Zalman is readying another CPU cooler in its 10 series, a successor to CNPS-9900. The company broke away from the trademark copper-fin ring design it used for CNPS-9300, 9500, 9700, and until lately, 9900. After the introduction of the CNPS-10X Extreme, the company disclosed the CNPS-10X Quiet. The differences between the two lie in the construction. The CNPS-10X Quiet uses lesser number of aluminum fins, a good 33% of which are anodized with the Zalman blue theme colour, and holds a simpler PWM controlled fan. The cooler measures 135 x 100 x 160 mm, and weighs 750 g. The 120 mm fan attached to it uses a simpler clip-based retention mechanism, it spins at speeds between 700 and 1400 rpm, with a maximum noise level of 26 dBA. The cooler constuction involves a pre-lapped copper CPU contact block, from which five copper heatpipes convey heat to a vertical aluminum fin array - the design standard of today. Its retention module consists of a bolt-through kit. The package includes a tube of Zalman's ZM-STG2 thermal compound. The cooler is compatible with all standard desktop sockets of today, including Intel LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, AMD AM3/AM2+/AM2, and 939. The cooler will hit stores at an estimated price of under 50 Euro.

Having released the 120 mm copper monstrosity, the CNPS9900, Zalman is looking to give the NVIDIA-branded CNPS9700-NT an update, only this time, there's no NVIDIA branding to be seen. The CNPS9900-NT is decked with nickel-plated copper, which gives it the chrome appearance. Between the two copper-fin blocks, is nested a 120 mm green LED lit fan, which gives the same illumination as the older NT versions of Zalman's coolers. It measures 94 x 131 x 152 mm (LxWxH), and weighs in at 730 g. The fan spins at speeds between 1000 and 2000 rpm. The cooler supports all current CPU socket types, including LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, and AM3/AM2(+). It packs a tube of the company's ZM-STG2 thermal compound. When released in Europe, it is expected to sell for 70 EUR.

Thermaltake showed off some of its upcoming CPU coolers at the ongoing Computex event. A star attraction was the Thermaltake Frio (pictured below, first to the left). The design is of the popular perpendicular aluminum fin array type. The cooler ships with one 120 mm fan, although it can hold one fan on either side. It measures 130mm x 92mm x 160 mm. The cooler packs retention modules to support almost every current CPU socket type: LGA-1366, LGA-1156, LGA-775, AM3/AM2+/AM2, s939, etc. Another cooler spotted was the SpinQ VT. This cooler is near-identical to the SpinQ in terms of its features, except for that the aluminum fins propagate perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard, while the fan blows air on to the motherboard.

In the run up for the launch of Intel's newest line of desktop CPUs - the Core i5 series, companies with related products such as motherboards and coolers are in full swing gearing up Core i5. Spire is ready with two new coolers CoolWave 5 and CoolWave 5 Pro, that support LGA-1156, the socket Core i5 uses. The two are identical except for that the former features pre-applied S350 thermal grease, while the latter comes with a tube of superior-grade S420 thermal grease. The cooler doesn't leave out support for LGA-775, or interestingly, AMD AM3/2+/2 either. Measuring 90x90x80 mm (LxWxH), the CoolWave 5 makes use of a silent 90 mm, UV-reactive fan. The coolers will be available in late-June at prices of $9.95 for the CoolWave 5, and $14.95 for the CoolWave 5 Pro.

Water-cooling specialist Koolance released its first liquid-nitrogen evaporator. An LN2 evaporator, sometimes called "LN2 pot" is a metal flask that makes direct contact with a heat source, and conveys its heat to liquid nitrogen that the user pours into the flask. The heat instantly evaporates nitrogen, and some extremely low temperatures are brought about. Koolance CPU-LN2 measures 6cm x 20 cm x 6 cm (WxHxD) without the support bracket, and weighs in at 1.58 kg (around 3.5 lbs). It is built using nickel-plated copper, with acetal to shroud its upper portion. It supports the entire range of current CPU sockets, that include Intel sockets LGA-1366, LGA-775, LGA-771, s603/4, s478, and AMD sockets AM3/AM2+/AM2, s939/940, and s754. It is available at the company website for US $144.99.

