The 9900Max is better than the CNPS10X Performa and is Slightly better than the Noctua NH-D14. But yes, overpricets @ $80. Newegg had the -b on sale for $65 - bought it - not installed yet.
I5-750 @ 3.3. 9900max - 46 C vs 48 C for the D-14.
Have the 9700 Installed on My I7-750 @3.2 GHz (Stable up to 3.8). Have no problems with it Load Temps (Prime 95) Winter time Upper 50's, Summer time - Lower 60's
Ref:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/zalman-cnps-9900-max-review/7
Also from Link - final words.
Performance overall is very comparable to the performance of Noctua's NH-D14 coolers. That cooler of course is completely silent though. The CNPS 9900 MAX also has a lot of additional capacity, we like that very much. The result as such is that the cooler becomes even more impressive when you start to overclock. In combo with this fan we overclocked our poor little 2.67 GHz processor to 4.2 GHz @ 1.5 volts. At that 1.5 GHz overclock we started to stress all processor cores 100% once again and we did not even reach 65 Degrees C, that is impressive stuff to witness.