Finished Looks

The CNPS17X certainly isn't a bad-looking cooler with the LEDs off, and its smaller size makes it a bit more visually appealing than its larger sibling in that regard. The copper-colored fins add a nice bit of flair and are also more visible here than on the larger CNPS20X. Depending on your build theme, that might be a make-it or break-it issue.


Surprisingly, for a single tower cooler, it is not friendly in regards to component clearance. Depending on the motherboard and whether you plan to use more than two sticks of memory, you may be limited to standard-height DIMMs. Essentially, one of the DIMM slots is blocked by the fan, and as can be seen, raising the fan upward to clear our G.Skill Trident Z kit makes for quite the comical appearance. Clearance for the graphics card is fine on a traditional motherboard. However, you may encounter issues on some motherboards there as well, especially if Mini-ITX or Micro-ATX, where the first expansion slot is also the primary PCIe slot. Overall, it seems Zalman should have offset the heatsink design a bit for better compatibility, especially considering how competitive the cooling market has become.


When it comes to lighting, the Zalman fans are the only illuminated component, and in regards to brightness, it is just right, at least to me. The cooler shows up well even in brighter environments; however, unlike the marketing images, the lighting effect does not reach all the way to the corners as the illumination and diffusion within the frame taper off quite rapidly. That said, the blue and green color selections tend to look a bit better than red, as the individual LEDs are not as visible when using red tones.