Installing Classic Zalman Flower cooler to a modern system

[WonderSnail]

Hey Guys

Recently I managed to get a hold of a 15 year old Zalman CNPS 9900 LED CPU Cooler that I thought was so cool (and still do to this day) and am going to try install it to my PC

Why I think its cool:
-Its full copper! (nobody does this anymore)
-it has a really unique looping heatpipe design that looks really clean from above and is quite the manufacturing marvel
-the clear fan with blue LEDs make it look like some futuristic reactor when its running
-Zalman had smaller coolers which got nicknamed 'Flower' coolers, this one being their largest cooler of that time was dubbed the 'Super Flower'

Back when the cooler was new it supported Intel LGA775, 1366 and AMD 754, 939, 940, AM2/+ Sockets. Obviously these are ancient and I can't use those to mount it to my LGA 1700 PC (plus I didn't actually get any mounting hardware with the cooler anyway)

So after doing a little napkin math, my ultimate plan is to do some modifications so that it can work with Noctua's Secufirm 2+ system which should give it a long lasting life for future upgrades.
The kit in question is the Noctua NM-M1-MP78 which contains the most critical part - the NM-SFB4 78mm pitch bracket that's usually only provided with Noctua's coolers but is included by itself in this kit.

My system specs:
System Specs:
Intel Core i7 12700K
Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Elite AX DDR4
Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4-3200 C16
Yeston RTX 4060 Cute Pet MA
Superflower LEADEX III Gold 650w PSU
Samsung SSDs (990P + 980P + 2x970E)
Thermalright AXP-90 x53 (The subject being replaced)


Here's the cooler:

Teardown of the cooler

A pic of my system that this cooler is going into

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Noctua kit is on its way so wish me luck!

 

[Caring1]

I have a feeling that cooler would work better if the motherboard was horizontal.

 

[WonderSnail]

Oh and here's my plan for how to modify Secufirm 2+ to make it work

The bottom of the Zalman cooler has a removable plate that's a part of their own mounting system, from my research this is a standard component used by Zalman across the entire range of CNPS and FX coolers excluding the low profile ones.

There are two versions of this plate, both have similar same shape but differ in hole positioning for the intended fan mounting bracket.
Version 1 (The one I have) appears to be older and is used for the CNPS 9900 LED, 9700 and 9500. There are fan bracket holes for fans mounted towards one side of the heatsink like the 9700 and 9500. On the 9900 LED, these holes are left unused as the fan is mounted via a piece of plastic through one of the 'donut holes' on the heatsink

Version 2 is newer and has holes for both side and center fans and is used on later revisions of old coolers and newer coolers such as the CNPS 9900A and CNPS 9900 MAX

The thickness of the nub on Version 2 appears to be thicker so whatever I do here may not translate directly to newer coolers but imo Version 2 is better as the fan is mounted with a steel bracket to the cooler base rather than the heatsink itself which may help reduce vibrations and noise.

So back to the plan, I found that the top of the Zalman has a 'nub' (~10mm Diameter) and the center of the Noctua NM-SFB4 bracket has a hole (~4mm Diameter)
If I drill out the Noctua plate I can get it to fit through the nub and it will act as a lateral hold of the heatsink which should make a solid mount. (it wont stop the heatsink from rotating but I don't expect this to be much of an issue)

I even made a very low quality NM-SFB4 myself! out of paper!

This should work pretty well so the only other factor is thickness to ensure there's enough contact force
I did a few measurements of the Zalman cooler and references a scale image of a Noctua U9S which uses the NM-SFB4 bracket to measure the differences in thickness if any.

It turns out that there's roughly a 2mm difference in thickness from where the NM-SFB4 will make contact with the cooler down to the surface of the cold plate.
The Zalman is thinner which means there's not going to be any issues mounting it, however potentially it is possible to over-tighten the mount (of noctua's spec)
I could fix this by putting a washer around the nub or sticking some kind of foam/silicon sticker under the bracket to add some space and also help stop the cooler from rotating.
Its great its this close though, I expect Noctua's sprung loaded screws will deal with the ~2mm margin and it will work perfectly.

