Zalman9700

[Steve_75]

I would like to reuse my Zalman9700
on my new i7920 did order a new adapter for the new 1366 socket do you think will be ok ? or just get a new cooler.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

Get a new cooler, the Zalman is a pretty bad heatsink for the price and i7 runs extremely hot.

Edit: My post still stands true, but I am now more specific to stop all the unlucky owners of the Zalman from crying.

 

[werxen]

Get a new cooler, the Zalman is a pretty bad heatsink and i7 runs extremely hot.

wtf is wrong with you? zalman makes some of the best heatsinks. stop posting.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Get a new cooler, the Zalman is a pretty bad heatsink and i7 runs extremely hot.

Actually the Zalman 9700 is pretty close to the Thermalright Ultra 120 in performance and I have one on my Q6600 and it never reaches above 55c even when its 100f+ here in the desert and I never have the AC on.

But for the OP, check Zalmans website to see if they have a adaptor for the 9700 to put it on a LGA1366. If not I know that the new 9900 which performs quite well is made for the LGA1366.

 

[dragonsprayer]

over priced junk!

fan is very ineffecient air shoots out all over instead of steady strait though
poor design - heat pipes like right angels and strait and hortontal runs - circles look nice

get a xig and use a lot of paste! seal around fan

better yet push pull

i can run 4.3ghz with an i7 with a dual fan set up - true or xig - xig is half the weight

the zalman is over rated - to to an and go to x bit go THG READ THE REVIEWS!

 

[werxen]

^ lol... yeah hitting 4.5 gighz on air and staying under 60 is overrated right? damn noob xig fanboys.

 

[delluser1]

I must have had a bad CNPS9500, 61c on a 4.2 overclock.
Love seeing only 51c with my XIG 1284, must be a fanboy.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

All the reviews I have seen have shown the Zalman 9700 as being quite an average cooler, while costing ungodly amounts of money. While it is not a bad cooler, it is overpriced and it really can't cut it for i7 since you need extreme air cooling for it, not average. The Xigmateks I posted both outperform the 9700 and are not too much more expensive than the adapter.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

^ lol... yeah hitting 4.5 gighz on air and staying under 60 is overrated right? damn noob xig fanboys.

You don't understand bro, the Zalman was a high hitter for dualcores, but the design is bad for quadcores. That is why you get some decent cooling and others get only average. My E8600 never went above 65c at 4.8 Ghz and could go on to 5.0 Ghz but 70c was a bit much for me.

 

[someguy7]

The OP already has the zalman. He said he wants to re-use it.

You do not need extreme cooling for the i7.

If a cooler was a huge success on dual cores than it can cool quads just fine.

 

[werxen]

I must have had a bad CNPS9500, 61c on a 4.2 overclock.
Love seeing only 51c with my XIG 1284, must be a fanboy.

4.2 @ 6.1 = bad overclock or not enough thermal paste. im at 4.5 right now stays ~ 56 with max FPU on prime95 for 3 hours.

 

[IzzyCraft]

To get it straight Zalaman is a good cooler worth 50 70 bucks meeh only if single or dual cpu and you want your cpu cooler to look pretty. Also doesn't count if you re-lap your cpu and cooler and says it does better anyone can do that.

 

[delluser1]

4.2 @ 6.1 = bad overclock or not enough thermal paste. im at 4.5 right now stays ~ 56 with max FPU on prime95 for 3 hours.

8 hours of Prime said the OC was was fine ( still is ) and gave me the 61c temp reading, reseated the Zalman on 6 different occasions attempting to lower the temps, just didn't help.
The fact that the Xig lowered the temp ( substantially* ) on the first install and cost me less than the Zalman makes it my new favorite.
*Only hits 63c running IBT now.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

Werxen seems to be doing the whole "I have it therefor you should too." stuff again... I've owned both the 9500 and 9700 coolers. They look pretty and customers like pretty, which is one of the reasons I stopped showing them catalogs. The fact is that it is a DECENT cooler, but for the price it is awful. The 9500 performed about the same as an AC 7 Pro, which is a decent cooler but costs half that of the Zalman. The 9700 is a little bit worse than a Xigmatek HDT-s963, which again is a great cooler for less than half the money.

The cheapest price for the bracket is $5 off newegg plus $8 for shipping. For $13 he can stick with the same, or for $40 he can get better cooling which is needed to do any real overclocking with i7, believe me. Air-cooling barely cuts it for i7 once you get past 3.6 Ghz. Zalman CPU coolers are a bit above average in terms of performance, but are terrible for the price. Zalman GPU coolers, however, are quite nice, the only real contender for Arctic Cooling.

 

[dragonsprayer]

i7 really needs good cooling - the 9700 is beastly

the xig is much liter then the true double fan completes it!

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

i7 really needs good cooling - the 9700 is beastly

Knowing you I'm going to have to ask... is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?

