Manufacturer: Zalman
Price: $29.99



The current trend of coolers today is bigger, more quiet solutions. Coolers today are huge compared to what we were using just a few years ago. Has all this size come without merit? No, and in fact there seems to be no limit as to how extreme cooling will need to get to keep hotter and hotter microprocessors cool. With chips like the R420, NV40, and Prescott out there it is ever more important to use a reliable solution to protect your investment. This brings us up to where we are today.

Featured in this review is Zalman, a fairly young company founded in Korea back in 1999, who is a manufacturer that carries with its name a reputation for quality and high performing low noise solutions. Unfortunately it has been quite some time since we last had a Zalman product in our labs here at O², but today we begin looking again at Zalman's new line-up of CNPS (Computer Noise Prevention System) products.

On the plate today is the Zalman ZM80D-HP along with the optional Zalman ZM-OP1 cooling fan. What's interesting about this heatsink is its large size and the ability to allow video cards like the 9700 Pro or older to run passively and newer ones to run quieter with very little airflow required. For the overclocker, a cooler like this poses a question as to how well a heatsink like this can perform with enough airflow. We're about to answer that and more on the next pages, so let's get started.