Holiday Buyer's Guide 2006, Part 3: Components & Peripherals

Zalman ZM600-HP: Low Noise, High Efficiency

The ZM600-HP is a new, modular power supply product by Zalman, known for its excellent cooling products. 600 watts should be sufficient to run any high-end processor as well as a dual graphics setup by ATI (Crossfire) or Nvidia (SLI). In fact, this product comes with SLI certification.

Since Zalman's main area of expertise is cooling, it is not a surprise to see sophisticated cooling techniques inside the PSU. There is a copper heat pipe to conduct heat away from the rectifiers, and a large aluminum heat sink is then cooled by the big 120 mm fan, which does not require high rotation speeds to provide decent air flow. As a result, the noise levels of this product are amazingly low, especially when it's running under low or medium load, which causes the fan to stop turning. The circuitry is rated at 84% efficiency, which is a great figure.