Now I know that this is the best air cooler on the market. But im also aware that it weighs about 800g

Now intel (i think) says that the maximum recommended weight of a cooler on a CPU is about 450g.

Could putting one of these air cooling beasts on a CPU damage my motherboard or CPU?


~Apologies for noobness~

I have had a 864gram Hyper 48 on my Asus P5GD1 for 2 years. It's not broken the board so far.

Instalation invovled a brace on the underside of the M/B.

I'm not sure why Intel cares how heavy the cooler is, since most of them are mounted with the CPU vertical anyway, which would not place any weight load from the cooler onto the CPU. But anyway, most of the high-end coolers I've looked at have a backplate which will help keep the motherboard ridgid.

Once the system is in place, should be no problem at all.

The only risk would be in moving/transporting the system. You would probably want to lay the case on its side with the motherboard on the bottom. If you have it upright, I could see how a couple of big potholes could break your motherboard with that big cooler bouncing up and down and flexing the mobo.

PS - mine is arriving tomorrow

If you're not moving your system around it shouldn't be a problem. But if you're the type of guy to do a lot of lanparty, I'd be cautious. When putting down the system, the weight of the fan is multiply by a lot if you let it go too fast. That's when it might break your mobo if unlucky.

Think of it as pushing a wall with your hand compare to punching it. Second one might very well break it, but pushing wouldn't be a problem unless you're very heavy .

Like EricT said, if moving it, put it on the side and back on the ground very carefully. You shouldn't have a problem if you do that.

I have the 9500 and it has a backplate with it and it's just fine... it looks heavier than it is anyway

yes, its is heavy, but not as mouch as you think. just dont go kicking/bumping the ase a lot, or using it for lan parties. As it has a backplate, that helps distribute the weight very well

it would also be perfectly fine if this was a desktop chassis/ht that lay horizontally

I was looking at getting a Zalman 9700 after some reviews I read and one of them recommended to checkout their website to see if it would fit on your motherboard. I went to their website but the only list I could fid was for the 9500 and it said the list was from August 05. Can anybody point me to a current list?

If you have a dremel and aren't afraid to use it then basically any mobo will work. That compatibility list just means that the backplate will fit over all the circuitry on the backside of the mobo in the area of the socket without touching anything but the plate can be fixed to work with any mobo. But really if I were you I'd save some money and get a Tuniq Tower 120. Works better for less, if you can't find that then a Scythe Infinity will work almost as good. Don't get me wrong, the Zalman is a good cooler, it's just way too overpriced.

No, compatibility is weather the size of the heatsink interferes with any nearby capacitors, chipset hsinks, mosfets and like; if its a badly designed mobo, maybe even power conenctors and the ram modules.

normally most motherboards have no smd components in a sizeable radius surrounding the cpu socket on the reverse

Tuniq Tower 120>anything overpriced and overhyped Zalman.

Does anyone know where you can buy the Tuniq Tower 120 in the Uk?

The only place I've come across one is at overclockers.co.uk

yeah, i just found that, £34, not bad, still cheaper than the 9700 at £45!

I got mine from NewEgg for $59, fairly comparable to the other ones I was looking at.

The 9700 is far from being the best air cooler on the market.

Intel's specs are for their rather weak (IMO) mounting system (the 4 plastic push-pins). Most good heavy coolers come with a backing plate that mounts behind the motherboard (like others have noted). The cooler screws into that and is very secure. Cooler weight is not really an issue with this mounting method.

Is it really far from the best? The reviews I've read placed it among the best 2 or 3, if not the best. Not to get too far off topic, but your opinion diverges from the majority, and I'm interested to know your thinking and/or experience behind it.

For starters, its no where near the best cooler on the market
I can name three coolers off the top of my head that are bettter and cost less
:the scythe infinity, the scythe ninja, and the tuniq tower. The 9700 is way to much at the 79.99 when these are only $50 and perform better

It's performance is decent, but it is usually priced way too high for what you get. The popular Scythes/Thermaltakes/Tuniqs/Thermalrights perform better at either the same cost or for less money. You can buy the original Scythe Ninja on Newegg right now for about $40 and it's performance is far above that of the Zalman 9700.

Don't get me wrong. Zalman makes a quality product. They just price them too high. The 9700 is worth $40-$50. Not the $60-$70 it's going for on Newegg. The 9500 was subject to the same problem. It was sold for about $55 and was bested by the Arctic Cooling Freezer series which could be had for less than $30.

Zalman does have good quality, but they focus more on looks than performance because they know they people buying their products are noobs and they ovver price their products because they know noobs like flashy lights

Hi Guys

Once again thanks for the good advice. I will try and track down the Tuniq and Scythe products in Australia. I was also looking at a Thermaltake Big Typhoon or a Coolmaster Eclipse.