Zalman HD-160 and Accompanying Products
by Joshua Buss on March 31, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Benchmark Comparisons
To test the new HTPC case and especially the performance change when switching to the Zalman CPU and GPU coolers, we installed our standard ATX test bed with the Zalman provided ZM460-APS power supply. Measurements were made at 22.5 degrees Celcius ambient, and averaged over the course of 5 minutes after running for over 30 in the respective mode. Two instances of Folding@Home , rthdribl, and a comprehensive hard-drive loader are run simultaneously for the "load" test.
Our standard test bed has been a solid set of hardware for reviewing for several reviews now, but one of the first things that we noticed when using the ZM460-APS power supply was how much less heat it put out than the MadDog unit, which we had been using before. Before getting into detail about the other differences, here's a chart showing the performance of the case first with the Thermaltake Golden Orb and stock 6600GT cooler, then with Zalman equipment in its place. The 80mm case fans were both hooked up to 12v connections, the video card into a 5v line, the CPU fan for the Golden Orb II directly into the motherboard, and the CNPS-9500 into the included Zalman FanMate II
Final Words
Zalman's display of their quality of engineering, design, and manufacturing have all been top-notch for each and every product that we've looked at here. With a closer look at the ZM460-APS in the near future, we will surely only add to this concensus, as even with our short amount of work with the unit here, we've grown very fond of the product.
Without a doubt though, the HD-160 is a fine HTPC case. The layout is smart, simple, and elegant. The construction leaves nothing to be desired and should stand up to many years of home entertainment. Its thermal and noise performance were record-breaking, and they only became better when we used the CNPS-9500 and VF700-Cu. If only a perfect, stealthy optical drive system could've been implemented, and a VFD where the digits were more visible from actual living room distances, this could've been the perfect HTPC case that we were looking for when we started. However, the new Zalman case is closer than many by a long shot, and for one who doesn't want to settle for something that "just works", the HD-160 is a great choice, even for the relatively high asking price of around $250. For those who really want to go all out, we'd readily recommend all three products that we looked at in detail; each stands out in its own right.
To test the new HTPC case and especially the performance change when switching to the Zalman CPU and GPU coolers, we installed our standard ATX test bed with the Zalman provided ZM460-APS power supply. Measurements were made at 22.5 degrees Celcius ambient, and averaged over the course of 5 minutes after running for over 30 in the respective mode. Two instances of Folding@Home , rthdribl, and a comprehensive hard-drive loader are run simultaneously for the "load" test.
| ATX Test Bed | |
| DFI LanParty UT 915P-T12 Pentium 4 530 Prescott 3.0ghz OCZ 512MB DDR2 x 2 Thermaltake Golden Orb II Seagate 120gb SATA Hard Drive Chaintech GeForce 6600GT MSI DVD-CD/R/RW Combo drive Zalman ZM460-APS PSU |
 |
Our standard test bed has been a solid set of hardware for reviewing for several reviews now, but one of the first things that we noticed when using the ZM460-APS power supply was how much less heat it put out than the MadDog unit, which we had been using before. Before getting into detail about the other differences, here's a chart showing the performance of the case first with the Thermaltake Golden Orb and stock 6600GT cooler, then with Zalman equipment in its place. The 80mm case fans were both hooked up to 12v connections, the video card into a 5v line, the CPU fan for the Golden Orb II directly into the motherboard, and the CNPS-9500 into the included Zalman FanMate II
Final Words
Zalman's display of their quality of engineering, design, and manufacturing have all been top-notch for each and every product that we've looked at here. With a closer look at the ZM460-APS in the near future, we will surely only add to this concensus, as even with our short amount of work with the unit here, we've grown very fond of the product.
Without a doubt though, the HD-160 is a fine HTPC case. The layout is smart, simple, and elegant. The construction leaves nothing to be desired and should stand up to many years of home entertainment. Its thermal and noise performance were record-breaking, and they only became better when we used the CNPS-9500 and VF700-Cu. If only a perfect, stealthy optical drive system could've been implemented, and a VFD where the digits were more visible from actual living room distances, this could've been the perfect HTPC case that we were looking for when we started. However, the new Zalman case is closer than many by a long shot, and for one who doesn't want to settle for something that "just works", the HD-160 is a great choice, even for the relatively high asking price of around $250. For those who really want to go all out, we'd readily recommend all three products that we looked at in detail; each stands out in its own right.
