Zalman CNPS9500 vs Asetek Microchill

Microchill

The Microchill also uses heatpipe technology. Asetek tell the version we've tested here, which is a low-noise model, as well as models with louder and more powerful fans.

Size: This is an incredibly tall heatsink, coming in at 14cm off the board, with what is basically a big 120mm radiator on the top. Surprisingly, it doesn't weigh as much as you might think, since the radiator is made out of aluminium. In this pack, Asetek only provided a mounting mechanism for Socket 939 and 754.

Noise: The fan is a quiet version which also has a speed adjustment, although the Microchill is a little more elegant, with a PCI backplate provided. You can make the cooler run at near-silent with a mere twiddle of the knob, but the performance, as we will see, is a little lacking. Asetek also provide a super-speed fan that's a little louder but with better cooling.

Installation

Frankly, the installation is a bit of a nightmare.

The first thing to do is to attach the fan to the plastic shroud, using the provided pushpins. The shroud is incredibly flimsy, being not much more than a wafer-thin bit of acrylic bent and cut into the right shape. When the shroud is fitted over the radiator section of the cooler, it feels more than a little unstable.

To fit the heatsink to the motherboard, you need to rest this plate on the base of the heatsink, and then screw the plate into the black socket plastic. The idea is that the pressure from the plate keeps the base of the heatsink in place.

Let me tell you, it doesn't really work. There is not enough tension to keep the heatsink in place, and we would be incredibly cautious about using this in a tower, rather than a desktop case. When we jarred the board slightly, the cooler twisted. You may have more luck, but we're incredibly warey of this mechanism.