Zalman CNPS7000A Silent-Mod

sven · Post by **sven** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 12:53 pm

Because my Zalman7000A @5V was the loadest part in my silent-pc, i decided to decouple the fan in this cooler. Take a look, if you want to silence your Zalman:

http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... topic=2309
(Scroll down for the english version)

EDIT:: New URL

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 5:58 pm

Wow, if only Zalman had done it this way to begin with.

After reading such great reviews I was very disappointed with the noise level of the 7000AlCu I bought.

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 7:35 pm

Pgh wrote:After reading such great reviews I was very disappointed with the noise level of the 7000AlCu I bought.

Perhaps you don't read carefully enough? Quotes from my own review of the 7000alcu/cu:

The measured 1440 RPM at 5V is about the same speed as a Panaflo 80L at ~9.5V, and the noise level is similar....

At above ~7V, the noise level becomes too high for SPCR, however....

If you seek the lowest noise, you'll have to find a way to slow the captive 7000 fan to lower than 5V, swap the captive fan for something quieter, or go with a HS that lets you choose your own fan.

It may not be a silent champ, but it is probably about as quiet as you can get while effectively cooling the hottest CPUs Intel is churning out these days.

Rook · Post by **Rook** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 7:49 pm

sven wrote:Because my Zalman7000A @5V was the loadest part in my silent-pc, i decided to decouple the fan in this cooler. Take a look, if you want to silence your Zalman:
http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... topic=2249
(Scroll down for the english version)

For those of us without the skills to manipulate sheet metal, would you consider making a few more of the decoupling gizmos? I'm sure there would be a few people at SPCR interested in them (myself included, depending on what the cost would be).

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 8:24 pm

MikeC,

I used to have a Panaflo 80L on an Alpha 8045 running at what I would guess would have been about 8-10 volts. The 7000AlCu at 5v seems noticably louder.

The Zalman at 5v does provide better cooling than the Panaflo/Alpha did at 8-10v.

I've been thinking about removing the 7000AlCu's fan and mounting a 12cm Papst on one of Zalman's old style "arms." Do you think the 12cm at 5v would cool as effectively as the internal 92mm at 5v?

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 8:49 pm

I've been thinking about removing the 7000AlCu's fan and mounting a 12cm Papst on one of Zalman's old style "arms." Do you think the 12cm at 5v would cool as effectively as the internal 92mm at 5v?

I doubt it. Not concentrated enough airflow. One big advantage of the Zalman is the way every bit of air stirred up by the fan gets pushed past the fins in one way or another, so it really maxes out on available cooling potential.

For those of us without the skills to manipulate sheet metal, would you consider making a few more of the decoupling gizmos?

sven's solution is clever and stylish, and not everyone has his skills... but his is not the only way to do this. Here is another much simpler way to achieve similar decoupling:

Use crazy glue to affix a piece of 1/4" sorbothane or soft rubber between the bracket and the fan base. You could use any number of soft/viscuous materials. I bet if the fan speed is never turned up, this will work fine. You'd want to make sure the glue is well cured before putting it into service.

PS -- re Panaflo 80L @ 9.5V vs Z7000 @ 5V. That was measured (SPL & voltage) & carefully listened to before the statement was made. How do you know your Panaflo was 8-10V? Voltage controller knobs are not linear.

Jan Kivar · Post by **Jan Kivar** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 8:35 am

MikeC wrote:PS -- re Panaflo 80L @ 9.5V vs Z7000 @ 5V. That was measured (SPL & voltage) & carefully listened to before the statement was made. How do you know your Panaflo was 8-10V? Voltage controller knobs are not linear.

Variations in Zalman fans?

Some don't start always @ 5V...

Cheers,

Jan

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 9:04 am

MikeC wrote:

PS -- re Panaflo 80L @ 9.5V vs Z7000 @ 5V. That was measured (SPL & voltage) & carefully listened to before the statement was made. How do you know your Panaflo was 8-10V? Voltage controller knobs are not linear.

A guess mostly. I remember that there was still enough adjustment in the Zalman MFC1 to make the Panaflo fan quite a bit louder. I didn't have access to a sound or volt meter.

I am wondering if maybe I did get a sub-optimal Zalman fan as Jan points out?

sven · Post by **sven** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 11:09 am

@ MikeC
I'm glad, that at least one tester can understand my problems with the Zalman.

