The Zalman CNPS3100 Gold Cooler is a little bit strange. We had to install the motherboard into the case to test this cooler because it uses a large 80mm fan which has to be screwed into the case. The heatsink is very special, at least if we consider the way it looks. Like all Zalman coolers CNPS3100 is made using pressure applied to different narrow cooper sheets. CNPS3100 Gold is made from gold plated cooper. I find this cooler very interesting, but without providing the necessary airflow it's obvious that the cooling surface is not entirely exploited.

The Zalman package is impressing: two clips, a thermal grease syringe, the users manual, a 120mm fan for screwing into the case. The clip is rather badly designed: only a hole, a hand insertion is impossible and the screwdriver is hard to operate. The 80mm fan is a Zalman made part. I don't have its specs but in our tests we measured a spin around 2600rpm. It's also very quiet, it generates only 39dB(A)!

We installed the madness into a case and gave it a try in normal mode. The silent mode operates at only 5V and I don't think that's very recommendable, at least for overclocked CPUs. This cooler performed bad, in fact all the Zalman CNPS series coolers performed quite bad: 56C with an ambient temperature of 29C, a little bit more than in other cases. Please remember that this cooler was inserted in a case!

I do not recommend this cooler, but it has several advantages: no vibration (no fan directly attached to the heatsink), little noise and a very cool look. I guess that's the only cooler in this roundup you can use after it ends its life into the case :)

Zalman made a good thing trying to reduce the environment sound, but that's not the best approach. Combined with a powerful blower you can experience a better performance, but the noise may be bigger than in a regular cooler case. In the manual I found no word about the maximum CPU frequency this cooler can work with. It's not very heavy, only 296g, but it's not recommended by AMD.

Test results: