When you hear the name Zalman you probably think of silent PC cooling. They have several product lines, from cases to power supplies, liquid and air cooling solutions, and many different kinds of accessories such as fans, fan controllers and thermal paste. Zalman has been designing hardware since 1999 for computer enthusiasts looking for high quality and great performance with minimal noise.


Today I have for review one of their latest CPU air coolers, the CNPS9300 AT. Like most of their recent coolers, the CNPS9300 uses a circular heatsink design, and just like previous 9000-series coolers the CNPS9300 uses an upright orientation with heatpipes connecting it to the base. Construction is mostly copper, with only a small amount of aluminum used, and compatibility for Intel 775 and all AMD A64-based sockets is supported. CNPS stands for Computer Noise Prevention System, and Zalman uses this designation on all products designed for noiseless operation.

Can an air cooler designed to be "noiseless" really provide enough cooling for modern processors? Continue along as I aim to find out.