All reviews, i read, in Germany are very positive about this cooler. Everyone says it's nearly inaudiable @5V - and no problems with the vibrations mentioned.

To your solution of fan-decoupling: I prefer a solution, where i do not have the risk of loosing the cooler.

@ Rook
Sorry, but you would not like the price. The cost for material and sepecially time would reach the cooler-price. It's just for self-building.

luminous · Post by **luminous** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 2:48 pm

I've had poor experiences with Zalman fans. All the ones that I have had are very noisey. The 92mm ones I have produce the most vibration in any fan that I have come across.

Perhaps I was unlucky with the ones that I got, or maybe Zalman send out "selected" items for review.

CeeJay · Post by **CeeJay** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 4:38 pm

It's funny how someone always seems to bring up issues here on SPCR that I independently have started working on.

I have a Zalman CNPS7000 (not an A version) mounted on my Abit NF7-S 2.0
If you have some insight in the Zalman models you'd know that this is already out of the ordinary as the 7000 (non-A) version cannot [u]normally[/u] be mounted on an AMD board and even with the 7000A model you have clearence problems with that MB.

I've mounted the CNPS7000 in a special way that solves these problems.
See here : http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40348

But a few days ago I dismantled my PC completely and started modding it for even more overclocking and silence (it was already very fast and very quiet)

I have currently taken my CNPS7000 apart like Sven had done but I had not decided to do what he did .. rarther I'm mounting the fan (after lubing it with some oil) with silicone.
I have some good stuff in a tube and I'm using it both as glue and as a rubbery substance that dampens vibrations.

It's not just for tits anymore (ok .. this tube was designed as a sealant - not for cosmetic surgery) - You can use it in your PC too.

The great thing about this is that if you don't like it or need to change something , then all you have to do is pull hard and it comes off.
If you want you can combine it with MikeC's method and replace the glue with silicone.
I actually have some soft rubber I toar off a used truck-airfilter (the stuff was there to prevent vibrations so I figure its perfect for this sort of thing)
so I might do MikeC's version or just put on a good thick layer of silicone.

Silicone is also great when you have little space to use much else.
F.x I just mounted the fan in my Seasonic SS-300FS with silicone and treated all the metal edges on the PSU with some too .. that should dampen the fanvibrations and reduce the sound from metal to metal vibration too.
I also did the airflow mods that MikeC suggested earlier (someplace)

BTW it's a really nice PSU MikeC .. I'm very grateful to have won it.
(It was a SPCR prize some time ago)
Thankyou.

UnholyB0B · Post by **UnholyB0B** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 4:43 am

Where did you get those rubber bolts?

Michael Sandstrom · Post by **Michael Sandstrom** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 5:21 am

A suggestion for people looking for an simple way to improve the Zalman 7000.

Buy a 92mm Nexus real silent case fan.

From Radio Shack purchase adhesive velcro pads (the weaker velcro not the hook and loop). Remove the fan from the housing and attach with velcro pads on the bracket and the fan.

The fan is very quiet and the velcro effectively decouples the fan but it remains secure. If you decide to change fans just give a gently tug.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:03 am

sven, for 99.9% of the PC community, the PSU is louder than the Zalman at 5V

The reason I like the Zalman is because it can be very heavily undervolted. If can go down way below 5V without freezing up or the clicking becoming annoying. For those who don't/can't mod, it's an easy quiet cooler in stock form.

A Nexus mod is always better though.

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 8:09 am

burcakb wrote: The reason I like the Zalman is because it can be very heavily undervolted. If can go down way below 5V without freezing up or the clicking becoming annoying.

I have read that one can use 2 fanmates in series on the Zalman 7000 to take the voltage lower than 5v. Might have been you burcakb?

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:49 am

Well, I use fanmate + inline resistor + motherboard undervolting to go extreme

can't hear it even when I stick my head inside the case

UnholyB0B · Post by **UnholyB0B** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:28 pm

So no-one knows were the rubber bolts come from? I’ve seen it before someplace just can’t remember.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:40 pm

Hi, I use a fanmate in series with Zalman MFC1, which I believe is the same ciruitry. The fanmate is inside the case and set to max. The MFC1 then gives me range 1000~2300rpm against (IIRC) 1300~2400 with just the fanmate. It is significantly quieter at 1000~1100rpm than 1300~1400 with little loss of cooling.
Seb

UnholyB0B · Post by **UnholyB0B** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:43 pm

NM

Found them
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2409.html

UnholyB0B · Post by **UnholyB0B** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 7:48 am

Anyone know where I can buy the above bolts in the US?

