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Conclusion

The Zalman CNPS9900 LED is definitely a great CPU Cooler. With its all copper construction and LED fan, it’s certainly a cooler not lacking in style.

The installation too is not one to be faulted. Although the Intel installations require a backplate, at least the cooler is tight and very secure to your motherboard. This form of installation is more robust than Intel’s push-pin counterpart. As for AMD users, they’ve definitely got it easy. Just attach a clip and away you go! I chose this form of installation and it proved to be very secure.

Performance wise I cannot complain at all, although it didn’t beat the Scythe Mugen 2 in all tests, it managed to score a better idle temp at stock clocks and drew on idle temps at overclocked. The other results weren’t much higher than the Scythe’s anyway – just a few degrees out at the most. I have to admit, these results did surprise me a lot. A cooler the size of the Mugen 2 would surely beat the Zalman? Not entirely.

As for noise, what noise? Although it was the loudest of all three coolers tested, these were also very quiet coolers – some of the quietest I’ve ever come across. They were only just audible and with your case’s fans running, trust me, you won’t hear them. I had to go pretty close to the deadly blades of the fan to be able to hear the ‘motor noise’, so I can assure you, this is certainly a very quiet CPU cooler.

One area which is usually a let-down for many products and this one specifically is the price. The Zalman CNPS9900-LED retails for £56 at QuietPC.com, this is definitely at the high-end sector of the market, but it deserves to be and for an all-copper CPU cooler, are you calling this expensive? But in terms of performance, the Scythe Mugen 2 is quieter, cooler and £13 cheaper, so it depends on what your reason for purchasing is.

Bottom Line: If you’ve got the money, splash out and buy this cooler, you won’t regret it; if you want the better performance and aren’t as ‘deep-pocketed’, go for the Mugen 2.

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