Zalman 9500 LED Review - Installing the monster
(Page 4 of 6 )
Installation
First off I'll comment on handling the heatsink. The fins flex easily (being only 0.2mm thick!) so I found it best to hold the heatsink by the base most of the time. Having your fingers inside the tunnel is all right, as the weight is distributed along the fins, however trying to pick it up the sides leads to bending.
Zalman have some nice animated flash movies on their product pages which are a real help in installation. The user manual isn't as instructional or illustrative. For S775 you'll need to remove the motherboard to fit the backplate, however it can be replaced before fitting the heatsink. For S478 and most AMD boards the motherboard can remain where it is. However if you have a push-pin retention system on your AMD board you'll need to remove it and fit some stands so the heatsink can be screwed in.
Getting at the screws was easy enough thanks to the groove in the fins.
Installing on S478 was a little tricky for me as my PSU was a little too close for comfort. It needed to be slid to the front to access the screws, and then I had to rip off the Tegan badge on the PSU's grill to make it all fit. Even then the fins touched the grill, but that shouldn't matter as both the heatsink and PSU are supposed to be grounded. The yokes fitted into the bracket well and once the screws were aligned everything tightened up nicely.
I'd imagine fitting it onto regular AMD boards should be the same, if not easier as you don't need the yokes. Fitting the S775 motherboard bracket shouldn't be too hard with the board out of the case. However I wouldn't recommend installing the heatsink outside the case as the motherboard may break under the weight as you put it back in.
Once you've fit the heatsink securely you can connect the fan up, either directly to the motherboard or via Zalman's FANMATE2. This is a simple black box with a variable resistor and transistor switch inside to manually control the fan speed (the transistor is under the heatsink).
Simple and effective.
Next: So how good is it? >>
More PC Cooling Articles
More By Howard Cox
