Zalman CNPS8000: A Worthy Successor?

July 30, 2006 by Devon Cooke

For several years, Zalman has relied on its circular "flower" design to bring some very unusual — and successful — heatsinks to market. The CNPS7000 was untouchable when it was first released and is still a respectable heatsink, despite the fact that it doesn't have heatpipes. More recently, the CNPS9500 has found considerable success in the high end market and is notable as much for its design elegance as its excellent performance.

The CNPS8000 marks a departure from Zalman's traditional design. It is surprisingly conventional for a modern heatsink, with four heatpipes to transfer heat from a copper base to a bed of aluminum fins and a proprietary fan to provide airflow.

The motivating force behind the CNPS8000 seems to have been size; Zalman lists compatibility with "Slim and Low Profile" computers as the first feature. However, it's a little unclear why Zalman needed to produce such a heatsink. At 62mm, it is no shorter than the CNPS7000 — a design that has already proven itself for Zalman and is available for about US$20. The CNPS8000 will need to provide significantly better performance than its predecessor if it is to provide better value for money.

The retail box is large, and displays the heatsink prominently through a clear window.

The window is part of this plastic sheath that protects the heatsink during transit.

As with all of Zalman's recent heatsinks, the CNPS8000 ships with a Fanmate2 fan controller that allows the fan voltage to be set between 5~11V. The fan controller is one of Zalman's biggest claims to fame, and is one of the reasons why Zalman has acquired a reputation for selling quiet equipment. That aside, there's nothing too unusual in the package: A manual, a Zalman sticker, some thermal interface material, mounting clips, and the heatsink itself.

The included Fanmate2 makes slowing down the stock fan simple.

Several strengths and weaknesses can be gleaned just by reading the specifications. The CNPS8000 is quite small and light. We are sceptical about the performance figures as even the best heatsinks struggle to break 0.20 °C/W. We have never tested a heatsink that reached 0.13 °C/W. Adding to the confusion is the way that Zalman states the performance figures. According to their spec sheet, we are supposed to believe that the heatsink performs better in Silent Mode. We have assumed that this is an error, and have reversed the figures to restore some plausibility to the figures.