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Whoever thinks flower heat sink also thinks Zalman. The Korea-based cooling device manufacturer has established a reputation to design and build some of the most extravagant heatsinks money can buy, some of which deserve a place in any Museum of Modern Arts just as they deserve their place in any high performance / low noise environment. Needless to say that the flower heat sinks are not an altruistic contribution for the mere sake of beautifying the tech world, these coolers do have their price.

We have taken the flagship model dubbed CNPS7000-Cu and weighing in a proud 777 grams (including fan) and compared it under different operating conditions to several Intel reference designs, some of which are marketed elsewhere as high-end cooling solutions as well. Even if not all that glitters here is gold, it is at least copper, which in terms of thermal characteristics does not make that much of a difference. Suffice it to say that we also took the entire assembly apart to correct what we think is a minor flaw in the design. The most important question, though, is: How does it perform? You are about to find out.

First Encounter of the CNPS7000-Cu kind
The "TV-Dinner" shipping box contains the actual cooler, some mounting accessories and the "Fan Mate" rheostat.

Design and manufacturing of high-end cooling components has become a specialty niche for a small number of companies, most of which, from the very beginning, tried to offer something better, more efficient and finally more distinctive looking than anything that is found all over the place as run-off-the-mill. At a time where even the definition of techno-look is changing from a rubber and steel pseudo-masculine projection to encompass more baroque looks including the choice of gold and silver materials, one company is standing out from the crowd, courtesy of their exotic designs and naming convention: Korea-based Zalman.

The ground for the reputation of Zalman cooling devices was broken mostly with the Flower HeatSink (FHS) series that, by itself was essentially fanless but featured an auxiliary fan that was mounted separately on the case. Regardless of how well this arrangement may work, especially for the overclocking community, there will be limitations with respect to the usefulness of such a "passive" cooling design, however well it may be received by the silent PC crowd.

Quiet operation and efficient cooling do not necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. Zalman's answer to the latest challenge is what they call computer noise prevention system. Acronyms by themselves are developing into a culture of their own, hence a CNPS paired with a model number describing the weight and material like in 7000-Cu, is a bold alphanumerical description of the overall properties and capabilities of Zalman's latest and greatest cooler. Note, though, that the weight is off by one digit. In any event, this is what Zalman's website says about CNPS:

CNPS (Computer Noise Prevention System) is a system that cuts traditional computer system's noise of 30dB or higher to 20dB or lower, which is below what a normal user can usually notice.

CNPS is achieved with Zalman's world first technologies such as CPU & VGA FHS (Flower HeatSink), which has shorter heat conductance path and surface area that is 3 to 10 times as large as traditional coolers, and NP(Noise Prevention) Fans.

Let's take a look at the specs first and then find out how it works.

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