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Zalman HD-160 and Accompanying Products

 by Joshua Buss on March 31, 2006 12:05 AM EST
48 Comments | Add A Comment
48 Comments
CNPS-9500-LED

Initially, we were planning on saving our first look at the CNPS-9500 CPU cooler for a larger heat sink comparison article, but Zalman insisted that the cooler was a perfect fit for their new case and we were up to the task of boring out this claim.

The CNPS-9500 has been out for a while now, and it's been quite popular among enthusiasts for several reasons. First and foremost, it's performance is exemplary.


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With three discrete copper heat pipes and a relatively small base, the cooler is designed to whisk heat away from the core immediately and carry it around the rest of the unit where the wide fins with even separations can dissipate it efficiently.


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A single 92mm fan forces air between the circularly-arranged fins for maximum effectiveness versus minimum air movement.

The base itself is certainly flat and polished well - trying to take a picture to show any imperfections in the near mirror-like finish proved rather fruitless.


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Mounting equipment is included to mount the heatsink on Intel 478, and LGA-775, and all AMD 64 sockets, and relatively clear intructions make the process easy even compared to some stock heat sink installations.


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The only step that some might consider annoying is the removing of the motherboard for the mounting of the backing plate, but this is to be expected with almost all performance CPU heat sinks, and the fact that the nuts are permanently attached to the plate makes this step much easier than many competing solutions.

As the plate on the back is installed, the top "universal" plate is anchored simultaneously. It is this piece to which the CNPS-9500 actually mounts directly, and because of its 90-degree symmetry, it can be used to hold the cooler in one of four orientations to point the airflow in the most appropriate direction.


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Once the plates are anchored securely and the thermal compound applied, the heat sink assembly is held in place with a single piece of steel, which anchors with only two points, ensuring an even application of pressure between the heat sink and CPU surface.


Click to enlarge.

HD-160 Case - Installation VF700-Cu-LED
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  • SonicIce - Saturday, April 1, 2006 - link

    yeah i was just joking around man. you did a good job reviewing it the way you did.

  • JoshuaBuss - Monday, April 3, 2006 - link

    Thanks man, I never am sure on these little 'comments' sections.. I tend to get a lot of crap here.. haha.

    I kinda guessed that you were joking actually, but wanted to take the time to clarify why exactly I cable it the way I do anyway. I suppose for a lot of people, they might've read your post and NOT thought it was meant in jest.

  • 4AcesIII - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link

    Thermaltake's Mozart and Bach cases have that thing beat hands down at less money. And why not tell us that the vfd and remote are farmed out to Imon by Soundgraph? Anyone notice how the vid cooler eliminates use of slot next to video? If you're going to do that why not get something that puts the hot air out the back like some other after market vid coolers do? This is nothing other than a big black box with alot of stuff bought from others to put into and with it and not especially attractive either but that sorta follows Zalman's history in my opinion. Go ahead and buy it if you want a Yugo get something else if you want quality.

  • segagenesis - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link

    I think this is the HTPC case I've been waiting for. Screw how big it is... I want as quiet as possible.

  • topher42 - Saturday, April 1, 2006 - link

    Take a look at the OrigenAE X11.

  • ScarletGrayFire - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link

    It's about time we have an HTPC case capable of quietly cooling a high-performance HTPC! This case fits right in the audio rack, and with three 80mm fan locations and enough room for a quiet CPU HSF, one can run an Athlon FX CPU with a state of the art video card. Also, an Arctic cooling vga cooler will push some of the heat in the PCI card area out the back of the case. Word is that this case is actually manufactured by OrigenAE.

  • mbhame - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link

    Those pictures are awful. What gives??

  • JoshuaBuss - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link

    care to elaborate? any particular pics? I thought most turned out very good actually..?

  • Howard - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link

    It's spelled "exemplary", and I only see 3 discrete copper heat pipes (re: Zalman 9500).

  • JoshuaBuss - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link

    Thank you. I don't know what I was thinking.. I knew it was three all along..heh.
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