Zalman CNPS 14X Review

Up Close:  The Cooler

As you can see from the images below, the 14X is a bit of a beast.  Measuring 140x126x159mm (L,W,H) you'll need quite a bit of space in your case to fit it, although as it's height comes in just under 160mm it should fit fine in most Mid-towers.  The cooler is of the twin stack design, with each of the stacks being approximately 50mm think and having 45 aerodynamically formed Aluminium fins. 

A centrally mounted 140mm low rpm fan attached to a wire frame mount sucks air in over one of the stacks, and blows it out over the other. 

Six heatpipes pass up evenly through the fin stack terminating equally saced just proud of the uppermost fin.  This uppermost fin has detail embossing along with the Zalman name.  A small plastic cap is affixed to the very top of the cooler to add just that little bit of extra style

Flipping the 14X over we can see that Zalman have opted to enclose the 5 heat pipes between two copper plates.  The heat-pipes are tightly packed together and so should hopefully help transfer the heat evenly up and in to the fin stack.  The finish of the contact plate is good, and although the review sample did have some blemishes on the copper these were felt to be purely cosmetic as the surface itself remained mirror smooth.