A seemingly new gun in the PC cooling town is Cogage. The company sources its produce from Thermalright, a company well-known for its CPU coolers. Taking its name from the Thermalright Ultra Edition (popularly abbreviated as TRUE), the company has readied the True Spirit cooler, which even ends up looking like the cooler it's trying to impersonate. This cooler is built exclusively for Intel LGA-1366 socket processors. It measures 133x156x38 mm, and weighs 670 g (1.47 lbs). It packs four copper heatpipes that convey heat to 48 aluminum fins. Active ventilation is care of a 120 mm fan that rotates in speeds between 1000 and 1500 rpm, with rated noise levels of 19.6 to 37.4 dbA.

The other cooler in the works, MST-140, sports a design where the a fan of similar specifications as the one bundled with the True Spirit, blows air perpendicular to the plane of the motherboard, rather than parallel. This cooler supports both LGA-775 and LGA-1366 sockets. It measures 144x147x70.2 mm and weighs 410 g (0.9 lbs). From its base, arise four "U"-shaped heatpipes that convey heat to two dense aluminum fin arrays (40 fins each). The pricing and release dates of these coolers are yet to be known.

Spire is officially introducing the release of the all new Spire VertiCool II Pro. This universal turn-n-lock mounting, high-performance cooler has everything that you could need. Featuring 45 stamped aluminum micro-fins thermally supported by 2 U-shaped 8mm thermally improved heat-pipes and all copper base for rapid heat transfer. Patented Turn-n-Lock EZ Installation is simple and tool-free, Spire 420 Thermal compound and multi language installation manual is included in the retail package. Supporting the latest Intel 775 & AMD AM2 and AM3 micro-processors, this towering cooler is a great pick for those upgrading their system with a modest budget.

Thermaltake has four new CPU coolers in the making, part of the series marked with "ISGC" (abbreviates Inspiration of Silent Gaming Cooling) in the model name. The naming scheme propagates as ISGC 100, 200, 300 and 400. The first two supporting all current AMD sockets and Intel LGA-775, while the last two supporting all those sockets, plus LGA-1366.

ISGE 100 and 200 measure 124 x 96 x 70 mm and 90 x 96 x 140.5 mm respectively, and feature 92 mm fans, while the 300 and 400 measure 126 x 71 x 161 mm and 126 x 71 x 60 mm respectively and use 120 mm fans. Using copper heatpipes as thick at 6 mm, and aluminum fins. Press Release follows:

Yet to be released worldwide, the Kabuto CPU cooler by Scythe made an appearance on the company's Japanese website. It is designed to be a high performance stock-cooler replacement for Intel sockets x478, LGA-775, and LGA-1366. All AMD desktop sockets since s754 are supported.

Measuring 124 mm (l) x 133 mm (w) x 132 mm (h), the cooler seems like a complex work of metal: A CPU contact block doubles up as a small heatsink. From it, arise six copper heatpipes. The heatpipes, in groups of two, convey heat to three independent aluminum fin stacks. A 120 mm PWM-controlled fan, operating at speeds of around 1300 rpm blows air onto the three fin stacks. At those speeds, its noise levels remain around 26.5dBA. The cooler tips the scales at 730 g (around 1.6 lbs). It remains to be seen when Scythe announces this cooler worldwide.

German cooling specialist Alphacool released two new CPU water blocks that boast support for all existing and upcoming Intel sockets, the HF 14 series. Its two members are Livingstone and Yellowstone. While both have an identical retention mechanism design, the block design itself is where the differences lie. The Livingstone uses a bilateral-symmetric design, while for the Yellowstone block, the inlet is positioned in the center, to gush right onto the heat-exchange fins.

The company is yet to publish data-sheets for the water blocks, so we could tell you more, though they have been listed on the company store. The Livingstone block sells for 59.95 €, while the Yellowstone is priced significantly higher at 74.95 €. Both blocks support Intel LGA-775, LGA-1366 and promise support for the upcoming LGA-1160/LGA-1156 socket. Pictured below, in order are Livingstone and Yellowstone (red RM brace).

