It seems like I’ve gotten a lot of cooling hardware to review since I joined the OCmodshop team. Fact is, I’ve only done four. But when I do two in a row I start to get the feeling that my boss is trying to tell me something. My first thought was that perhaps cooling products are hot on the market right now and we need to bite while its still steaming. Then I considered that maybe there are just a bunch of new ones and I’m the one that the boss saw fit to pawn them off on. I prefer to think that he just thinks I’m really hot and I need to cool off.
ZEROtherm has introduced the Zen FZ120 to help me chill out. Okay, I’m lying. It was really created to make sure the inside of your PC case looks like something designed by NASA. Seriously, it looks like this thing is some kind of nuclear core for a space engine. It’s nothing special to look at. Six heatpipes buried in a standard-looking radiator style heatsink with a copper base. What makes it so scary looking? Its monstrous size probably wouldn’t fit in most mini ATX cases. Optimized for Core 2 Quad/Duo processors, it was made to take the heat. And kick its tookus.
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I’m testing the Zen on the same system I used to test the Rosewill Z4 (reviewed here). I’m running an AMD Sempron 2800+ 1.6 Ghz processor, 2GB Elixer RAM, 320GB Seagate HD. And I traded in my 3D glasses for beer goggles. This is why I’m hot. I opened the box to reveal a little baggie with screws, fittings, thermal compound and instructions. There is also the 120mm fan and the heatsink itself.
Right away I noticed something unusual. Most heatsink/fan combos come with the fan already attached. This one had two bent pieces of wire that hook in at the top and bottom of the heatsink (similar to many Thermalright heatsinks), then snap across the screw holes of the fan to hold it in place.
I had concerns about stability, but it actually held quite nicely and my worries were soon proven irrelevant. I took the fan back off for the install. You can’t reach the retention screws to install if the fan is attached.
Unfortunately, installing this heatsink does require removing the motherboard from the case if you don’t have a compatible backing plate already on your board. Mine was compatible, but since I wanted to clean the mobo anyway, I removed everything and started fresh.
I started by removing the existing heatsink and installing the backing plate. Made out of a very stiff plastic, it comes with prestuck double sided tape. All I had to do was remove the stick cover and line it up with the holes of my motherboard and press down. I am a huge fan of convenience in case you didn’t know. I should warn you that if you are planning to take the plate on and off you should just leave the stick covers on. It’s hard to get this stuff unstuck.
The upper part of the retention system attaches to the base of the cooler with 4 screws. The upper retention plate has 4 captured screws with springs. When using these types of retention systems it is quite possible to bend or even break a board. When tightening the screws remember to use the ‘X’ pattern approach and only tighten it to the point where the cooler is snug. The last thing you want to do is break your motherboard and realize you can’t sue anyone but yourself for not watching what you do.
Okay, the backplate is on. You’ve attached the heatsink to the motherboard. The fan is attached to the heatsink. You’ve found Waldo. Now we connect everything and boot the computer up. I give it my usual 20 minutes to reach idle temperature and proceed to test the temperature of the cpu before heating things up for the real test.
The temperature of the test room is a steady 70 F. I decided to play F.E.A.R for a while to bring the CPU up to full load. It’s difficult to make a processor like the Sempron 2800+ handle a game with such high graphic content without generating massive amounts of heat. Let’s see exactly how great this Zen really is.
At Idle temps, the Zen was significantly cooler than stock. At Load temps it showed a great improvement over stock and many other over the counter heat remedies. I was fairy impressed with the quietness of the fan. I could barely hear it even with the side of the case off.
I could reach my motherboard’s components without any trouble, and the design was a much slimmer and less space consuming improvement over the ZEROtherm Nirvana. My only concern with it was the overall height of the cooler. I think that with very little effort they could have made it shorter without sacrificing the effectiveness of cooling.
Left: idle performance chart; Right: load performance
My diagnosis. A great deal for the price, which is around $40.00 plus shipping online. So for very little money you could significantly reduce your CPU temps and prolong the life of your system. I give this heatsink thumbs up and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a low-cost remedy for a high temperatures.
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