14 DAY TRIAL // The Zalman CNPS12X is a somewhat older acquaintance of ours since we first laid our eyes on this CPU cooler back in June during the Computex fair, but now the company has finally made available this high-end solution in retail.
The CNPS12X arrived in stock at Newegg just a bit earlier today and is priced a $99.99 (about 72.5 EUR) also including free shipping.
This latest of Zalman's creations resembles a great deal previous solutions built by the company using well known omega-shaped design that was extremely popular before the arrival of tower-type CPU heatsinks.
On a closer inspection however, one notices that the CNPS12X is actually a double-tower type heatsink, with as series of ring-like aluminum fin stacks attached to it to resemble Zalman's old-school coolers.
Six direct contact heatpipes are embedded into the base and draw the heat away from the CPU heatspreader and into the aluminum heatsink.
These provide a total air contact area of 9.6 square meters and are cooled by no less than three 120mm fans based on a Zalman design, making the CNPS12X weight no less than 1kg (2.2 pounds).
In their default operating mode, the fans work at speeds between 850 and 1100 RPM, and produce 22 dBA of noise.
Those who require more performance from the Zalman cooler can put the fans into a special high-speed mode that increases the RPM to speeds between 950 and 1200, but also the noise level to 24 dBA.
Together with these impressive performance specifications, Zalaman has also designed the CNPS12X to feature outstanding compatibility as it supports virtually all the current and upcoming AMD and Intel platforms.
This includes the soon to the launched Intel Sandy Bridge-E processors that will use the LGA 2011 socket.
Outside of the CPU cooler, the retail package also includes a tube of high-performance Zalman ZM-STG2 thermal compound, all the required installation clips, and a metal backplate.