I have a feeling that cooler would work better if the motherboard was horizontal.

yeah I think so too, the weird shape would passively radiate more heat horizontally I reckon.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Interesting. I would worry about overtightening, though, especially the tension that might place on your motherboard. Less might as well be more, be very careful here. I have a suspicion that I damaged my MSI Z690 Ace by doing the same thing, an unofficial, aftermarket cooling mount that caused its PCB to warp a little. At the time I was so excited about my build that I didn't even notice...

Oh btw, that GPU is adorable. Did you make that shroud?

 

[WonderSnail]

Interesting. I would worry about overtightening, though, especially the tension that might place on your motherboard. Less might as well be more, be very careful here. I have a suspicion that I damaged my MSI Z690 Ace by doing the same thing, an unofficial, aftermarket cooling mount that caused its PCB to warp a little. At the time I was so excited about my build that I didn't even notice...

Yeah I will definitely be careful of the mounting pressure, Ideally I can fill in that 2mm difference and it should be the same pressure as Noctua's spec.

Oh btw, that GPU is adorable. Did you make that shroud?

haha no, it would be incredibly talented if I did.
Its a Yeston GPU, part of their Cute Pet series.

 

[kilo]

Oh btw, that GPU is adorable. Did you make that shroud?

Yeston cute pet. And I agree, it has charm

 

[QuietBob]

I've always liked the Zalman Flower HSF design. Still running its GPU variant, the VF900Cu, in my WinXP retro rig.
I wonder how many watts this old beast will manage to cool. With realistic loads, the 12700K can consume around 200 W (power limits removed, as per TPU's testing).

 

[Onasi]

Oh, I remember those coolers, they were quite decent at the time when they were actively around. Not outstanding, but decent. I am incredibly curious how it would hold up on a modern CPU considering the higher thermal density (even on Intel chips) and boosting algorithms. I assume you plan on gradually lowering the target TDP in BIOS once installed until the cooler can hold its own and not throttle?

 

[WonderSnail]

I wonder how many watts this old beast will manage to cool. The 12700K can consume around 200 W with power limits removed, as per TPU's testing.

The newer version of this cooler (that had a larger fan) advertised a qMax of 300w, whatever that means haha

Oh, I remember those coolers, they were quite decent at the time when they were actively around. Not outstanding, but decent. I am incredibly curious how it would hold up on a modern CPU considering the higher thermal density (even on Intel chips) and boosting algorithms. I assume you plan on gradually lowering the target TDP in BIOS once installed until the cooler can hold its own and not throttle?

same, I can't wait to test it. I reckon it will handle stock TDP. It's quite large, about the same size as a dual 120mm tower cooler and being full copper has a fair amount more thermal mass than those.

 

[Onasi]

I reckon it will handle stock TDP. It's quite large, about the same size as a dual 120mm tower cooler and being full copper has a fair amount more thermal mass than those.

Depends on what "stock TDP" is, with the MoBo settings and all. But, ehhh.... size ain't everything (yeah-yeah), the design of the HS itself is... well, there is a reason why they went outta fashion and copper is not the advantage you'd think. But yeah, would be interesting to see.

 

[Ruru]

Even though there has been numerous better designs during the years, I also see the charm of these older high-end air coolers.

I've always liked the Zalman Flower HSF design. Still running its GPU variant, the VF900Cu, in my WinXP retro rig.
I wonder how many watts this old beast will manage to cool. With realistic loads, the 12700K can consume around 200 W (power limits removed, as per TPU's testing).

I have a VF700Cu on my 6800 Ultra AGP.

 

[sethmatrix7]

Definitely post a picture once it's installed @WonderSnail. Zalman flower cooler + yeston GPU = cute rare build.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Yeah I will definitely be careful of the mounting pressure, Ideally I can fill in that 2mm difference and it should be the same pressure as Noctua's spec.

Yup, make sure to double check it

haha no, it would be incredibly talented if I did.
Its a Yeston GPU, part of their Cute Pet series.

