Zalman CNPS 9900 MAX review - Final words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

With the CNPS 9900 MAX, Zalman managed to surprise me. These coolers are based on an old concept introduced a long time ago, and thought the 9900 series never left the market, I was not expecting to see a performance level this good.

So yeah, the concept is still working really well. The dilemma anno 2010 though is that some people will dislike the sheer design/looks of the unit. It really is a bit of a freakfest in today's modern PC which are often black, tidy, cable managed and clean looking. Then again, a lot of people can and will like the design as well.

Performance wise things are top notch. Noise levels then, well I find the CNPS 9900 MAX on that area to be acceptable. Quiet is not a word I'd prefer to use with this product, even with the resistor wire in use the fan RPM levels might remain below 1500 RPM, but it's still a somewhat audible cooler yet remains acceptable in that mode. Without that CAP (1500 RMP limitation) once the fan reached 65% RPM and higher, well that's where it just is noisy, too noise for my taste. But as the article has shown, with the resistor in use the performance level is merely one maybe two degrees higher, so leave it in place we feel.

Performance overall is very comparable to the performance of Noctua's NH-D14 coolers. That cooler of course is completely silent though. The CNPS 9900 MAX also has a lot of additional capacity, we like that very much. The result as such is that the cooler becomes even more impressive when you start to overclock. In combo with this fan we overclocked our poor little 2.67 GHz processor to 4.2 GHz @ 1.5 volts. At that 1.5 GHz overclock we started to stress all processor cores 100% once again and we did not even reach 65 Degrees C, that is impressive stuff to witness.

Okay, it's time to end this article. Performance wise you'll achieve nearly perfect heatpipe based cooling which is downright impressive. The noise levels are manageable but even with the fan RPM capped you will be able to hear the cooler, nothing extreme though but it's there. The looks and aesthetics, well you either love or hate the design I guess, there is nothing in-between it.

But overall we feel the Zalman CNPS 9900 MAX is a truly excellent performing cooler, the looks are a matter of taste, but the nice nickle plated coating surely helps out in that aspect. The product can be spotted for roughly 55 EUR/69 USD in the stores as we speak.

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