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LoneWolf15 - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link
I have a camera that uses xD picture cards, and it seems that 7 out of 10 card readers leave this format off. They're not that uncommon, and it's really begun to bother me.Otherwise, it looks nice, though I'd nitpick one final thing: If there is a way to make the fan grill on the top of the case look a little more refined and a little less "cheap cookie-cutter PC" like, I'd be all for it.
krwilsonn - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link
It is worth noting that when installing the Zalman GPU cooler, you could probably heat up the old fan assembly with some intense 3d processing to heat and soften the thermal adhesive before removing and replacing it.cyanic74 - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link
Or better yet, a hair dryer!! Worked well for me.JoshuaBuss - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link
Good point, but with the stock heatsink still attached, it does cool off very fast after being turned offAGAC - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link
Lovely Case. I just can´t wait until next gen HD players (wether BR or HDVD) come out and I´ll finaly have a computer to manage TV, audio and video playback in the living room. Too many pending issues related to software and hardware on the HD front to do it now (Vista, HDCP video cards and monitors). This case certainly will be in my short list when the dust settles.Oh, BTW, what about freezing the video card for some hours before snapping off the heatsink?
topher42 - Saturday, April 1, 2006 - link
Whats wrong with the DVICO fusion 5 series?Does HD for me just fine.
Cheaper than a video card.
JoshuaBuss - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link
when metal is cold there's a better chance of it breaking.. I'd definitely not recommend this.Tiamat - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link
I think this case has quite a bit of promise. Unlike most other HTPC cases, this one has the ability to house quiet 80mm fans and seems to have good HDD vibration control. Additionally, a good amount of ventilation around hot areas seems to be present. Its quite pricy just like any other Zalman product, but overall pretty nice.I would probably get a Silverstone LC-17 case over this one due to cost savings however it is nice to see zalman tackle the htpc arena without an 800-1200$ solution.
AndrewChang - Friday, March 31, 2006 - link
Seeing a couple reviews around the web, in the back of my mind I was hoping that you guys would take a look at this. I honestly don't think this Zalman case is THAT big... Well... OK maybe, but the fact is, it is quite handsome and this would look perfect sitting beside the pieces of HiFi equipment found in countless homes and home theaters.What I think you guys should really look at exploring though, is one's quest for high end computing silence. While this may seem totally irrelevant to the topic on hand (or maybe even like a guerilla marketing shill), it really isn't. With more and more people using their PC's as their home entertainment focal points, noise becomes a huge issue. I'm sure it would be REALLY valuable to a great deal many people.
Anyways, thanks again!
krwilsonn - Saturday, April 1, 2006 - link
That was half of the point of the article IMO. When they are able to configure this box to be 2 db over ambient noise of the room, it can probably pass for silent unless you are putting your ear next to it. Since this is a HTPC, you will not have it on your desk anyway, and unless you live in a closet, you will be sitting at least a few feet away from your tv and home theater setup.
I only bring this up because I think it is impossible to do away with fans. Even if you watercool, you still have a radiator with whirring fans, as well as a separate PSU fan (I wonder if anyone has watercooled a PSU? I'm sure that it would be a hit among enthusiasts). Unless you go with the ridiculously expensive Zalman "totally no noise" series of cases or buy the tower radiator for your water circuit then you have to have fans in your machine. There are, of course, other niche products such as fanless psu's but your mileage may vary in terms of performance. I remember reading in Maximum PC mag last year about some completely fanless machines that they built (watercooling on cpu/vga/chipset and a passively cooled PSU I think). I can't remember the configuration exactly but I believe it had zero fans and the results were poor because there was no airflow over the motherboard components and they were getting very hot. They basically pooh-poohed the experiment due to zero airflow in the case.
I only bring this up because I believe it takes extreme and/or expensive measures to make a machine silent. The best solution that would be affordable and effective IMO would be an Antec Sonata with a sound insulating kit (trapping heat along with the noise) as well as 120mm fans on the front and rear of the case with some mechanism to control the fans as well as a PSU with a 120mm fan with some sort of fan control also. Since the Sonata is designed for silence out of the box, it is certainly suited for this task.
None of this is news to anyone here, I'm sure, and I may be inaccurate about some things, but I believe that you can't really do away with fans in a normal gaming oriented machine so you have to design the best fan configuration to suit your situation and need for silence. I was just surprised to read the above post asking for a silent pc, as if 30db wasn't quiet enough. There is a trade off between quiet fans and temperatures and you have to find a happy medium between the least fans and keeping temps in check if you want silence.
I don't personally have experience with specifically "quiet" 80mm fans so I'm wondering, are they very quiet at standard RPM's? I wish I could do away with fans smaller than 120mm so it's a bummer to see them used in an otherwise great looking case. The benchmarks speak for themselves here in terms of noise, though, so they must be close to silent.
Thanks for a great review. It would be a bargain if $250 included the PSU. I don't think that was specified in the review. Sorry about the wordy post, as there are so many factors involved with quiet computing that came to mind.