Going from a Antec Kuhler 620 to Zalman CNPS9900MAX

Summer arrived. Kuhler 620 couldn’t cut it with fans running low. Running the fan at 3000RPM all the time, or even when gaming, was not an option. So I had to look for a new cooler, an air cooler to be precise, because they could cool pretty much same as a AIO water cooler, while screaming much less.

Note: I did say I won’t add anything new to this PC, but mother nature had other plans! I cannot help that, right?

One problem though. The best in the class air coolers could not fit. There was the limitation of clearance inside the case, but more importantly, the dreaded Corsair Vengeance RAM made it impossible for any cooler to clear their height. So I had to look for something that did not protrude  into the RAM slots.

There are very little options. I found the Zalman CNPS9900 MAX, not only did exactly THAT and also performed better than the Kuhler 620!!! Victory!

So I ordered one and replaced the Kuhler 620 with it. The installation was a pain in the arse…especially with the motherboard already installed inside the case. It comes with a special tool that is hard to use without much clearance. But after about 30 minutes of cursing, I got there.

BTW, the cooler is frigging ginormous! You won’t understand it until you install it. The one I bought was the MAX-B, which comes with a Blue illumination. It is not a blinding light either. Pretty nice looking.

What do I think about the performance? It performs exactly the same as the Kuhler 620 (fan at 3000RPM) while running much quieter. It is NOT silent by any means, but it is day and night when you consider the 3000RPM Gentle Typhoon which was mounted on the rad. (and don’t forget, the Gentle Typhoon at 3000RPM is much much quieter than any other fan at 3000RPM).

 

Here is a side by side comparison between the performance. Room temps were difference in either case. 30.1C for Kuhler 620 and 26.5C for CNPS9900MAX-B.

Note: These are the max temps achieved in a 15 minute period, while running SmallFFT in Prime95.

	Kuhler 620 + Gentle Typhoon 3000RPM	Zalman CNPS9900 MAX @1500RPM
Core 1 (ABS)	73C	69C
Core 2(ABS)	76C	73C
Core 3(ABS)	78C	74C
Core 4(ABS)	78C	74C
Avg(ABS)	76.25C	72.5
AVG(DELTA)	46.15C	46C