Zalman CNPS10X Quiet CPU Cooler review
24 December 2009 Source: www.tweaknews.net
The CNPS10X Quiet is Zalman's next generation model of quiet coolers targeted towards the user who still wants excellent cooling, but never wants to hear if the cooler exists in their computer. With five large heatpipes attached an absolutely monstrous cooler, the large 120mm fan has its work cut out for it to cool an Intel I7-965 Extreme Edition processor under full eight core load.
But the reader has to realize that this cooler is not targeted towards the user needing the lowest temperature possible to allow them to overclock, it is targeted towards people who basically want a large silent cooler to keep their high wattage processor temperatures under control. It is all about balance. Low noise levels while providing excellent cooling. With the large amount of surface area to dissipate the collected heat, fast and higher noise level fans are not needed in this application.
So will the Zalman CNPS10X Quiet do its intended job or will the cooling performance not make up for the low sound levels?
Let's see how it performs.
The Zalman CNPS10X Quiet cpu cooler can be summed up to be a quiet winner...
...It beat everything with ease and could even be used for mild overclocking if temperatures are monitored and the speeds adjusted for the fan's capacity...
...As the top performing cooler on my current Intel i7 965 Extreme Edition cooler testing platform, the CNPS10X quiet should be one of the options you consider when building your next system build.