Zalman CNPS9300 AT

The CNPS9300 AT

The most noticeable aspect of this cooler is the somewhat striking shape. Its so-called “flower” design looks more like the innards of a jet engine. I think this shape looks pretty cool for a CPU cooler and is a welcome change from the standard tower stylings which are commonplace.

If you pay close attention to the shaping of the cooler you can actually see that it very slightly leans to one side, I am unsure of why this is but my guess is that it does so to make sure that it leans away from your ram when installed making access to that area easier.

The fins on the cooler feel very flimsy, they are however incredibly flexible and can be bent quite a long way until they will be bent out of shape; allowing you to redirect the airflow should you so wish. All of the fins are copper and have the word Zalman pressed into them.

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The heatpipes are also quite interesting on this cooler, they are pure copper and there are only two of them. Though the design makes it look like there are 4 heatpipes after a close look it is possible to see that they are actually 2 figure 8 shaped pipes. Whether they will deliver the performance of 4 is yet to be seen.

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The fan in the very centre of the cooler is PWM or "Pulse Width Modulation Controlled". This means that when required I.E.. when the CPU temperature rises or falls the fan speed will follow accordingly thus reducing noise output and optimizing performance.

The fan is attached by 3 small clips on its rear, which clip onto a protrusion of the fins.

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The base of the heatsink is also pure copper. This not only increases the price of the cooler but the efficiency of cooling as pure copper is a very good conductor; more so than aluminium. Sadly though this pure copper base tarnishes very easily as it came with no sticker protecting the base but before it was too badly tarnished I managed to get a half decent shot showing how flat and shiny the base is.

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On the top of the core there is the base for the mounting kits. I have to say that this does look a lot like a drain cover. It appears that this cover is the only non-copper part of the cooler except for the fan.

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