Zalman CNPS14X Pure Aluminum High Performance 140mm Fan Ultra Quiet Interactive Heatpipe Transfer Design CPU Cooler

Pros: This is a long overdue update to my prior review. Can not give more then 3 eggs due to the poor design, but now that I have it mounted and been running for almost a month, I can say it is excellent as far as cooling. Very quiet, almost silent, even with an additional 140mm fan mounted. I moved from liquid cooling with initial intent of this being a temporary CPU cooler while I rebuild my external water cooling system. Seeing the CPU temperature with this cooler on a 3.4Ghz AMD, it is maintaining the same temperature as my former 2.6 AMD liquid cooled CPU. This is impressive for a heat-sink/fan to perform as well as liquid and with no more noticeable noise.

Cons: Still the fact that if the mounting screws where a few threads too short to make this a comfortable install. Such a simple fix that Zalman should have seen before even putting this on the market, or they did see and just neglected to supply more correct mounting screws still will make me think twice before choosing another Zalman product.

Other Thoughts: To put a flawed product on the market that would take very little $$ to correct in exchange for negative image/feedback to me is not worth the $$ saved. Especially since this is such an excellent heat-sink/cooler that preforms above any other heat-sink I have ever used could have "put a feather in Zalman's cap". If it was just a mediocre cooler, then perhaps the tradeoff to save a couple bucks may have been worth it. Bottom line, shame on you Zalman for not recognizing your own superior product and biting the bullet to make it truly superior with such a simple fix right from the start.

Unless you are very experienced and have a LOT of patients, I suggest looking for a different cooler, but if you are willing to deal with the very frustrating and scary install of this, it does an above excellent job and extremely silent operation.

Oh yes, this thing is HUGE. I have one of Silverstone's very large and expensive cases that the motherboard is mounted and slid on a track into the case. This will not clear the opening in the back of the case. for the drawer to slide back in. Had to mount the MB inside the box like a lot of the less expensive cases have you do. Not a big obstacle, but anyone who has one of these SilverStone Temjin Series boxes knows what I'm talking about.

Pros: It looks great when installed. I have an I7-3770k installed on an asrock extreme 4 motherboard. Temps are in the mid 40's when playing BF3 at medium setting locked at 120fps.

Cons: Tough to install, but nothing really insane. I noticed the screws they gave me weren't long enough, so I made some custom modifications of my own, and everything went together well. Don't lost the screw tool they give you, you'll never get it on or off without it. Also, if you are using high performance ram make sure you check clearance BEFORE you install the heatsink.

Other Thoughts: For the price I paid, $30, this is a great product, and works very well.

Pros: Seems to be doing a good job. Significantly quieter than the stock cooler that came off. Cools by a good bit as well, although I'm not overclocking aggressively - cutting noise was my top priority and so far I'm happy.

Cons: Installation was a bit tricky. I (unrealistically) hoped that I could swap out the old heat sink without removing the mobo from my case - you can't. Took some elbow grease to get done, but most of this components are more durable than you'd expect in my experience. For instance, taking out my old heatsink, my cpu refused to come unstuck and pulled up out of the socket while locked in place. No damage done, no pins bent. Cleaned off the old thermal paste and plugged it back in. This unit is large, way bigger than I expected. It just fit in my case, but it does fit and doesn't obstruct anything. I don't have big heatsinks on my RAM - if I did, that might be an issue in the first slot.

Other Thoughts: Seems like a good product, no complaints. I took off the one egg just because of the difficulty of installation, but it's not any worse than any other heatsink I've installed. They're never easy.

Pros: Looks like it might be a decent heatsink if I can actualy get the thing mounted.

Cons: Very poorly thought out mounting. All they would need to do is offer screw a couple mm longer. Need to apply excessive pressure on the motherboard to try and get a couple threads to catch on the mounting bracket. Attempting to mount this could potentially damage your motherboard because of the excessive pressure.

Other Thoughts: I gave this a one star because the oversight of screws being too short to comfortable catch should have been such an obvious "Dah". If this is the typical careless workmanship of Zalman, then I will most definitely cross this name off the list of potential brands I will ever purchase. Gonna give it another try tomorrow and see if I can get thing mounted. I will never purchase another Zalman product, that's for sure...

