Zalman quietens down the cooling stakes

AT COMDEX THIS YEAR, ZALMAN once again did not diasppoint, with three new products debuting. They are all in the quiet cooling category, with two active and one passive. The active one is the easiest to explain, it is the new CNPS 7700 Cu heatsink and fan. This monster heatsink looks a lot like the old CNPS 7000B Cu, but is about twice as large. Because of the size, and a 120mm low RPM fan, it can dissipate 130w almost silently.

Next up is the ZM80D-HP, a dual heatpipe noiseless VGA card cooler. It is a big blue metal sandwich that clamps onto your VGA card, and cools it without a fan. There are individual RAM heatsinks also included so that if the large plates do not touch the ram, you are still covered.

The last bit from Zalman excites me the most, it is a fanless, 400w external power supply. Yes, I said external. It is a box with all the circuitry inside, and long cables to snake back into a case. It is kind of unassuming to look at, but if you are the type that makes a lot of computers, or just have a bunch of parts lying on the desk, this kind of PS could be indispensable.

The NEPS400 is ATX compatible, and there is micro-ATX and BTX support available separately. Under full load, it is 80% efficient sue to its active PFC circuitry. If you dabble with computers for a living, you need one of these. µ