cooler. I bought this primarily to reduce the noise generated by fans in my system. It is a bigger fan than most heatsink/fan combos; it rotates at a lower rpm than smaller fans, but outputs as much air others.

Make sure if you buy this that your motherboard and case has sufficient clearance to fit this! It is a big fan. It is also very heavy, and it does put some strain on the motherboard. I would be careful if I move my computer around from place to place.

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Zalman CPU Cooling Fan

Strengths: Pretty quiet. Decent cooling.

Weakness: None.

Make sure that this thing fits your motherboard. Good cooling and with the adjustable Fanmate 2, you can make it very quiet with minmal cooling or crack it up and get better cooling with more noise. One of the best out there.

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ZALMAN CNPS7000B-ALCU ALUMINUM & COPPER CPU COOLING...

Strengths: Excellent Quality, Improved cooling & is much quieter.

Weakness: None

Installing this fan on my AMD 462 lowered the cpu & motherboard significantly. Cpu went from 57C to 44C, while the motherboard went from 42C to 30C. Stop looking, Zalman is the heat sink/fan to use.

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one of the quietest cpu fan on the market

Strengths: quiet,efficient

The fan works perfect if you want a quiet PC case. You can hardly hear the fan sound. The installation is easy. A highly recommended! Also, it provides a fan controller, which allows you to adjust the fan speed.

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new cpu fan

Strengths: quiet, keeps the cpu cool

Weakness: a bit large and hard to run wires around

Good fan, had to put a hole in the case so i could get the extra wires that go to the manual control to come out of the case. But its a good fan, its worth the investment.

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Quiet... well yeah... quiet

Strengths: - It's quiet

Weakness: - It's a bit bulky, and my fan clip sort of got in the way of the circular heatsink - Didn't cool as well as I had hoped

Well, I had high expectations for this device, hoping it would really cool my system down at least down 8 degrees Celsius (down to 30 degrees) while idling in comparison to my stock cooler, but there was no change -- it still idles around 38 degrees, which isn't terrible. It did however improve when at full load. Instead of 70 degrees stock, it's now around 60 -- both of which are unacceptable in my book, but my case's cooling may be a factor into that.

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Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCu

TestSeek.com has collected 3 expert reviews for Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCu and the average expert rating is 86 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use TestSeek.com to find all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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Zalman CNPS 7000 Al-Cu CPU heatsink

The Zalman CNPS7000-Cu and CNPS7000-AlCu both provide superb cooling performance even with the fan at a quiet 5V. With the worst-case 5V result of 0.31° C/W (with the P4-2.53), even a 82W P4-3.0 would see a temperature rise of just 25° C. This means that as long as the case ambient temperature can be held to 35C or lower, a safe max temp of 60° C under heavy CPU load can be maintained. This is...

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