Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu LED CPU Cooler :: mvk.tech :: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 GTX 260 9800 GX2 9600 GT 8800 GTX ATI Radeon HD 4870 HD 4850 HD 3870 X2 HD 3850 2900 XTX

First off we notice the cooler put the Pentium 4 2.8c CPU at 200MHz FSB using stock memory timings at around 29.5° C - 31.0° C. That's approximately 1° Celcius cooler than the stock Intel HSF. Under load the Zalman kicks in with excellent cooling and performance, let's take a look:

What we did was take samples from Cooler Masters Aerogate II. I put the thermal sensing diode right up against the CPU and the CPU Cooler and taped it in place. Our ambient room temperatures are at 27.0° C - 27.7° C for this test. We will read from BIOS/DIODE and Synthetic reports for out temperature readings. The system was tested on our HighSpeed PC Tech Station, which was donated by our friend Scott, from HighSpeed PC for the cause.

During 3DMark03 we did get roughly up to 34.0° C, while Aerogate II did show a very small jump to 34.5° C only once in the 12 minutes it sat at 34.0° C, so we rounded it off to 34.0° C since it just didnt make sense to report one specific spike if you will. I would rather explain it then leave it go un-noticed. For the heck of it, I decided to play a kiddie game geared for the younger crowd and for that test we used Shark Tale and came up with a 34.5° C average through out the game.

These temperatures are lower than what one would expect from inside a case. Our test was ran in a open air environment using the HighSpeed PC Tech Station and while we will naturally have better temperatures than if it was inside a case, we did establish ambient temperatures as a baseline and then ran the tests accordingly and what you see is what you get!

Final Thoughts:

Bottom line it works great, most coolers usually sit around the same idle temperatures with some exceptions and the 7000B does do a better job of cooling over stock configuration under various load ranges. While the decrease in temperatures where not night and day, it does prove that Zalman has a better product than what you can get in retail with your CPU and provides significant improvements over the entire operational range.

With the FanMate II maxed out the fan is noticeable but not annoying to the point it sounds like your system is going to take off for a transcontinental flight like some active coolers we have seen. The Silent Mode offers virtually noiseless operations and effects cooling so slightly that our thermal diode could not pick up on the difference while our infrared pointer showed a .5 c difference under 100% load. That’s pretty damn good! The additional rpm's FanMate II creates, adds to the extra cooling and lower temperatures as seen above. The new parameters allow for better adjusting over previous versions.

Turn out the lights and this is what will experience with the onboard LED! A blue glow that will light up your case and give it just that little extra...