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: It's huge, looks great, has cool fan in the middle lol. Does a decent job cooling

Cons: The biggest con for me and as others have mentioned is it is poorly designed in the way it attached to your board. No heatsink should take a person with plenty of experience installing heatsinks and other components 2 hours to install. It really is a pain.

Other Thoughts: If I were you I would look elsewhere You can find another cooler that can install much easier in a lot less amount of time. Save yourself a headache and find another cooler. The coolermaster V8 is similar in cost and cooling but is a hell of a lot easier to install.

Pros: Yuk - Do not open - return for credit immediately.

Cons: Can not be installed on a 1155 Z77 socket. The brackets do not come close enough to the board. In addition it is literally impossible to reach the screw heads and tighten the screrws with the CPU Cooler in place over the socket.

They should check out the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Series which allows a long, thin, screwdriver to go down between the blades at the four corners of the fins so that a noirmal person is able to install it without having a nervous break down.

Installing a CPU Cooler should not be a gut wrenching experience leaving a person gasping for breath and cursing the name of the CPU Cooler. Ask me what I really feel and I'll be happy to tell you.

By the way - the instructions - if you have a magnifying glass and can read them are written in a strange tongue and the illustrations do not represent the actual product nor do they indicate orientation such that a Mechanical Engineer such as myself can use them to any advantage over just quessing what their warped intention was with the hardware provided.

Other Thoughts: Do not buy this product - It is a means to torture the innocent and is probably harmfull to global warming and the health of future generations.

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: Super Silent
Adequate Cooling
Impressive looking

Cons: Intallation on a asrock extreme 6 2011cpu:
Very tight installation, almadt touches first video card
You're in a catch 22 putting this beast on before or after you mount the motherboard. Before = you cant reach the middle mounting screw on mb After = very tough to get the tool under the fan and corners to tighten screws.

Other Thoughts: Overall, This heatsink was very impressive although i didnt feel comfortable with how cramped the area between the cpu and 1st pci slot became. I love a silent sytem and this monster was right up my alley.

Pros: HUGE (i like that)
Cheap
can add 2 extra fans
Zalman always does a good job with heatsinks.

Cons: This thing is super hard to install. It took me a few hours even reading directions. However once you figure out its well worth it.
if you have a full ATX depending on where your ram sits it may overlap 2 ram slots. I have a asus 990 fx mobo and it sits over 2 ram slots. I had to put different ram in that had a small heat spreader to fit all 4 slots. These didn't bother me much not enough to take an egg off with how well it cools.

Other Thoughts: Like I said it is super huge. I have a full tower it sits right infront of the door height wise. it fits 2 140mm fans on each side so that says enough. I bought 2 140mm to put on the side however it does not specify that you need to buy the fans that have the screw slots in a bit more to fit the clips. I bought NZXT 140mm case fans to match my case to add to it and they had the full screw holes and it does not fit. more or less a 135mm or 120mm will fit better. I just added the case fans inside my case no biggie.

keeps my 8 core 4.0ghz vishera at 33c while normal tasking and about 36c while playing left 4 dead 2.. Haven't tried it on bf3 or any others yet.

8 core vishera 4.0ghz
240gb mushkin ssd
1000 rosewill psu
6970 2gb gpu
asus 990 fx mobo
zalman cnps14x
16gb ddr3 1600mhz mushkin 7 cas

Pros: This is a great cooling device. It keeps my AMD FX processor well below the high temps. It runs idle at 18 C and hot around 42-25 C. It is a great unit and fit right in my Mid-Tower. I am running it with a set of Xigmatek fans and it is perfect for my needs.

Cons: Little tricky to install. But worth the effort to do so.

Pros: Great cooling power. CPU stock cooler was allowing 60 C running at maximum power and 40 C at idle. With the Zalman CNPS14X I am averaging 18-20 C Idle and 45-52 C Running. Little tricky to install but worth it all in the end. Use it with two additional Xigmatek fans.

Cons: Little bulky. Minor inconvenience to install but worth the effort.