zalman 7000cu vs slk900

I've got this from silentpcreview.com and finally one foreign site reviewed both coolers, zalman 7000cu and slk900 with papst fan. Dont know how to read this, but looks like zalman is the winner at low noise level(more reveals the heatsink efficiency). 6C lower than SLK counterpart at load, 5V. Even at full 12V, it perfoms pretty much as good as 900(actually 1C better, but I would think that is within measurement errro). I could not read the whole review due to its foreign language.

http://www.silenthardware.de/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=38

See I knew this cooler was good. It really reduced 5~7C(conservatively speaking) from my aeroflow setup at about half(perceptional) noise level.

Why am I being a Zalman fanboy now???

I seen to have been turned into a Zalman fanboy myself, thier HS's are the bomb diggity and QUIET!

Interesting link, thanks kslim. I emailed Ed at the overclockers.com site about why they didn't review Zalmans but he never got back to me. They did review a couple almost 2 years ago, but those were the first HSFs Zalman ever made.

When I asked in the forums here, the mod didn't really have much of an answer and I had to listen to how much they "suck" from someone who never even used one. I was told that they couldn't compete with a "real" heatsink like an SLK-900 or a Vantec Aeroflow.

For something with the amount of copper the 7000Cu has, i'd be shocked if it didn't outperform the SLK-900 with a Tornado

Mark Larson said:

For something with the amount of copper the 7000Cu has, i'd be shocked if it didn't outperform the SLK-900 with a Tornado

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Good point. Isnt that all about heatsink?? Plus it comes to be ~15.00 USD cheaper than slk. It comes with a nice 92mm fan and a fanmate. These accessories are nice quality, Zalman quality. You should look at the lapping work they done to their heatsink(these are kind of details they dont forget about and cost extra money to the manufcaturing, I believe)

Point is I think it is wrong perception that people think Zalman is only about noise control. Yes it is indeed, but more importantly, it is an excellent heatsink. Perhaps on par with so called king of air cooler, if not better.

In the end, you cannot really decouple the noise and performance in evaluating heatsinks, because they are usually inverse relations. But who has the "better" coeffiecient to that inverse relationship is important, and that is where the superior design of heatsink outstands.

For instance, not only CFM and C/W matters, but how much noise a given CFM creates is what these "high end" air cooler desinger should consider. Thismay be actually harder than just coming up with merely low C/W. I think customer who pays nearly a price of low end processor for a heatsink deserves at least this much quality from the heatsink.

kslim said:

Good point. Isnt that all about heatsink?? Plus it comes to be ~15.00 USD cheaper than slk. It comes with a nice 92mm fan and a fanmate. These accessories are nice quality, Zalman quality. You should look at the lapping work they done to their heatsink(these are kind of details they dont forget about and cost extra money to the manufcaturing, I believe)

Point is I think it is wrong perception that people think Zalman is only about noise control. Yes it is indeed, but more importantly, it is an excellent heatsink. Perhaps on par with so called king of air cooler, if not better.

In the end, you cannot really decouple the noise and performance in evaluating heatsinks, because they are usually inverse relations. But who has the "better" coeffiecient to that inverse relationship is important, and that is where the superior design of heatsink outstands.

For instance, not only CFM and C/W matters, but how much noise a given CFM creates is what these "high end" air cooler desinger should consider. Thismay be actually harder than just coming up with merely low C/W. I think customer who pays nearly a price of low end processor for a heatsink deserves at least this much quality from the heatsink.

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WELL SAID MATE! Cheers

I want heatsinks to be evaluated like waterblocks - with different CFM fans and with curves mapped out on a graph. None of this "i put this on my experimental 3.06Ghz at 4.44Ghz and my temps dropped 10°C!!!"

I understand there are heatsinks that come with fans attached, but people do change out the fans and its better to see what the curve looks like before buying something.

I take it this doesn't fit an AMD XP chip?

epauls said:

I take it this doesn't fit an AMD XP chip?

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Nope.

Cruel isnt it?

chasingapple said:

Cruel isnt it?

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Yep.

It'll fit on the Hammer, nipples and all.

I take it it'll work on an Opteron too? Does Opteron have a heatspreader? It does, right?

I can understand why Zalman has not made it work with the Athy XP though, the weight of it would cruch the core easily. P4's have the IHS and the Hammer will as well, they can take more load then a bare chip can. I honestly think the air cooling solutions have come to a close for the XP line of chips, the only way to make them better is so increase the size of the HS (getting pretty heavy as it is) or incorporating larger fans onto them, I wouldnt be suprised to see more 92 or 120mm HS's come out for the Athy's this year. Im sure Zalman will come up with something kick ***, they always do, but it will have to be a duct type design or something different then a big hunk of copper resting on it.

We need "smarter" cooling/thermal solution rather then weighted copper, case in point look at my avatar, this thing sucks air off of the HS and blows it out the back exhaust fan, has a C/W of 0.27 @ full speed, is dead near silent, and isnt a huge piece of copper (the actual HS is pretty small) but it performs 1-2c better then a Vantec Aeroflow in my case, that is smart cooling. Tonight I shall improve upon its cooling with a new case and cooling solution!

CChaos said:

Interesting link, thanks kslim. I emailed Ed at the overclockers.com site about why they didn't review Zalmans but he never got back to me. They did review a couple almost 2 years ago, but those were the first HSFs Zalman ever made.

When I asked in the forums here, the mod didn't really have much of an answer and I had to listen to how much they "suck" from someone who never even used one. I was told that they couldn't compete with a "real" heatsink like an SLK-900 or a Vantec Aeroflow.

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Not exactly accurate. You asked why Zalman's in general are not reviewed, not the 7000cu itself. The 7000cu is an entirely new concept from Zalman, a heatsink that doesn't suck. The rest of the Zalman's are indeed a clear cut below the standards set by many commonly encountered heatsinks. When you release product after product that is more gimmick than a high performance device, it sours the community from considering your latest one.

And I have indeed used a 6500B-cu Zalman, a disappointing device entirely. No quieter than a retail Intel heatsink, and no better temps. Hardly a high performance heatsink, and although a saleable gimmick, my opinion is indeed that it sucks and is typical of Zalmans prior to the 7000.

What you said was you read a test that claimed the 7000cu was a markedly better performer than the Swiftech. I said, and maintain, that I would seriously doubt the testing procedure that declares this to be the case. I did not say the 7000cu was not capable of performing in the same league as a SLK-900, only that It would not outperform a Swiftech by a substantial margin.

My advice to you then, as it is now, is to send Ed a 7000cu if you so strongly wish to see it reviewed. You are still free to do so. I'm sure Ed would be happy to add it to the ranks of tested heatsinks. If the 7000cu is the best thing since sliced bread, so be it, but the relative disinterest in the Zalman heatsink products exists for good reason. If the Zalman is the equal of the best, and if Zalman continues to release products that perform at this level, they will be held in higher esteem based on the (new-found) value they represent.

As far as I am concerned the reliance on a specialized fan is the weakness of the 7000cu design. The Swiftech MCX4000 and the Alpha 8942 can match performance of the design while allowing for ease of replacement and enormous selection of the standard 80 and 92mm fans they accommodate.

larva said:

Not exactly accurate. You asked why Zalman's in general are not reviewed, not the 7000cu itself. The 7000cu is an entirely new concept from Zalman, a heatsink that doesn't suck. The rest of the Zalman's are indeed a clear cut below the standards set by many commonly encountered heatsinks. When you release product after product that is more gimmick than a high performance device, it sours the community from considering your latest one.

And I have indeed used a 6500B-cu Zalman, a disappointing device entirely. No quieter than a retail Intel heatsink, and no better temps. Hardly a high performance heatsink, and although a saleable gimmick, my opinion is indeed that it sucks and is typical of Zalmans prior to the 7000.

What you said was you read a test that claimed the 7000cu was a markedly better performer than the Swiftech. I said, and maintain, that I would seriously doubt the testing procedure that declares this to be the case. I did not say the 7000cu was not capable of performing in the same league as a SLK-900, only that It would not outperform a Swiftech by a substantial margin.

My advice to you then, as it is now, is to send Ed a 7000cu if you so strongly wish to see it reviewed. You are still free to do so. I'm sure Ed would be happy to add it to the ranks of tested heatsinks. If the 7000cu is the best thing since sliced bread, so be it, but the relative disinterest in the Zalman heatsink products exists for good reason. If the Zalman is the equal of the best, and if Zalman continues to release products that perform at this level, they will be held in higher esteem based on the (new-found) value they represent.