After introducing some of the most efficient CPU coolers, the Japanese cooling specialist, Scythe, is now planning to launch a new cooler named KillerWhale, designed and manufactured originally by DeepCool, distributed by Scythe. This cooler is specifically designed keeping the Intel LGA-1366 socket in mind, where a slightly bigger, rectangular base serves the application better.

The most characteristic feature of this cooler is its large, rather thick fan and sweep area. Its construction seems fairly simple: six heatpipes arise from a rectangular copper CPU contact block, which convey heat to an aluminum fin array that propagates along the plane of the motherboard. The entire cooler measures 54.5 x 143 x 143.5 mm, and weighs 900g (around 2 lbs). The 120mm fan rotates at speeds between 800 and 1800 rpm to dole out up to 78.32 CFM of air. The KillerWhale supports Intel LGA-1366, LGA-775, AMD AM3, AM2+, AM2, 940 and 939 sockets. It will hit stores soon.

First spotted at the recent CES 2009 event, the Zalman VF2000 LED is incing towards launch. The Korean cooling specialist added a smart bit of innovation to this GPU cooler: it can also be used to cool a CPU. The VF2000 LED is a simplistic looking GPU cooler that is compatible with most GPUs such as the NVIDIA G9x and ATI RV700 series. Designed primarily for graphics cards, the VF2000 LED maintains a short profile. It measures 126x110x45 mm and weighs 290 g. Its construction is fairly simple, consisting of a contact block from which four heatpipes emerge, conveying heat to a dense aluminum fin array. The 90mm PWM-controlled, blue LED-lit fan is embedded into a circular cavity atop the array.

The provision of additional retention modules makes this cooler compatible with the Intel LGA-775 and AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3 sockets. However, the catch is that this cooler is recommended only for CPUs with rated TDPs below 110W, and hence can't be used for overclocking adventures on air-cooling, however, its slim construction sets it up as an ideal cooler for low-profile PCs. For the same reasons, this cooler is not provided with support for the LGA-1366. Matbe sourced some pictures from the cooler's official photo shoot. For more pictures, visit this page.

Weak market demand, a market saturated with low-cost PCs, and intra-brand competition has reportedly led to first-tier motherboard vendors such as ASUS and Gigabyte to suffer overstock of their Intel 4-series chipset motherboard inventories. The Intel 4-series chipset is the fourth generation of desktop chipsets for LGA-775 processors. It includes popular models such as P45, P43, the mainstream G45, G43 and G41, and others that include Q45, B45 and B43. Motherboards made by leading companies have had less than expected market demand. Earlier in September last year, when ASUS announced price-cuts for its 4-series motherboards, reported back then to make them "competitive", sources tell DigiTimes that the company was already facing swelling inventories.

As a result of this, the biggest loser seems to be ASUS, with a swelling inventory of 6~7 million units, valued at around $180 million, followed by Gigabyte holding an inventory worth around $130 million, which are quickly depreciating in value as the market gets closer to the launch of Intel's 5-series chipsets and the Ibex-Peak platform. With Intel planning to stick to its launch-schedule for its newest platform, motherboard vendors can only hope for Intel to reconsider its plans, delay its launch, and allow the inventories to get digested.

Thermalright, best known for its aluminum fin heatsinks devised the AXP-140 CPU heatsink for HTPCs, that is low-profile friendly with a height of 7 cm. VR-Zone unboxed the heatsink to take a few pictures.

The AXP-140 supports Intel processors on the LGA-775 socket. It consists of a thick nickel-plated copper CPU contact block from which six aluminum heatpipes convey heat to an aluminum fin array. Unlike conventional heatsinks from Thermalright, the array propagates horizontally along the plane of the motherboard. The dimensions of this heatsink are 145 x 147 x 70.2 mm (L x W x H). It weighs 900 g (1.98 lbs). Although this heatsink could cool some processors with low TDP passively for a silent operation, a 120mm fan can be attached to it for active air-cooling. The AXP-140 is expected to be priced at US $59 when it hits the stores.