Zalman CNPS5000-Plus Copper FHS Heatsink

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Zalman made a big splash in the cooling world with their radically different heatsink designs earlier this year. Called the "Flower Heatsink" or FHS for short, the large heatsinks featured many thin copper fins grouped together in such a way that they appeared somewhat like a bunch of flowers (ie each fin stems from the center).

With the CNPS5000-Plus Zalman have taken their cooling technology to yet another level. With the earlier designs the fan and the heatsinks were two completely separate components, the the 5000-series they have been joined together. The CNPS5000-Plus now offers a socket A or socket 463 mounting system with integral 60mm fan. The heatsink simply looks amazing and takes up a lot less space then the full-scale FHS do.

The only caveat is that the CNPS5000-Plus will only work on motherboards that have four holes around the socket. The cooler uses these holes, and there is now way around this. If your Athlon or Pentium 4 main board doesn't have the holes around the socket you will not be able to use these heatsink!

The heatsink component from the CNPS5000-Plus is constructed from roughly 60 sheets of pure copper patterned fins. Two aluminum blocks hold the copper fins in place by means of two stainless steel bolts. The base of this heatsink is milled absolutely flat, and is razor-sharp smooth as are all Zalman heatsinks we've looked at.

Designed for: AMD Athlon, Duron (1.5Ghz+). Intel Pentium 4/socket 463 (2Ghz+)	Zalman FHS Model: CNPS5000-Plus (60) 0.3mm thick pure-copper fins. Fan: 5600RPM, 40dBa Fan Dim: 25x60x60mm, 12V, 3.2W FHS Dimensions: 91x66x70mm LxWxH Weight: 430 grams Surface area: 1060cm2 Thermal resistance: 0.25C/W CNC machined base Made & Sold by: Zalman Tech Co. www.zalmantech.com (US Distributor) Cost: ~$50USD
Comes in a box with the following goodies: instructions, noiseless connector, long attachment screws, spare parts, extra Zalman hologram, syringe of thermal compound.

The idea of a Computer Noise Reduction System

There are two sides the argument surrounding computer noise. Either you can't stand it and will do anything to quiet the computer down, or you'll never sacrifice anything for the sake of performance. However if quite performance is what you're looking for, the pay special attention to the CNPS5000-Plus.

The "CNPS" in CNPS5000-Plus is an acronym for Zalman's philosophy of a "Computer Noise Prevention System". They actually offer low noise power supplies and hard drives in addition to their range of 'flower' heatsinks. The goal they state is to cut traditional computer system noise from 30dB or higher, to 20dB or lower.

The FHS heatsink design is patent-pending and works from the aspect of a short heat path. Zalman claim this gives their heatsinks a 3 to 10 times larger lead over traditional coolers. Considering there is 1060cm² of surface area on the CNPS5000-Plus we'd be inclined to agree. Lets take a look at this unique socket A/Socket 463 flower heatsink from a couple of different sides.