Prolimatech sent us the Mega Shadow, an improved version of its “Megahalems” with extended compatibility and some aesthetic modifications.

INTRODUCTION

Prolimatech was created by a group of cooling enthusiasts in 2008. When they released their Megahalems cooler they got a lot of buzz from news and reviews sites all over the world.

The “Megahalems” can be derived from the “Nehalem” chip name (Intel) and the cheer size of the cooler. You should definitely check out reviews of the Megahalems at testseek to see what the buzz was about.

Prolimatech’s latest product will be on display today, the “Prolimatech Mega Shadow”. I’m thrilled to have the work of fellow cooling enthusiasts in my hand and it’s going to be very interesting to see what its performance results will be.

First of all, let’s have a look at the specifications:

BUNDLE

The packaging is very good with protective foam around the heatsink as you can see from the images below.

Prolimatech provides everything you need to mount this heatsink on Socket 775, 1136 and 1156.

The heatsink doesn’t come with a fan which enables the user to choose whatever fan they wish. They have however included clips for mounting two 120mm fans. Prolimatech recommends that you use a fan with a rotation speed of 16000RPM if you want to have the max performance with this cooler. For a balanced performance they recommend a fan with a rotation speed around 800-1200RPM.

Other included accessories are the needed screws and mounting brackets and Prolimatech’s own Thermal Compound, the “Prolimatech PK-1”.

IN DETAIL: PROLIMATECH MEGA SHADOW

The Prolimatech Mega Shadow is a “tower” type cooler of extraordinary dimensions (170mm x 74mm x 158.7mm).

This baby weighs in at 790 grams (without a fan) so you will need to have fastened it good for it not to risk to hurt your motherboard or CPU (if you install it in a tower case).

Check out Prolimatech’s product page for the Mega Shadow to get some extra details of this cooler.

The Mega Shadow is made in black nickel which has a very pleasing look and feel to it. Otherwise the cooler’s design is almost exactly the same as the Megahalems’. The cooler is constructed of two independent towers which each are crossed by six heatpipes of copper with a diameter of 6mm.

According to Prolimatech, the distance between the fins has been optimized to produce the maximum heat dissipation.

In the top part of the cooler we can see the logo stamped into the fins. To me, this is a nice detail which gives me some kind of warm feeling in my chest of appreciation of the product.

It’s actually possible to install two 120mm fans on this cooler, one on each side.

The base of the cooler looks mean with the massive heatpipes crossing from side to side. It reminds me of the cylinder of a Harley motor cycle.

The heatpipes have been welded to the copper base which is the traditional method and different from the HDT system (Heat pipe Direct Touch) which has won more and more popularity lately.

The finish of the back plate could not be better, the polish is of excellent quality and the mirror effect is striking.

INSTALLATION AND TESTS

The obvious difference between the original Megahalems and the Mega Shadow is the black Nickel finish of the latter one. Nevertheless, the greater compatibility of the Mega Shadow makes it more attractive. The compatibility with LGA 775, 1156 and 1356 is naturally an extra selling point compared to “Megahalems” which only is compatible with socket 775 and 1366.

There is also a special mounting kit for AMD users which can be bought separately. This kit will make the Mega Shadow compatible with AMD sockets AM2/AM2+/AM3.

I installed the cooler on an Intel 1366 system.

Because a back plate is needed for the installation, I had to take the motherboard out of my case in order to complete the installation. I wanted to get this cooler secured tightly to the board for maximum stability and contact with the CPU.

Check out the images below to get a grasp of the installation process.

I actually had to resort to the manual to get the installation right. With it as support, I didn’t run into any problem at all and the installation process took me no longer than 5-10 minutes.

I chose to install two fans on the Mega Shadow because I wanted to see what it could perform if I really pushed it.

In order to analyze the performance of the Prolimatech Mega Shadow I used this test system:

In order to load the CPU to the maximum I used the software “Prime 95” during 20 minutes. I tested the fan with both 1 and two fans to get a reliable and relevant result.

The temperatures were measured with CoreTemp. The tests were made in a room temperature of 20 ˚C. I did the tests with the Intel Core i7 920 at 2.7GHz; 3.06GHz (overclocked) and 4.02 (really overclocked).

I set the voltage in BIOS to 1.16V when I ran the CPU at its normal speed and to 1.26V when overclocked. I deactivated “TurboBoost” but left “HyperThreading” activated.

I used the “Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm” fan in my tests and the rotation speed was set to 1450RPM.

Here are the results of my tests:

Obviously these are spectacular results. At no moment we reached critical temperatures, not even at 4GHz. This is truly remarkable since the Intel Core i7 920 can be run at 80°C – 85°C without risking anything.

Also, remember that I used software which loaded all four cores to 100% simultaneously. In reality this will almost never happen. Therefore these maximum temperatures are truly the extremes.

The results point to the conclusion that the gains by using two fans are minor. I actually found the Scythe Gentle Typhoon fans to have a great balance between cooling performance and noise level at 1450RPM.