As far as I am concerned the reliance on a specialized fan is the weakness of the 7000cu design. The Swiftech MCX4000 and the Alpha 8942 can match performance of the design while allowing for ease of replacement and enormous selection of the standard 80 and 92mm fans they accommodate.

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I agree with a few of your points, but I think you have been mislead in what Zalman HS's have been about. When they first started thier HS's window mods and case mods were just getting popular, so Zalman came out with a HS that was not only aesthically pleasing to look at, but ran near silent and out performed the "STOCK" HS. In no way were they trying to go up against Swiftech or Alpha's or SLK type HS's. Over the years Zalman has tried all different methods of cooling and they have created some of the nicest looking and great performing HS's . Now they are taking alot of the R&D and trial and error they have collected and gone back to the drawing board (they probably looked at a golden orb and said "hmm, thats a neat idea". and came up with not only a very kick butt looking HS, but a damn good performer to boot that "IS" meant to go up against the big boys.

If you ask me it is a marketing brilliance, create off the wall HS's that are cool and very usable, get your name known, try different methods of cooling and keep people asking "whats next" and then drop the bombshell HS on the market that plain kicks bootay.

P.S. I know I sound like a Zalman fanboy (no I dont work for them or sell them, hehe) but I have been a fan of them since thier first products, I have been fascinated with thier designs and applaud them for thier unique additions to the cooling community.

Cheers

I can't read the article but here's my opinion. I find it hard to believe that an slk900 with a 60cfm fan on it on a cpu that only puts on 60 watts of heat is getting 51*C temps. Their case ventilation is garbage (1 80mm fan 5volted) so that might have something to do with it. But whatever it is I wouldn't put too much stock in the review. I want to see overclockers.com get their hands on one.

Well, Zalman was also tested under pretty much same vented environment. As far as vent issue goes, I dont see how a particular cooler works better than the other in a well vented system. To the first order, their performance should be linearly increasing with increasing quality of vent at the same rate.

Another point is if a cooler needs a specfic quality of ventilation, that is not a good cooler, because you would have to pay for extra ventilation too!!! I want a good cooler that works good in a lousy environment, such that I have some rooms to improve the performance, if I want to. Not I have to.

Plus the power dissipation issue, again they were tested/compared on exactly same system, if reviewers know what they are doing. So why would Slk particulary suck cooling only 60w of dissipation. If a so called "king of the air cooler" sucks in cooling 60watts of heat, how can I trust it when cooling 100w.

Like I keep saying it, when you "compare/evaluate" the cooler, you'd only have to see the cooling performance, noise it generate, and the total cost, of course. How well your system is ventilated is an added bonus but not a necessary condition to evaluate the cooler.

Also, yes the fixed fan design could be a con of this cooler, but remember this comes "free". So if you want a better fan for any reason, which I'd doubt I'd even bother, you can always simple mod 92mm fan and change it. Or a bracket can be used to mount the fan of your interest(120mms if you wish), leaving the built in fan off. Not a problem. The biggest problem of this cooler, I see, is not being able to use with Athlon.

No offense larva, but I'm allowed to be interested in products now matter what your opinion is of them.

Yes I asked why Zalmans weren't reviewed. That's what I said in this thread so please don't call me a liar. If you insist on doing so I'll have to point out the "markedly better" bull**** you made up. I said it performed slightly better and that I would like to see an overclockers.com review to see it tested further or to substantiate those claims.

Let me say this one more time for all of those who missed it. They reviewed the Romanian Z-bra heatsink on this site in late January. It's an "OK" cooler at 6800rpm that no one's ever heard of and you can't buy anywhere, but they haven't touched a Zalman in over a year and a half.

larva said:

And I have indeed used a 6500B-cu Zalman, a disappointing device entirely. No quieter than a retail Intel heatsink, and no better temps.

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I had it too, better temperatures i'm not sure, but it is far quieter than a retail intel heatsink if you put the fan between 1500-2200rpm.
I also want to see a review of the Zalman 7000cu, don't let their past products which in your opinion where not good enough get in the way of reviewing a new heatsink "which doesn't suck"

My point was that the numbers sound made up to me. Or at the very least, little attention was paid to getting accurate numbers.