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 8:08 am

On the frontpage in the left column there are links to Silicon Acoustics and EndPCNoise.com. Both sell blue fan isolators. Those will work better than the black "rubber bolts", because they are made of a softer material.

UnholyB0B · Post by **UnholyB0B** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 8:18 am

Thanks Tibors,

Was thinking I'd need to glue 2 of the blue fan isolators togethers to get the same effect.. for some reason. But now I see they're alike.

Putting down the crack pipe and ordering

sven · Post by **sven** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 9:36 am

burcakb wrote:sven, for 99.9% of the PC community, the PSU is louder than the Zalman at 5V

Maybe on your side of the ocean ...

I know many people in Silentharware-forum, who were not satisfied with the noise level of this cooler @5V. About 20 persons mounted the modification into their zalman.

But this was long time ago, now only some newbies use the zalman.

Jan Kivar · Post by **Jan Kivar** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:50 am

Wedge wrote:
burcakb wrote: The reason I like the Zalman is because it can be very heavily undervolted. If can go down way below 5V without freezing up or the clicking becoming annoying.
I have read that one can use 2 fanmates in series on the Zalman 7000 to take the voltage lower than 5v. Might have been you burcakb?

Me...

That is a bit expensive (one'd need two Fan Mates).

If the idea is to run the fan at a constant voltage (~3.5V), all that is required is to connect one Fan Mate to 5V. The easiest way to achieve this is to buy a "4-pin to 3-pin fan adapter cable", and change the places of yellow and red wire in the Molex connectors.

One needs a small jeweller's flat screwdriver to push the tabs on the Molex' pins in. Best policy is to do the same for both connectors of the adapter; this way one don't accidentally fry anything because of the wrong wiring scheme.

Using 5V + Fan Mate will produce output voltage ~3.5V.

Using two Fan Mates + 12V will enable adjustment between ~3.5-5V. The key is to adjust the "outer" Fan Mate (the one which gets 12V). Or as SebRad mentioned, using a Fan Mate + other fan controller (which goes down to 5V).

One thing to remember when daisy-chaining a Fan Mate and other fan controller is that the "inner" controller (the one closer to the fan, normally the Fan Mate) needs to be set to the max. setting, otherwise the control is just between ~3.5-5V (if the other controller goes down to 5V). If the inner controller (Fan Mate) is maxed, the adjustment will be ~3.5-10.5V (the high limit depends on how high the other controller outputs, i.e. a Fan Mate shaves ~1.5V out of the output voltage of the other controller).

Cheers,

Jan

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:22 am

Jan, Thanks

I actually ran a search on this but was unable to find you.

I put two fanmates in series for a PC that is not in my sig. It is spinning at 1200, according to the Asus hardware monitor. Speedfan can't see it, nor can Hmonitor. I haven't tried MBM yet.

Temps are fine - about the same as when the fan was spinning at 1450. These Zalman 7000s are great. Not silent, but damn quite. But in the neverending quest, I'll be trying an XP-90 or 120 next.

EDIT: sven Very good job on your modification. Thank you for showing your work.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:15 pm

Just a quick tip for MBM. On my board (Asus A7N8X) I found it wouldn't see below ~1500 rpm with the default "fan divider" of 2. Having taken it up to 32 it now reads down to ~1000rpm. More doesn't seam to make any differance.
Seb

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 2:29 pm

UnholyB0B wrote:So no-one knows were the rubber bolts come from? I’ve seen it before someplace just can’t remember.

They can be found at NCIX too if you're in Canada. I just ordered some.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=9623

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 2:05 am

I've also seen someone on here use those yellow cyclindrical foam ear plugs (with 2 circumferential cuts to align the 2 surfaces) as fan isolators - might be cheaper/ easier to get, think they cost around 20p per packet of 2 in hardware stores (I'll be getting some soon

)

besides, if they don't work you can always stick 'em in your ears

v. tidy mod btw!

Zalman CNPS7000A Silent-Mod

Zalman CNPS7000A Silent-Mod

Re: Zalman CNPS7000A Silent-Mod

Rubber bolts?