Zalman CNPS7700-CU LED 120mm Super Flower Cooler

The CNPS7000 series ‘Super Flower’ has been a massive success for Zalman, but with processors becoming hotter and hotter it was only a matter of time before Zalman came up with something even better.

Say hello to the outstanding Zalman CNPS7700-CU LED! The design is very similar to the CNPS7000 series but with one major difference. The CNPS7700 uses a 120mm fan compared to the 92mm fan used with the CNPS7000 series. This provide a greater amount of airflow at lower fan RPM, which means better performance without any extra noise!

Motherboard Cooling

Another benefit of a 120mm fan is that the components around the CPU are also cooled. The image to the right shows the 120mm fan providing cooling to other sensitive areas around the vicinity of the CPU. Important components like the Northbridge chip, RAM, VGA and FET circuitry now receive a share of the airflow. The benefit of this airflow is that the expected life of the components receiving the airflow is increased because their operational temperature is reduced. All of these factors makes the CNPS7700 the best choice CPU cooler for older motherboards.

Compatibility Issues

Due to the large diameter of the CNPS7700 there are a few things to consider before purchase. Zalman state that no motherboard components with a height greater that 39mm as well as the PSU, disk drives, VGA card, and RAM should be present within a 68mm (2.68 inch) radius from the center of the CPU. Please note: your motherboard may need to be removed from the chassis to be able to install the CNPS7700.

The CNPS7700 is incompatible with Athlon XP (socket A, 462) and Pentium 3 (Socket 370).

PLEASE NOTE: Some motherboards have difficulty measuring low fan RPM speeds on coolers such as this one. The problem can sometimes be fixed by updating the motherboard BIOS to the latest version available on the motherboard manufacturer’s website. However, with some motherboards, the problem remains. Regardless, this will not affect performance. In addition, some motherboards will not boot if the CPU fan speed cannot be measured, as a safety feature. After rotating the Fan Mate speed control fully clockwise to enable booting, this feature needs to be disabled in the BIOS setup (set “CPU Fan Detect” or similar to “Disabled”). [imageline]

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