The unique construction of the CNPS2005 is shown in this picture of the center portion. In the manufacturing process, between 50 and 60 individual fins are tightly binded together with a vice, bolted together and then smoothly milled flat.

There is no fan directly mounted on the heatsink.... so how does the CNPS2005 keep cool?

The answer is an 80mm fan which is included with the CNPS2005 kit. Rather than attaching a 60mm fan directly onto the heatsink, Zalman have a fan that attaches to the case with a metal bracket. The end result is that the CNPS2005 can use a lower RPM, larger 80x80x25mm fan to move more air over its' fins.

The fan attachment measures 17.5x17x4cm and screws onto the case by using the first three slot card screw positions. The 25cm long fan wire plugs directly into the motherboard to offer RPM monitoring. A special "noiseless" adapter cable drops the voltage going to the fan to offer even quieter operation. The fan is a 12V, 0.25A "power cooler" brand.

Also included in with the heatsink are a small syringe of thermal grease, a set of screws to attach the fan to the case, and the stainless steel clip used to hold the CNPS2005 in place.

We tried the heatsink for fit on both a socket based motherboard, and via a slocket on a slot 1 mother board. In each case there was no problem with fit. Since the cooling fan mounts above the heatsink there are never really any issues with it being in the way (unless you are using a mini-tower which has the power supply positioned above the cpu).

The heatsink itself is 65mm in height, and between 100-110mm in length. While we haven't tested it out on the Abit VP6, we have been told that it will interfere with one of the AGP card slightly. A bit of bending or some cutting to the fins should easily remedy those issues however.

When the 80mm fan is mounted in place there's about 1cm worth of space above the heatsinks fins. Depending on the case you use, and the motherboard in your system, the fan may be directly above the heatsink or off to one side. Our test setup was just about on center. So long as the fan is at least partially over the heatsink Zalman claim the any offset will have a minor impact.

Now that you've seen how this heatsink is put together, and how it fits on your cpu, it's about time we showed you some results from our testing.

Let's go and check out how the CNPS2005 scored on the Frosty Synthetic Temperature Test platform against a variety of heatsinks you know...

FrostyTech Synthetic Temperature Test Platform:

The FrostyTech Synthetic Temperature Test Platform consists of an aluminum block heated by a 120V 250 Ohm precision resistor producing 50W of heat. That heat is transmitted to the heatsink via the aluminum block and up through special copper die templates with thermistors embedded directly in them.

A temperature reading for a particular heatsink is taken once the temperature stabilizes in the copper die template. Since each of the die templates have the surface area of either a silicon topped or heatspreader-topped processor the flow of heat to the base of the heatsink accurately mimics a real life configuration.

Shown with the copper die template for a silicon-topped processor, the synthetic heatsink test apparatus awaits a coating of silver-based thermal compound and the Zalman CNPS2005 FHS heatsink. A slightly larger copper die template was used to test the effective cooling ability of the CNPS2005 atop a heatspreader-based processor like an overclocked PGA Celeron processor.