my little review on Zalman S9500 AM2

stroke of luck -- got my hands on this babe, Zalman CNPS9500 AM2 (got it @ a bargain price)


beautiful heatsink, it is lighter than it looks (530g)


0.2mm thin fins perfectly arranged


Zalman done a good job with the polishing
(sorry, its full of fingerprints)

 

clean the heatsink 'butt' with *Arctic Clean 1


and then *Arctic Clean 2

*if u haf no idea wad dis thing does:
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm



nice mirror finish


time to say goodbye to mr.stock-hsf


clean the heatspreader with AC 1&2...


physically & chemically clean


applied half-grain-of-rice of [highlight]Arctic Silver 5[/highlight],

[highlight]for those who doesnt know:
http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm[/highlight]


well, its suggested to apply AS5 when the cpu is still warm
nvm...


warm-up exercise for the beauty

 

took a lot of strength to push the clip down,
i can almost hear the cpu getting squashed


not enough clearance for the over-sized hsf..


ended up onli clipping the Ramflow-cooler on 2 1/2 outta 4 tabs

 

System Setup:

cpu: A64 3500+(Newcastle) 2.2Ghz L2-512Kb<-- but not a fan of Newcastle United
mobo: Abit Fatal1ty AN8 nF4-Ultra <-- new mobo got back from RMA ytd
ram: TwinMos DDR400 2x512kit CL2.5 <-- valueram
gfx: XFX 6800GS-XT 256Mb DDR3 256-bit <-- doesnt affect test result either
psu: HEC Ace380UB (Truepower) dual+12V, SLI-ready <-- stable & quiet

*the rest of the components doesnt affect result*

 

System Settings:

variable; test value; (default value)

HTT: 235Mhz (200Mhz)
Multiplier: 11.0x
Clock: 235*11 = 2585Mhz (2200Mhz)

Vcc: 1.5500V (1.5000V)
VcpuRef: +0mV

DDRV: 2.75V (2.60V)
DDRVTT: 1.35V (1.30V)
VddrRef: +0mV

V-NF4: 1.70 (1.50V)
V-HT: 1.30V (1.20V)
HTTLink: 3x (5x)

 

Test Methodology:

• 
  [*]Air-con @ 25C (auto fan speed)
  [*]Ambient temperature: 26C +-1.0
  [*]both stock & AM2 used AS5
  [*]ram was running clock/22 for stability reason (valueram not for o/c)
  [*]the highest stable HTT(235Mhz) without getting prime95 error was used
  [*]all onboard fans were set to max cooling/airflow possible: 12V@26C; 11.5V@25C
  [*]prime95 starts 10min aft a cold-startup
  [*]prime95 Torture test --> Blend
  [*]screenshot taken aft prime95-ing for 4hrs5min +-5min
  

 

Stock:



S9500 AM2:

 

Result:



No need much explanation,
an amazing 14C drop on the average load temp!!!

design: perfect
features: very good
performance: excellent
price: expensive (retailing in Singapore @ SGD131; RM304; USD80; €uro65)

overall i rate a 9 /10

 

well, i cant create a thread in review & articles sub-forum,
it's locked =(

 

Good work
Amazing that you actually managed to get the Abit software to show a difference in temps
They must really be putting a bit of effort into proper calibration now

I really like the design of this cooler, very unique. By itself it looks like they've changed the image to black and white...and when installed in the right system it looks beautiful

 

nice!

 

Really nice.... ^^

 

ya, the design is excellent..
especially the chroming of the whole thing..

it should be displayed in the art gallery!!!

wad's wrong with Abit's software...?

 

thx thx =)

 

thx man...!

 

When I was using an Abit AN8 Ultra, the temp reporting was completely ****ed...chipset idle temp can be around ambient temp with passive cooling, change CPU cooler from XP-90 to Scythe Ninja and no change in reported temp. Damn frustrating

 

wah, suddenly reputation jump from ZERO --> 18,
=D =D =D

 

isit? guess its a software bug den..
my uGuru OC haf problem saving the settings,
gotta reset everything everytime i startup the com,

troublesome !!!