As a little curiosity I also ran the CPU at 3.4GHz without HyperThreading enabled. The result was quite significant. With the HT activated the average temperature was 63°C, with HT deactivated the average temperature was 56°C, which is considerably lower.

CONCLUSIONS

The performance of the Mega Shadow is fantastic; no one can ever claim anything else. Compared to the Megahalems it looks better and has a better compatibility list. The only real competitor has to be the Thermalright TRUE Black (Revision C) which also is a huge cooler with excellent performance.

This is an amazing product no matter how you look at it. The only thing about it is its price at around $80 which is a lot of money to put out for a CPU cooler. If you consider that this cooler can actually compete with water cooling systems, then the price doesn’t seem that high. No matter the prize, I have to give this product my highest recommendations.

Pros:

• Exceptional performance
• Mounting system
• Lovely finish and design in black Nickel
• Good compatibility list

Cons:

• High price

The final score is 96 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Prolimatech Mega Shadow″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Prolimatech for letting me review this cooler.

Author: Noel Íñiguez Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

The Zalman CNPS9900A LED is a huge high end CPU cooler which supports a load of CPUs from both AMD and Intel.

INTRODUCTION

The last couple of months have been busy for Zalman who have sent a few new coolers to the market. Amongst these are the CNPS10X series and CNPS9900 series.

The CNPS10X series introduced a new design for Zalman; the more classic tower type of CPU cooler. The CNPS9900A LED which I will take a look at today is based upon a concept which Zalman calls “Omega Heatpipe Design” from its similarities with the Greek letter Omega (Ω). That design was first introduced with the Zalman CNPS9300AT which I came in contact with a while back and which impressed me by its performance.

These are the specifications for the CNPS9900A LED:

The first thing that hit me when looking at the CNPS9900A LED is that it only utilizes three heat pipes. Most other high end manufacturers of big CPU coolers have gone to solutions with 5 or 6 heatpipes. This review should determine if Zalman has chosen a good path.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The CNPS9900A LED comes in a rather big box, which does nothing to hide the fact that this is truly a large CPU cooler. There’s an opening on the front and back sides of the box which lets us have a glimpse of the heatsink and the fan.

The included accessories are quite plentiful. Zalman have included a manual in; a sticker with the logo of the manufacturer; a tube of the Zalman ZM-STG2 thermal grease, the RC33P adapter and all the anchorages and stuff necessary for installation on a variety of sockets.

The RC33P is a device which allows us to regulate the turning speed of the fan by reducing the power from 12V to 7V. Of course if you have a fan controller you should use that instead because it offers more than two settings.

ZALMAN CNPS9900A LED IN DETAIL

The Zalman CNPS9900A LED is made almost completely in copper. The unique piece made of aluminum is the upper part of the base.

As you can see from the images above the fins on the back part of the heatsink is thicker than the front side. The reason for this is that the copper fins of the back part are the ones responsible for evacuating the heat.

It took me some time to find the two metallic legs that are anchored to the base and which hold up the fan in the middle of the two cylindrical copper fins.

In the back part of the fan I found the label that shows the fan’s model number and its electrical characteristics. In this case Zalman has installed a 120 mm fan with PWM capabilities (between 1000 and 2000 rpm).

INSTALLATION AND TESTS OF ZALMAN CNPS9900A LED

The installation of the fan is quite easy and it took me only a couple of minutes. When installing the fan on an AMD system, you must first fasten the incorporated paper clip, whereas with Intel systems you have to also install a back plate and the fasteners for each socket. I will not go into this further here; suffice to say that the installation is easy.

The other components I used for this review were the following:

I used two different processors for this review (both from AMD). I measured the CPU temperatures both in overclocked mode and with the factory settings.

In order to measure the temperatures of the CPU I used the values from the internal sensors on the CPUs. It’s the best way to get reliable readings. In order to load to the CPUs to the maximum, I used the software OCCT 3.1.

The fan speed was automatically regulated by PWM during the test, reason why the speed oscillated between 1000 and 1600 rpm. These are the results from the test:

As you can see from the graph above, the Zalman CNPS9900A LED is a very effective CPU cooler even though it’s not the most effective which I have tested. Even when I overclocked the CPUs, the CNPS9900A LED had no troubles what so ever to keep the processors cool.

As I said earlier, this cooler is PWM regulated. I monitored the speed during the tests and the max it reached was around 1500rpm. Even at that level the noise level was low. I turned up the fan manually to 2000rpm (max) and then the noise level was above my comfort level. However the fan moved an impressive volume of air at 2000rpm and it should be ideal to use in an overclocking session.

CONCLUSIONS

There are so many things I can say about the Zalman CNPS9900A LED, it is truly a remarkable product in terms of looks, design, size, weight, performance etc. But the one thing that really left an impression with me was its outstanding quality and finish.

When CNPS9900A LED is running it looks really nice with its blue LEDs which gives your system a nice touch provided you have a case with a side window.  Without being the highest performing CPU cooler I have tested, its overall performance is excellent. Its balance between moved volume of air, noise level and secured temperatures is impressive.

