Performance

Test System

All testing is done at a room temperature of 20°C (68°F) with a 1°C margin of error. The coolers are tested with Turbo, EIST, and C1E enabled, which will allow the CPU to clock down to a low 1.6 GHz while idle, or clock up to proper speeds under stock and overclocked conditions. With the use of XMP, the Intel i7 3960X ES chip I used for testing runs at 3.6 GHz under stock load. Overclocked, the chip is set to 4.1 GHz at 1.225 volts. During all these tests, fans are set to run at 100% in the BIOS, with temperatures being recorded by AIDA64.

The idle test will consist of the CPU sitting idle at the desktop for 15 minutes. This will allow for a stable temperature reading that will be recorded at the end of those 15 minutes.

AIDA64 and its CPU-stability test represent a typical multithreaded user load. It is run for 15 minutes before the highest reading during the test is recorded and taken as the result. This test lets enthusiasts know what temperatures they can expect to see with games and applications.

Prime95 is the multithreaded stress test I will use to find the cooler's temperatures at maximum load. This is done by using the "In-place large FFTs" setting to truly stress the cooler's ability at keeping temperatures in check. The test is run for 15 minutes, and the highest recorded temperature is taken as the result.

Fan noise testing is done at 20%, 50%, and 100% settings, and the dBA level is recorded by a Pyle PSPL25 sound pressure level meter at a distance of 30 cm. Fan RPM results are taken at the same 20%, 50%, and 100% settings.

Idle

The Zalman CNPS14X lands in the middle of the chart with one fan. We see idle temps drop at stock clocks with a second and third fan. However, once the CPU is overclocked, single-, dual- and triple-fan configurations all come together at the same idle temp of 29°C. The best coolers at idle only pull ahead by 1°C, making it something we should not worry about.

Typical Load

The typical load test has the Zalman CNPS14X do horribly out of box at stock clocks, where the much cheaper Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO beats it by 2°C. When a second and third fan are added, performance improves by 3°C, placing Zalmans cooler in 5th place on the chart. Things change once again with the ovclocked system, as the CNPS14X falls way back on the temperature charts with each additional fan only dropping temperatures by 1°C. The Hyper 212 EVO from Cooler Master again beats the CNPS14X by 2-4°C here.

Max Load

When pushed to the limit with Prime 95, Zalman's CNPS14X again falls to the back of the pack with one fan. When more fans are added, temperatures drop by 3°C with two fans and a total of 7°C with three fans. The overclock test, however, is a bit more kind to the Zalman cooler, showing that it has a higher thermal saturation point as it manages to beat the Hyper 212 EVO soundly for the first time. But it's not all good news as the Silverstone Argon AR03 soundly trounces Zalman's product, both being of a similar price. It unfortunately takes another $30 in fans, which pushes total cost to over $80, for the Zalman CNPS14X to excel at cooling. There are far better options available at that price point.

Fan Noise

The CNPS14X is, as it arrives in the box, certainly a quiet cooler that lives up to Zalman's Ultra-Quiet moniker on the box. At just 44 dBA under full load with a single fan, the cooler nearly ties with Noctua in terms of noise levels. However, once more fans are added, noise levels climb to 46 dBA and then 47 dBA, which is, while not loud, not "Ultra-Quiet" either. Still, noise levels are acceptable overall, which helps explain the higher temperatures.