ZALMAN CNPS8900 Extreme 110mm Ultra Quiet Slim CPU Cooler

Pros: Quiet with efficient cooling. Low profile.

Cons: Very challenging install, as the one-size-fits-all backing plate is too heavy for the two-sided tape to hold reliably. (Separate plates for AMD and Intel should be used instead, and would make the install much more pleasant.) The backing plate interferes with stiffening ribs stamped into some case bottoms, like the Antec Minuet. The heatpipes interfere with AMD memory DIMMs.

Other Thoughts: After briefly packing this away, I reconsidered and tried a second and third time. I had originally attempted to install this on an ASRock AM3, but the heatpipes contacted the memory. I then attempted to fit it to an Asus P5G41T-M LX Plus, but the board was installed in an Antec Minuet with stiffening rips stamped into the case bottom, and the backing plate interfered. Finally, I had success with an older MSI AM3 in a Cooler Master Elite case; although one of the DIMM slots was blocked by the heatpipes, this board has four memory slots, and I was still able to get in 16gb. (The intended use is as a NAS server.) Once installed, the fan proved to be very quiet and the CPU kept very cool versus the stock fan, and this will be a happy arrangement.

I'm knocking off two eggs for all these problems, considering that the fan is billed as low profile and use of separate AMD and Intel backing plates would have spared the trouble.

Pros: Solid copper and four-pin fan.

Cons: Install requires removing the motherboard and the base glues to the bottom of the motherboard. The base plate will not hold to the bottom of an AMD motherboard, requiring the cooler to be installed with the motherboard out of the case. The heatpipes interfere with memory if the memory slots are too close.

Other Thoughts: I finally managed to install it, only to find that the inboard memory DIMM bumped into a heatpipe. (Motherboard is a 960GM/U3S3 FX.)

I only wish the Cooler Master Vortex were a quarter of an inch lower. It's tough finding a good low profile cooling solution for AMD.

Pros: This heatsink/fan will easily out perform the stock AMD set this is replacing.
It is a great option as a low profile cooler.

Looks awesome.

Cons: May interfere with RAM.

Other Thoughts: This fan went into a Thermaltake A30 microATX case. I had to move the RAM into the 2nd and 4th slots for the cooler to clear the sticks. It wasn't as much an issue of height, but of the copper pipes reaching to far over. Without heat spreaders, the RAM modules may have fit, but I wouldn't risk it.

Pros: Cools well. Solid copper. Keeps your motherboard voltage regulators cool. PWM.

Cons: PWM causes it to spin up quickly any time the CPU is under load and it spins up and down very fast. It does so so often and so loudly that it is really annoying. A constant high speed-fan noise would be much less annoying than the constant spinning up and down with the CPU usage peaks.

Other Thoughts: My HTPC is a full-sized ATX case with a horizontal long-axis orientation sporting a Core i3-2130 and it didn't have the best air flow. The spinning up to high RPMs would be less frequent or necessary in a cooler case.

Pros: Low Profile < 60 mm ( If you don't know metrics learn it or use google to convert)
Excellant coller rating compared to other low profile heatsinks, slightly louder then stock heatsink But cools a whole 16-22 degrees cooler from my research on the web ( dependes on CPU and case air flow of course )
Made of Copper base, when computer dies sell for scrape metal to make US pennies ( copper is coming up in price ) Soon you will see road side banners we BUY copper instead of We Buy Gold
ITX boards it Fits ASUS P8H77 ITX Asrock Z77 ITX Board....please read cons below

Cons: May not clear all components on board Good Luck researching this one on manufactures website and Motherboard Manufactures website.
Despite fitting above boards it may interfere with PCIe slot for GPU card. Also will not clear HIGH ram heatsinks Mine are 1/8 an inch over ram and still clear heatsink by another 1/8 inch.

Other Thoughts: Great heatsink only other option I would consider is small water cooling setup but my mini server case had NO room to spare for this setup

Pros: Probably cools well

Cons: Didn't clear my RAM (medium sized heat spreaders). The nickel coating started to flake off just from me handling it while trying to figure out fitment. I don't want flakes of metal floating around my case shorting things out, so I'm not planning to use it.

Other Thoughts: I've been impressed with Zalman in the past, but the other products I've owned have been 100% copper. I've learned my lesson about buying plated products now, and will only buy pure metal heatsinks.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear valued customer,

We sincerely apologize for the issue. Please contact our customer service e-mail support.usa@zalmanusa.com or via toll free number 1-888-925-6266 for further assistance.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Zalman USA Customer Service

Pros: low profile - I searched high and low and couldn't find any better quality low profile cooler that would fit my mini-ITX build, let me know if you do
excellent build quality - this is the real deal, pure copper, direct contact and smooth fan. I had a chance to compare with previous Zalman fans and the fins are more sturdy on this one

Cons: adequate but not exceptional cooling - at normal use it is in the middle of the safe temp gauge (redline not far). I'm hesitant to heavily overclock because I don't think it'll handle it
no LED's = no fun
quiet but not silent

Other Thoughts: It obstructed my taller RAM sticks but provides additional cooling for the shorter ones I replaced them with

Pros: Decent scrap value due to copper content.

Cons: I was initially impressed at how quiet this cooler was. But then, 80% through a centos install, the system hung up. After that I could make it through BIOS but couldn't install an OS. After a few failures I was looking at the motherboard and noticed the cpu fan wasn't spinning, so I pushed it around with my finger and it spun up. That thing was LOUD when it finally ran. Anyway, the installs kept hanging at the point where a temp filesystem is made in RAM, so I ran memtest86+ and within a few minutes had thousands of errors.

After that, I put the stock cooler on the CPU, went to a local branch of the worst chain tech store because it was the weekend and my last resort, and picked up some RAM. Thankfully, everything worked. Plus, the stock AMD cooler is half as loud as the Zalman.

I just hope I don't have to return the backplane with the Zalman cooler, because it is still on the bottom of my motherboard and I'm pretty sick of puting this machine together.

Pros: Dropped cpu and case temps 8 degrees

Cons: Harder to put in than the normal AMD clips.

Other Thoughts: This fan is perfect for my Silverstone ML02 HTPC case. It sits on an AMD Athlon II 645 4 core processor and an ASUS M5A88-M board. 8 MB Patriot Viper memory (high heat sinks so the two sticks are in the second bank). I thought I had a good sink and fan before but they were giving me a CPU temp of 55 and MB of 51 per PC Probe while running Boinc tasks at 75% cpu time. Temps as I type are 45 and 42 with no other changes than the fan changeout.

Pros: It fits when nothing else will. It cools well for its small size. quiet when running slow.

Cons: Size limits cooling ability. It could be cheaper.

Other Thoughts: This cooler is only a bit bigger than a 1055 stock heatsink. When running slow, it is very quiet, and it keeps my i5 5-10 deg. cooler than the stock heatsink did. It is loud if it spins up to full, but if I have to dump that much heat, i would rather have the noise than a crash.