Bigger Really Can Be Better!

The "bigger is better" concept finds many opponents looking to prove particular circumstances where that assumption doesn’t fit. But when it comes to CPU cooling, bigger really is better as long as the cooler fits the motherboard and case! The reason is obvious: Bigger fans move more air at lower fan speeds, while bigger sinks offer larger surface area, in effect making the fan even more efficient at removing heat.

Often praised for its quality and innovation, Zalman takes the "bigger is better" concept to heart with its CNPS9700 LED, a scaled up version of the popular CNPS9500 LED. A photograph compares the two Zalman designs to an Intel boxed cooler.

The perpendicular design allows the CNPS9700 LED, like its older sibling, to consume a similar amount of board space as the stock cooler, depending on the height of surrounding components. Look for a motherboard compatibility list on Zalman’s product page to appear by its late-October release.

Major reasons to use a larger cooler include overclocking and/or noise reduction. We chose overclocking to gauge temperatures, rather than trying to operate the system at its quietest potential noise level. Since we were already in the middle of testing for an overclocking article, it was easy to grab a few temperatures in BIOS before proceeding with that article.