Of the companies I've taken a look at lately, many hold their claims to enthusiast fame because at some point they dared to be different. As cheesy as it may sound, Zalman tends to be one of those companies. Years back, when the first heatsinks in the CNPS - that's Computer Noise Prevention System series were released, they were a very rude awakening to a market filled with screaming fans a traditional fans, and a breath of fresh air. Indeed, the early "flower" sinks came out looking like nothing that had ever been released before. And truthfully, for users seeking a quiet computer, the prospect of a fanless heatsink which could adequately cool the day's processor was met with ecstatic enthusiasts. Though there was also the option to affix a fan via a bracket which screwed onto the PCI slots, that small addition was nowhere near the claim to fame.

Now cue to the modern day. Zalman has since vastly diversified, producing cases, power supplies, fans, thermal grease, and even fan controllers. Though all of these things fit fairly well into the same vein, they all exist to prove one thing - enthusiast approves of, and purchases these products on a regular basis. In that vein, the CNPS9300AT is on the desk today. The little brother of it's series, which goes all the way up to a monstrous 110m fan, the 9300 seems to be targeted at users who though having a smaller case to work in, still desire the best thermal performance. With that in mind, it's time to tear it out of the box, and slap it onto a motherboard.

Features & Specifications:

With those pesky features and specifications aside, it's safe to say that users who are farther interested in the product can go here. That link goes to Zalman's product page for this heatsink, which, just like their other products, features an excellent amount of coverage as to what is included, how to install it, and most importantly, how much space surrounding the heatsink is necessary to have it fit correctly inside the case. To my knowledge, Zalman is one of the few companies that puts this level of effort into their product pages, which frankly, is phenomenal. With that being said, it's finally time to get into the box.

A Closer Look, Installation:

Perhaps one of the nicest things I found to this heatsink was the quality of the finish. Usually speaking, my mind registers more compact and simpler items to be inexpensively made, and as such, finding a flat, gleaming base and an easy to use mounting rig with this heatsink were both major boons. As with all heatsinks, this wonderful mating surface will end up demolished when the heatsink finally gets installed, and thankfully, it's a very simple installation. Unfortunately, users of Intel's LGA775 platform such as myself will be forced to remove the motherboard for this task, while others on AMD's long dead 939 platform, or it's recent AM2 platform, will not. To install the custom backplate, all the user does have to do, though, is remove the motherboard, and drive four screws through. From there, comes a pair of options. The heatsink can either be hooked to a pair of clips molded into the stock bracket, or screwed down into a pair of threaded holes - I chose the latter, as it's really the most secure.

Finally, we come to the part of the review which you've all been anticipating. The meat and potatoes - the performance of this little cooler. Since the first heatsink review, the testing method has been brought up to date. Rather than relying on myriad applications, it turns out the latest strain of stability testing program OCCT can now monitor via it's own inbuilt software - which is freakishly accurate. Couple this with the pretty graphs it so readily makes, and what ends up spat out the other side are reliable, reproducible performance graphics. That being said, a quick tour of the system specs is in order before stock, and overclocked performance.

• Intel e8400 @ 3.00 and 4.00 GHz, Stock Voltage and 1.4375 respectively

• ASUS P5K-E WiFi

• 4GB Kingbox Mars DDR2-1066 @ 1129Mhz 2.1v

• 2x ATI Radeon HD4850 @ 650/1080

• BFG 850W PSU.

9300 Stock Core 1	9300 Overclocked Core 1
9300 Stock Core 2	9300 Overclocked Core 2

At stock speeds, the 9300 does pretty damn well if I must say so myself - it's performance is within a few degrees of the TRUE. While these heatsinks are somewhat of apples and oranges in terms of their intended markets, those numbers can't quite be ignored. Unfortunately, this heatsink falls flat on it's face when it comes to an overclocked processor. The increased TDP of the e8400 when the clock speeds ramp up results in an almost 10 degree difference in the performance - placing the CNPS 9300 AT fairly far back in the performance pack, something which I suspect is a byproduct of it's inability to handle so much heat on a small frame. Now, normally speaking while performance like this is applaudable, the first few lines of the conclusion should open up why I ended up a little put off of this cooler.

Conclusion: