So, just removed my old Zalman 7000B and installed the new Zalman 9500. Initial impressions are good: my idle went from 55C to roughly 45C, a drop of 10 degrees! This leads me to believe that either the new HSF is much, MUCH better, or the old one really sucked. Moving on...
Installation was a pain in the ass. Zalman wants you to use the stock retention bracket and backplate, and after I found it, I had to pull out my mobo tray just enough to slide the backplate under my motherboard, then slide the tray back in and attempt to attach the HSF.
With the old HSF, installation was extremely easy. The two nipples attached to the motherboard made it easy to screw on the HSF. With the 9500, this was not the case. I tried 3 times to attach it, but because of the angle you had to use the screwdriver in, and the distance from the motherboard to the backplate, it was a pain. What I finally ended up doing was screwing in one screw on the retention bracket to hold the backplate against the back of the motherboard, and then attach the 9500 on one side. Once the screw was in the backplate, I then unscrewed the opposite screw, then slid it through the HSF attachment and the retention bracket, finally putting enough pressure to screw it in as well.
One of the other frustrating parts was having to slide out my motherboard tray to slide the backplate back in. While this wouldn't be a problem for those using the stock HSF, if you're using a different 3rd party cooler that doesn't use the stock brackets, then you may have to completely remove the motherboard from the case to install the 9500. Zalman probably could have had an easier attachment method.
But so far it seems worth it. I'm going to test the processor under load to see where the temps go, but I don't think they'll go nearly as high as they did with my 7000B.
And... under load the CPU creeps up to the low/mid-50s, but never higher than 60. This is once again tons better than my 7000B, which got up to 78C (!!) when playing CSS with the new processor.
Case airflow may still be an issue with my setup, so don't take these temps as the be-all end-all for this HSF. I don't have an XP-120, Big Typhoon, or Ninja to play with, so I can't really give a fair comparison to these other brands. Still, a 10C drop from my 7000 seems pretty decent.
Installation was a pain in the ass. Zalman wants you to use the stock retention bracket and backplate, and after I found it, I had to pull out my mobo tray just enough to slide the backplate under my motherboard, then slide the tray back in and attempt to attach the HSF.
With the old HSF, installation was extremely easy. The two nipples attached to the motherboard made it easy to screw on the HSF. With the 9500, this was not the case. I tried 3 times to attach it, but because of the angle you had to use the screwdriver in, and the distance from the motherboard to the backplate, it was a pain. What I finally ended up doing was screwing in one screw on the retention bracket to hold the backplate against the back of the motherboard, and then attach the 9500 on one side. Once the screw was in the backplate, I then unscrewed the opposite screw, then slid it through the HSF attachment and the retention bracket, finally putting enough pressure to screw it in as well.
One of the other frustrating parts was having to slide out my motherboard tray to slide the backplate back in. While this wouldn't be a problem for those using the stock HSF, if you're using a different 3rd party cooler that doesn't use the stock brackets, then you may have to completely remove the motherboard from the case to install the 9500. Zalman probably could have had an easier attachment method.
But so far it seems worth it. I'm going to test the processor under load to see where the temps go, but I don't think they'll go nearly as high as they did with my 7000B.
And... under load the CPU creeps up to the low/mid-50s, but never higher than 60. This is once again tons better than my 7000B, which got up to 78C (!!) when playing CSS with the new processor.
Case airflow may still be an issue with my setup, so don't take these temps as the be-all end-all for this HSF. I don't have an XP-120, Big Typhoon, or Ninja to play with, so I can't really give a fair comparison to these other brands. Still, a 10C drop from my 7000 seems pretty decent.
