Zalman CPU cooler so noisey??

J0hnb0y · 22 Sep 2010 at 17:12

Hiya,

I have this cooler on a Phenom2 955, Zalman CNPS9900-LED and it makes a hell of a noise! Anyone know how to turn the fan speed down? was under the impression it adjusted fan speed according to CPU temps but they are pretty low as it is, because the fan seems to be stuck on max rpm! Tried Speedfan, tweaked all the fans but it doesnt come down, in noise or RPM!!

Cheers

J

Tealc · 22 Sep 2010 at 17:18

Somre review or other said:
With its 92mm fan spinning at 2000RPM, the Zalman CNPS9900 LED heatsink produces about 57.5 dBA noise. On PWM compliant Intel/AMD motherboards the BIOS will automatically scale down fan speed to as low as 1000RPM depending on the current thermal loads... so on average it's likely to run much quieter. At the reduced speed of 1000RPM, the CNPS9900 LED produces a very quiet 39.3 dBA noise.

I can't believe that Zalman call this a quiet solution at 57.5 dBA at full pelt and 39.3 dBA at 1000rpm...anyway...

You need to make sure that your motherboard is set to control the fan by PWM or if failing that then by voltage and an alternate software control eg Speedfan.

You could also use a Zalman fanmate (do they still ship these with Zalman coolers?) to adjust the speed down to a happy level of cooling/noise.

J0hnb0y · 22 Sep 2010 at 17:33

Thanks for the reply, I'm afraid I haven't got a clue what PWN is :S I had a look in the bios but didnt see anything relating to fan speeds or the like!

Will check out the fanmate if I can't find any other way!

J

pastymuncher · 22 Sep 2010 at 18:20

I had a 9700 and even on a fan controller it would'nt go below 1500rpm. It was easily the loudest thing in my case. Replaced it with a CNPS 10X Flex and a Arctic Cooling F12 fan and now i can't hear it at all.

Tealc · 22 Sep 2010 at 18:32

PWM is pulse width modulation, a fan speed reduction technology that slows a fan down by pulsing 12v to it in an on and off manner.

The Zalman fan you have is a 92mm PWM fan (it has a 4 way connector). A standard fanmate is a 3 way connector so it may not fit without some modification. The Zalman PWM fanmate is £10 so not worth bothering with.

What motherboard are you using?

The CPU_FAN is speed adjustable on most boards. The option in BIOS should be in the System Health part. Different BIOS use different wording unfortunately.