 

[jimmysmitty]

I must have had a bad CNPS9500, 61c on a 4.2 overclock.
Love seeing only 51c with my XIG 1284, must be a fanboy.

Well not really. You have a 9500. Its a bit smaller and has a smaller fan that doesn't push as much air through. Thats why yours runs a bit hotter.

And dragon, I have a 9700 and no it does not push air everywhere. It goes straight through the fins and to the two back 80mm fans I have.

As I siad for the OP, check Zalmans site to see if the have a Core i7 socket adapter for the 9700. They should have one but you will need it to actually use it since the brace it has is made for LGA775.

But overall, I love my Zalman. Looks nice and performs pretty damn good for me. Yea I spent a bit more but whatever. It keeps my OCed Q6600 cool and happy and thats for me.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

^ Exactly, it is not a bad cooler. It is overpriced and is not quite on the top, but is enough for many. The PC I built my mother has a 9700 in it because she likes to look inside the window and it is pretty. The thing allows her Q6600 to hit 3.6 Ghz pretty easily. However, I know how it and an Xigmatek HDT-s1283 compare and I know how my Xig was not quite enough for my i7 920 so I had to go WC full time. The 9500 makes no sense to me since the 9700 outperforms it by a good bit and they both cost the same, but that is neither here nor there.

 

[werxen]

Werxen seems to be doing the whole "I have it therefor you should too." stuff again... I've owned both the 9500 and 9700 coolers. They look pretty and customers like pretty, which is one of the reasons I stopped showing them catalogs. The fact is that it is a DECENT cooler, but for the price it is awful. The 9500 performed about the same as an AC 7 Pro, which is a decent cooler but costs half that of the Zalman. The 9700 is a little bit worse than a Xigmatek HDT-s963, which again is a great cooler for less than half the money.

The cheapest price for the bracket is $5 off newegg plus $8 for shipping. For $13 he can stick with the same, or for $40 he can get better cooling which is needed to do any real overclocking with i7, believe me. Air-cooling barely cuts it for i7 once you get past 3.6 Ghz. Zalman CPU coolers are a bit above average in terms of performance, but are terrible for the price. Zalman GPU coolers, however, are quite nice, the only real contender for Arctic Cooling.

lol this whole thread is a joke. didnt toms even do a heatsink comparison not too long ago? sorry the zalman is not 'mediocre' but any means. its one of the top ones. sorry if you guys cannot install it properly.

 

[cadder]

If you read tests of the Z 9700 you find that it performs pretty well. The Xig 1283 performs a little bit better, and allows you to get good performance even with the fan running slower. If nothing else you can run the Z 9700 on high speed. The Xig is a also a little bit cheaper.

I spec'd a computer for my office back in December and got the Z 9700 for it. With the E8500 at 3.8GHz the temps barely move. In the couple of months before I built my home computer I did more research and bought the Xig for it.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2271&page=5

As you can see it is pretty high up there, but is not really the high end. It is right behind the HDT-s963 as I said. The Zalman is a decent cooler but is proven to be only decent. Considering an i7 920 will easily go over 150w when overclocked, the difference is very significant. Remember as Frostytech says, there resaults may only be 1-2c apart on the chart, but under real world conditions you ware looking at 5-15c of a difference. My advice still stands that if the OP plans on overclocking high with his i7 then he needs the best he can get. If he doesn't really plan on a high overclock than getting the bracket for his 9700 will work fine.

 

[delluser1]

Well not really. You have a 9500. Its a bit smaller and has a smaller fan that doesn't push as much air through. Thats why yours runs a bit hotter.

It's the same as werxen's "92mm" Zalman.

 

[werxen]

i got an antec 300 gimmie a break lol these things are monsters.

would a xig even fit in my case?

 

[delluser1]

It might, don't know how wide the 300 is, my case is 200mm wide and there's 14mm clearance with the Xig.

 

[Steve_75]

Well not really. You have a 9500. Its a bit smaller and has a smaller fan that doesn't push as much air through. Thats why yours runs a bit hotter.

And dragon, I have a 9700 and no it does not push air everywhere. It goes straight through the fins and to the two back 80mm fans I have.

As I siad for the OP, check Zalmans site to see if the have a Core i7 socket adapter for the 9700. They should have one but you will need it to actually use it since the brace it has is made for LGA775.

But overall, I love my Zalman. Looks nice and performs pretty damn good for me. Yea I spent a bit more but whatever. It keeps my OCed Q6600 cool and happy and thats for me.

ok i got a adapter for $5 on new egg, and it seems to be a lot better then the stock cooler at 57c on idle . now it runs at 47c at idle at 1500 rms and 72c at 2500 rpm over clocked to 3.6 on prime95 for 30mins . it might not be the best but it saved me from buying a new cooler . thanks for all your ideas and feed back.This thing overclocks so easy and 3.6 is so stable on my Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 and OZC 1600 6gigs 3 sticks . and your right it runs hot .