Misc. Ramblings

Speaking of PC parts, I recently replaced the Zalman 7000B AlCu in SWMBO's PC with Zalman's big brother CPU fan called the CNPS9500. And by big brother I mean this cooler is BIG. First, there's the weight of 530g (about 1.2lbs). Then there's the height of 125mm (almost five inches). Note well that the weight exceeds the maximum of 450g allowed on most motherboards. Hence, you must be extremely careful when moving the motherboard with this fan attached. You may even wish to remove the cooler if you have to transport the board for long distances over rough roads.

That said, this cooler has significantly dropped the high operating temperatures the Intel 2.8GHz (Prescott) CPU was previously registering (around 70 degrees Celsius, at idle). Even though the smaller Zalman did better than the stock Intel CPU fan, temps would still climb such that throttling was probably occurring. But now, with the 9500, idle temps average around 58 degrees Celsius with the fan slowly spinning at just under 1,800 RPM. This is much better and I've been able to remove one of the two auxiliary case fans I had to add to keep the Prescott from melting down. I may even try removing the remaining auxiliary case fan as it is now the loudest component in the case and probably isn't needed anymore.

Three installation notes may be of help for those of you who decide to install this fan. As always, proceed at your own risk. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

First, When removing your existing fan, try to read whatever instructions or warnings you can find relating to its removal. Whatever you do, don't just yank the old fan off because the adhesion between the fan and the CPU is usually so great that you can literally pull the CPU right out of the motherboard. Needless to say, if you do this, you could damage both the CPU and motherboard.

What you usually have to do is very, very carefully, remove the hold down mechanism (screws or clips) that hold the fan to the motherboard. Then, very carefully rotate the fan back and forth until the fan releases from the CPU and you can safely remove the fan.

Second, be aware that the side of the 9500 with the fan, faces inward (the instructions do not mention this). That is, the fan blows through the cooler and then out the back. Hence, you place the side with the fan facing towards the inside of the case and the opposite side facing out the back (assuming your case has an exhaust fan in the back. Otherwise, you may need to point the exhaust side of the cooler at your power supply (assuming you have a power supply with an exhaust fan).

The third installation tip is that you will probably need to remove the motherboard from your case as there otherwise won't be room to reach the screws used to mount the new fan. In my case, the PSU blocked access to one side of the fan so I couldn't reach in with the supplied hex wrench to tighten down the fan. So, I ended up removing the motherboard whereupon I was able to mount the fan in a few minutes. By the way, before removing the cables that attach to the motherboard, you should make a clear diagram and/or mark which cable goes where. You should especially note the orientation of connectors and which pin each connector goes to.

If your case and motherboard layout has the room for this behemoth (have I mentioned it's BIG?), and you aren't using your case to transport things for your LAN parties, then this may be the cooler for you. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!