Performance
At stock CPU clocks the Zalman doesn’t fail to impress as it offered up low idle temperatures and stayed cool under load.
However, the great cooling at stock did come at the cost of silence. While the noise levels we recorded are not what I would call loud, there was definitely some air turbulence to be heard under load. However it likely wouldn’t be very noticeable once installed in a good quality PC case.
Under load we saw idle temps were still holding up really well and once we packed on the heat by running Prime95 the Reserator held steady at 41.25 above room temperature, clocking some of the best performance we’ve seen in a while.
Noise levels while overclocked were on par with the Antec 650, both of which have a similar integrated fan design and there is definitely a bit of fan noise to be heard from the radiator, but again it is not too severe. Of course, given the temperatures we have seen I suspect you could dial back the fans profile a little to keep the noise in check without things getting too hot.
How come you didn’t test it against the market leader, Corsair?
Their coolers may not be the best but they certainly ship the highest amounts by a long shot.
We will have a 120mm Corsair review soon. I took over cooling reviews from Ryan and started the charts from scratch so that we can rule out any differences in our testing methods. It’ll only be a few weeks before we have nicely populated graphs again 🙂
fair shout
I’ll let you off this time 😛
Haha thanks. But just so you know, Ryan did use the same methods and same testing hardware so you can compare manually, just keep in mind there maybe a few degree variation for things. Ryan may have used more/less thermal paste, had a warmer or cooler office, etc etc.
the moment I saw “stock fans cannot be removed or replaced” it was a no no right away.. won’t recommend this at all. performance is good. the radiator design is pretty good altho it can be improved by better housing (so that all air going thru ain’t escaping thru the sides).
But you can’t replace the fans with your own? are they nuts? LOL
The H80i I have on an i7 3820 oc’ed to 4.3 keeps the cpu at no higher than 32 C in game and it idles at 16-18 C. Looks like the reserator 3 loses in my book.
I have been using Zalman coolers for years, with my current being the CNPS20LQ with 2x Corsair SP120s in a push pull setup. I have a feeling that I will continue using this “sleeper” AIO until it dies. i7 3770K 4.5GHz idles at 12-17’C and never hits 60’C during Prime95. I can play SC2 or BF4 for hours and it never peeks beyond 35’C; Both fans are manually set @ 800RPM and are inaudible.
I was all set to jump on the Reserator 3 Max, but common sense kicked in after I remembered why I upgraded from the CNPS9900MAX…the fan died and I could not replace it.
Zalman’s website has been broken for a while and none of their support email addresses/telephone numbers work. I would stay well away from their products, unless you don’t mind not having any guarantee