Ballistics Report

Pros

Good Performance: The Zalman CNPS9500 is an important asset especially for overclocking. At full load and overclocked, it managed to shave off 9 degrees Celsius off of the stock cooler’s performance. Even when not overclocked it managed to pull ahead by 6 degrees Celsius.

Quiet at Low Speed: The Zalman was audible at low speed, but it still performed very quietly at only 31dBa, equivalent to light whisper at the other side of large room.

Effective Design: The Zalman is relatively small compared to its 3rd part competitors. Also, unlike the 7000, and particularly the 7700, the 9500 has no mounting problems and doesn’t cover or make contact with anything on the motherboard.

Easy Installation: With minimal parts, and a clever and simple lever mounting mechanism installation took about a minute, from taking off the side panel, to putting it back on the case.

Easy Fan Speed Control: The Fan Mate 2 provides easy fan control. It’s small and completely plug and play.

Cons

Hi Speed has minimal effect: Even though the cooler spun twice as fast (and produced much more noise), cooling didn’t improve at all at stock speeds, and even at overclocked speeds it only achieved 3C less, and 2C less Delta T over low speed.

Price: for such performance, $50 online isn’t much a bargain. There are other aftermarket coolers from Scythe, Thermalright, Thermaltake and others that outperform this cooler for about the same amount, if not less. We’ll cover those coolers in a roundup later on.