ZALMAN Intros CNPS13X DS Black CPU Cooler

ZALMAN today introduced the CNPS13X DS Black tower-type air CPU cooler. This is essentially a variant of the CNPS13X Black that the company had launched in November 2023, but comes with two key changes. To begin with, its glossy top plate not just has an ARGB-illuminated logo and diffusers to the sides, but a 2-digit 7-segment LED display, which displays CPU temperature in real-time, in degrees-Celsius. It's important to note here that the cooler doesn't have any temperature measurements on its own, but displays CPU temperature as measured by the motherboard's Super I/O chip (i.e. as it's displayed in your BIOS setup program, or reported to software). To do this, the cooler not just takes in a 4-pin PWM connection for the fan, and a 3-pin ARGB for the lighting, but also a 5-pin USB 2.0 to one of your motherboard's unused USB 2.0/1.1 headers. You then install a Win32 software that relays temperatures from your motherboard to the cooler.

The second key change is the fan. If you recall, the original CNPS13X Black came with a non-illuminated fan with matte-black impeller. The new CNPS13X DS Black comes with a illuminated fan, with a white impeller, and addressable RGB LEDs studded in the fan hub. The fan's specs aren't any different from those on the original's fan; and there are no other design changes. A 1 g sachet of ZM-STC8 thermal paste comes included. The cooler measures 135 mm x 79 mm x 159 mm (WxDxH), weighing a little over 800 g. The company didn't reveal pricing.