In my opinion, the Zalman CNPS9900A LED has only two negative aspects. First; it is really noisy at maximum power and second; its price around $75 is quite hefty and will exclude many consumers. The noise issue is easily solved thanks to the included accessories; you will never need to run the fan with full power. So anyone interested in this fan will have to decide if it’s worth the money. My personal conclusion is that it is worth it.

Pros:

• Good accessories/bundle
• Perfect finish
• Spectacular design
• Supports many CPUs/Sockets
• Good balance between performance/noise

Cons:

• Unbearable noise level above 1800 rpm
• High price

The final score is 92 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Zalman CNPS9900A LED″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Zalman for letting me review this cooler.

Check out the computer cooling category at TestSeek.com!

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

Summary: Tacens has entered the market for graphic card heatsinks in the best possible way. Its Visio is a solution with excellent compatibility and very good performance, all at a very reasonable price.

Tacens is an old friend of ours. We’ve seen many products from this manufacturer: power supplies, cases, and panels. But up to now, we haven’t had the chance to examine any of its heatsinks. In general, they are highly regarded, especially for their silent operation.

INTRODUCTION

This heatsink, along with being the first one from Tacens that we could test, is the first one they’ve designed. The market for graphic card coolers is complex, because good performance is necessary and products must have almost universal compatibility. Tacens is a young company. Given that this is its first baby step in this area, we’ll have to see if they’ve done their work well.

We still haven’t said the name that Tacens has given its heatsink: Visio. We can draw many conclusions from such a striking name, but it would be better to see the specifications that Tacens has provided for the Visio:

The use of such unconventional bearings caught my attention. It’s welcome because it offers various advantages (we’ll talk about those later). It also allows for universal compatibility, since normally, certain video cards are only supported by heatsinks specially designed for them, like the HD 2900XT.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Tacens’ presentation of the Visio perfectly demonstrates the company’s general sense of esthetics: black packages illustrated with images of the product. But in this case, we can directly see the product itself, rather than an image of it. The back of the package describes the unit’s most important features in various languages, as well as giving the technical specifications in English.

When we open the package, the first things we find are the accessories that Tacens includes with the Visio: a 2-page instruction manual, 8 aluminum heatsinks with thermal paste for VGA memory, and everything needed to install the product on any graphics card.

A DETAILED LOOK AT THE TACENS VISIO

The idea behind the Tacens Visio is very simple. But keeping in mind that it’s universally compatible, we realize that an enormous amount of work has gone into it. It’s fairly big, which means it will cover almost the entire PCB of most graphics cards.

Tacens has given the Visio aluminum fins with an irregular profile, much as Zalman does in its designs. This increases the transfer of heat to the environment. The fins are quite rigid. This is good, because you often come across fins that are so thin that they easily bend and break.

The heart of the heatsink is composed of 4 copper heatpipes 6 mm (0.24″) in diameter. Along with the aluminum plate in which they’re embedded, they form the unit’s base. We liked the good finishing that Tacens has given the Visio’s base. It’s very uniform, something you don’t always see in this type of base. However, they haven’t given it a mirror finish. The heatsink’s anchors protrude from the base, so when you install it, you only have to position it in the right place on the GPU and screw it in.

The Visio’s fan is fairly large – 80 mm (3.15″). It combines good cooling with silent operation. Tacens has provided two options for powering it, using either a Molex connector or a 3-pin connector.

The fan’s most notable specification relates to its rifle bearings. They’re an evolution of the traditional roller bearings and provide better life expectancy and less operating noise.

INSTALLING AND TESTING THE TACENS VISIO

To test the Tacens Visio, we used a Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850, a card that runs fairly hot with its reference design cooling. To install the Visio, we only had to install the memory heatsinks, apply the thermal paste, and screw in the heatsink. It couldn’t have been easier.

For both tests in which we measured temperatures, we used the GPU-Z utility. To load the card to the max, we used the Furmark 1.7 Stress Test, which we let run for 30 minutes. The results were as follows:

The Tacens Visio’s results are very good. It kept a Radeon HD 4850 within good limits, while working very silently. Tacens has done an excellent job with the Visio. It hit the mark by using direct touch heatpipes and rifle bearings.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analysis shows that Tacens has done an excellent job with the Visio. We can say this for two main reasons: it is almost universally compatible and offers very good performance.

The Tacens Visio is a simple and robust heatsink, which thanks to its 4 direct touch heatpipes and ultra-quiet fan will make our environment very pleasant, while keeping our video card out of trouble.

The Tacens brand has distinguished itself by offering economical products. The launch of the Visio hasn’t changed this. You can find it for about 25 Euros ($35), which is quite a steal!

The final score is 92 out of 100 owls and we give the “Tacens Visio Heatsink” our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks to Tacens and BIOMAG for letting us test the Visio.

Author: Manuael González Fernández

Translated by: Ed Winograd