The unique construction of the CNPS3000 is shown in this picture of the center portion, relative to that of the CNPS3100 on the bottom. In the manufacturing process, 40 groups of individual fins are tightly bonded together with a vice, bolted together and then smoothly milled flat.

There is no fan directly mounted on the heatsink , but rather the 80mm fan is mounted directly to the case with a metal bracket. The end result is that the CNPS3000 can use a lower RPM, larger 80x80x25mm fan to move more air over its' fins quietly.

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 CNPS3000 in place.

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. In that case you would not be able to use this cooler.

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 contact the back of the AGP card slightly. A bit of bending or some cutting to the fins should easily remedy that issue however.

When the 80mm fan is mounted in place there's about 1cm worth of space above the heatsink 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 CNPS3000 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 CNPS3000 FHS heatsink. A slightly larger copper die template was used to test the effective cooling ability of the CNPS3000 atop a heatspreader-based processor like an overclocked PGA Celeron processor.