Zalman have done an amazing job with the CNPS9900 LED. It is a near perfect CPU cooler; performance is amazing, it is near silent, it looks great, it has a blue LED fan, its easy to install and has support for many sockets. The only problem with it is its high price tag.
The CNPS9900 LED has a very simplistic installation design which uses a few included clips and screws. The fan is silent when set at a low setting and only slightly louder once the PWM sensor kicks the fan into high. A small bottle of thermal grease is included with the cooler which has a brush head, easing the application of the grease. Performance of the cooler is simply amazing. It does better than the larger, louder DHT solutions even when they are at full speed.
Zalman should be commended on the CNPS9900 LED as it is a fantastic addition to the CNPS series. As stated, it does everything a CPU cooler should do, just better. At $79 USD though, it is fairly expensive. While manufacturing costs of the copper would be expensive, it would be hard for the consumer to spend almost double the money as compared to a similar offering for a few degrees of better performance. That being said though, for enthusiasts that are willing to spend, this is the way to go.
The CNPS9900LED meets its requirement as a high performing, silent cooler, and it would be a great addition to any case. Basically, if you can get one cheap you shouldn’t have to think twice.