Zalman CNPS7700-Cu
7700 Supplied by: TweakFreaks
7000b Supplied by: CrazyCamel

Zalman needs no introduction, they have produced several popular, silent heatsinks in the past and today I have their latest creation on the test bed, a massive 900+gr block of copper with a 120mm fan fitted in the middle.

Specifications :

This heatsink can be installed on:



The CNPS7700-Cu drops support for Socket A/462 but is compatible with the new Intel S775.

* A very large radial-fan equipped copper heatsink weighing in at 900+gr
* 120mm included (mounted inside, not easy to swap)
* FAN MATE2; fan controller which allows you to change the supplied fan voltage from 5v to 11v.

Full specifications at product's webpage.

In the Box

A big cooler requires a big box; the 7700 comes packaged with a multitude of mounting gear, a fan controller, a descriptive manual and tube of thermal paste




Construction :

The heatsinks is a souped-up version of its older brother, larger and heavier, the base very smooth.


CNPS7000b-CU on the left – CNPS7700-CU on the right

Installation :

Installation on S478 is the same as with the 7000b and uses the default Intel bracket; the whole process takes less then 5 minutes. However consider removing the heatsink when moving the case around as there is almost 1kg of copper sitting on your CPU.




Performance and Noise :

For comparison I’ve add Thermalright’s XP-120 and Zalman’s own CNPS7000b-CU



The extra-large Zalman offers excellent performance at low sound levels, bettering the CNPS-7000b-Cu in both High/Low speed occasions, it's not able to beat the heat pipe equipped XP-120 though and trails behind ~3°C. Zalman's advantage is its price point of $40 while the XP-120 costs $50+ without fan!