Zalman CNPS7000 series on FM1 APU

Just thought I'd share some information on mounting one of the vintage Zalman CNPS7000 series CPU cooler onto a newer AMD APU, specifically FM1. First off, these CPU coolers are a significant upgrade to stock cooling capacity and very quiet.

I had one of these sitting around from an old socket 939 build. I have an HTPC that is running an A8-3870K and needs to be as quiet as possible.

Stock HSF: (no overclock) ~27*C idle, ~70*C loaded
Zalman HSF: (no overclock) ~9*C idle, ~50*C loaded
Zalman HSF: (OC to 3.2 GHz) ~9*C idle, ~65*C loaded

If you have one of these obsolete Zalman units from an older socket buildup, it may be mountable onto an FM1 APU. The procedure involves the following steps:

1. Remove retainer clip from stock FM1 HSF.
2. Cut/remove plastic cam from stock retainer clip.
3. Replace Zalman retainer clip with modified stock FM1 retainer clip.
4. Apply fresh thermal paste.
5. Snap Zalman into place.
6. Since older Zalman unit is not PWM, either use Fanmate controller for manual cooling speed or use motherboard's voltage controller if available.

Pretty happy with not having to shell out for another HSF and it's pretty quiet!

Why did you have to mod the HSF to use it on FM1? IIRC, AMD hasn't changed his heatsink design since 754.

Maybe because it's one of the APU's. different board layout?

i used normal amd mounting clips on my apu at work 3.1ghz on a coolermaster hyper tx3 yielded pretty similar idle results but load max temp was 45c though im sure at full load this cooler is alot louder.

good results

I had read that the HSF hadn't changed since 754/939 as well, but while the physical dimensions of the heatsink itself may not have changed, the mounting brackets and number of through-holes in the mobo definitely have. Socket 939 mobos had 2 holes and a backplate. The FM1 mobos have 4 holes. The mounting tabs on the stock FM1 HSF brackets are in the correct location to use a 939 HSF, but the brackets won't interchange.