The Zalman Twins: 9500 & 9700 Air Tunnels

Conclusion

Zalman pioneered many of the concepts we now take for granted in controlling noise in a computer. The use of large, low-speed fans to move lots of air with low noise was an early innovation of Zalman, and it is a technique now used in almost all the top heatpipe tower coolers. As demands for more cooling have increased the size of fans on even bargain CPU coolers has increased. Even manufacturer retail HSF fans are now often 80mm. The days of small, whining CPU cooler fans have thankfully mostly disappeared, although we still too often see these small, noisy fans on chipsets these days.

The Zalman 9700 is a slightly better cooler than the 9500, but the performance differences are very small - the 9500 tops out in OC at 3.81 GHz where the 9700 reaches 3.83 GHz. Also the 9500 is a bit quieter across the board than the 9700 so you have to question whether the marginal 20 MHz improvement in OC is worth the extra noise from the 9700. Neither result, however, is even close to tops among our tested coolers. Both are pretty average among the coolers tested thus far.

The point of this is that while the Zalman 9500 and 9700 do exactly what they claim, the rest of the world has caught up, and in some cases passed Zalman. Neither Zalman cooler stands out in any way. They are quiet, but they are not quieter than other heatpipe towers we have tested. At high speed, which is needed for effective overclocking, they are often even noisier than the competition. The Thermal Grease, air tunnel, and other current Zalman innovations do not pay off in stellar overclocking, either, compared to the best current CPU coolers. The performance of both coolers is middling compared to what we have seen from competing coolers.

This is not a bad thing among a very high performing group of coolers. However the prices of these two Zalman coolers are anything but average. At $60 and $75 the 9500/9700 are more expensive than the $50 for the Tuniq Tower 120, which is both quieter than either Zalman, and the Tuniq outperforms both in overclocking. The performance of both Zalman coolers is very close to the Thermalright MST-6775 or the Scythe Katana, which are both decent small, light-weight heatpipe towers. The problem here is that both the Thermalright and the Scythe cost about $25 to $30 which is less than half the price of either the Zalman 9500 or the 9700. This is before you consider weight, since the Scythe weighs just 300g and the Thermalright also meets the manufacturer recommendations for weight. This makes both the MST-6775 and Katana much lighter and cheaper than the Zalman 9500 and 9700.

Zalman products have always been easy to admire, and our tests have not changed this perception. However, it is difficult to recommend either the Zalman 9500 or 9700 as a good value among CPU coolers. The top performing air cooler, the Tuniq Tower 120, costs less, overclocks better, and is quieter than either Zalman in a real world system. The Cooler Master Hyper 6+ also overclocks better and controls noise well at about half the price, while the Thermalright and Scythe perform about the same at less than half the price and half the weight.

If cost is not a concern then both Zalman coolers do what they claim and will perform well in your system. The highly advertised innovations like "air tunnel" and thermal grease may also work fine, but they didn't raise the performance or noise of the Zalman coolers above average in our tests. The Fan Mate is also useful, but certainly not worth an extra $20+ in total cost. There is also the Zalman advantage of a simple, well-engineered and well-explained installation. The Zalman coolers are very easy to install on almost any system, which is an important consideration in anyone's list.

If you are looking for value - the best performance and noise control for your dollar - then there are much better choices in the market than the Zalman 9500 and 9700. The top Tuniq Tower 120 and Cooler Master Hyper 6+ perform better, are just as silent, and cost less. The Thermalright MST-6775 and Scythe Katana perform about the same, but are much lighter and less than half the price of either Zalman. It gets even worse looking at the high end of coolers tested so far. The innovative TEC/air $89 Vigor Monsoon II Lite is only $14 more than the 9700, and it performs significantly better. Zalman may have started the quiet, high-performance cooling rage, but the 9500 and 9700 are not leaders by any measurement.