Zalman 9500 LED Review - Design of the heatsink and mounting mechanism
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Six?
Although it may appear to use six heatpipes, there are only three. When the 9500 was first released most heatpipe designs had straight heatpipes with one end at the base transferring the heat along its length. More modern designs now often have the middle of the pipe at the base, and transfer the heat to the ends of each pipe; many now have stacked fins along the length of the heatpipes rising up in a tower shape. The 9500/9700 however does it all in reverse. Both ends of each heatpipe are connected to the base, so the heat rises up along each pipe in both directions through a figure eight shape.
Pretty LED show.
The most intriguing part of the design is how the fins and fan are placed. The fins radiate around the upper half of the "8" in almost a full circle, allowing for maximum heat transfer from the heatpipes, as well as maximum airflow coverage. However they only cover the area beneath the blades, avoiding the dead-zone behind the fan's hub, thus saving weight and needless fin area. The fan blows air through all of the fins towards the rear, where there's usually a large case fan to remove it. However some of the air is channeled outward, along the length of the fins which helps to cool other components, especially those located around the CPU socket.
'Zalman' is stamped on each and every fin.
The fan is mounted on a bracket attached to the base of the heatsink, meaning there's no direct contact between it and the fins. I think if there were the whole thing would vibrate quite loudly. As with the 7000 series the fan is mounted within the fins, which means that any excess air blown sideways still helps to cool the heatsink.
No Gimp/PhotoShop work, it really is that smooth!The fins are all smoothly machined, and the base of the heatsink is just superb. Lapping with 1200+ grit wet/dry paper and polishing it may get a better finish (there are minute tool marks running left to right), however it's so good out of the box I settled for just applying Arctic Silver 5. Just so you know, that's a British One Penny in the picture (I don't have any US currency... sorry).
Design of the mounting mechanism
It takes a lot to hold 500g of copper in place. Gone are the days of small aluminum blocks held on with solid-setting thermal goop or a screw. These days it's all support brackets and back plates, although we've yet to see a CPU that requires suspension...
For most motherboards the Zalman 9500 is simple to fit, attaching straight onto the standard mounting mechanism. For S478 the standard bracket is used in conjunction with two yokes (yoke as in the support beam in a canoe... not an egg yolk) to screw onto. And for AMD boards the standard bracket is screwed into directly. For Socket 775 motherboards however Zalman supplies their own bracket and backplate. To fit this you'll definitely have to remove the motherboard.
The key component of the Zalman's mounting system is this clip, which fits over the central hub on the base and clamps down to the fittings.
There are two brackets. You don't need both (although to my mind an 'X' would be a more supportive structure, and four joints are better than two...). One is for Intel's motherboards, the other for AMD's. Depending on the CPU socket's orientation, and which way you choose to mount the heatsink, the bracket either runs through the bottom of the "8" or slots between the heatpipes.
Next: Installing the monster >>
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