View attachment 357610

Sweet! That one flew under my radar completely. I love the white and blue aesthetic. My wishlist is a ROG Strix 5080/5090 with a Genshin or Star Rail collab... I admit I would get into debt for that

 

[WonderSnail]

Update

Some bad news, I plugged in the fan to try it out and see it light up but it seems the fan is no good
At high RPM it sounds okay but at low RPM the fan makes a noticeable buzzing sound and I can feel the whole cooler vibrating which results in rattling.
Uninstalling the fan and just spinning it with my hand I would say it felt 'lumpy'; the bearing is no good.

Video of the cooler running (Turn up volume)

https://imgur.com/a/wzsFOPj

They don't make replacement fans anymore obviously. So inspired by this post over at Overclock forums I have decided to replace the fan myself with a DIY solution.
A few notes:
-The OC Forums fan replacement used a 140mm fan which matches the cooler diameter. Their CNPS 9900 MAX originally used 135mm fans.
-My cooler's original fan is 120mm and I will be replacing it with the same size for other reasons (See below)
-The OC Forum poster's CNPS 9900 MAX uses the newer fan mounting system with a steel bracket attached to the base plate. Mine uses the older plastic donut mount so the modifications will be a little different.

The fan I've chosen as a replacement is the Corsair ML120 Elite Blue LED version. (In white because it was cheaper)

It turns out its kinda hard these days to find a fan that is simultaneously 140mm, in-stock, clear blade, single colour LED, hub mounted LEDs, and PWM.
Its a dying breed, majority of fans now are RGB, milky blade and frame-lit. This Corsair fan is not perfect but it's the closest I could find for my wants.
On the positive side, I found the original fan LEDs to be quite dim, the replacement should be much brighter.

The mounting kit is almost here so I'll have more updates soon!

 

[Hyderz]

Update

Some bad news, I plugged in the fan to try it out and see it light up but it seems the fan is no good
At high RPM it sounds okay but at low RPM the fan makes a noticeable buzzing sound and I can feel the whole cooler vibrating which results in rattling.
Uninstalling the fan and just spinning it with my hand I would say it felt 'lumpy'; the bearing is no good.

im guessing the fan's ball bearing needs some good ol lubricating

 

[Audioave10]

I still have the 9700 w/green LED's in a different case - 15 years old! (only one LED still works, but the FAN is good)

 

[freeagent]

I had a 9500, I threw it away a few years ago

Edit:

I spy a sad emoji..

I know I know.

Dude I have like 11 Thermalright coolers, and 3 of them I know for sure will work on LGA775.. that is why it got the boot

 

[WonderSnail]

I still have the 9700 w/green LED's in a different case - 15 years old! (only one LED still works, but the FAN is good)

ooh that looks awesome! when I was doing research the 9700 seemed a lot rarer to come by than the 9900, definitely very cool thing to own.

im guessing the fan's ball bearing needs some good ol lubricating

Yeah possibly, I'll give it a shot if the fan replacement doesn't work out

I had a 9500, I threw it away a few years ago

Edit:

I spy a sad emoji..

I know I know.

Dude I have like 11 Thermalright coolers, and 3 of them I know for sure will work on LGA775.. that is why it got the boot

haha, that's understandable.
What Thermalright coolers do you have?... you don't happen to have the legendary TRUE Copper do you?

 

[OneWithMisery]

Those beautiful Zalman coolers
I had 8800GT SLI set with VF900-CU coolers on both of them back in the day.

I still have the 9700 w/green LED's in a different case - 15 years old! (only one LED still works, but the FAN is good)

Shadow of Chernobyl spotted on the desktop!

 

[Vario]

I had the Zalman VF700Cu on an X800XL.

There was also the Zalman Fatal1ty (-> Fat al-one-ty -> "fat alone, thank you")

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I had the Zalman VF700Cu on an X800XL.

There was also the Zalman Fatal1ty (-> Fat al-one-ty -> "fat alone, thank you")

I still have a Fatality branded FC-ZV9 sitting on a 7800GT somewhere. I should dig it out and see if it works.


(edited multiple times as i had to find the correct model number)

 

[Vario]

I still have a Fatality branded FC-ZV9 sitting on a 7800GT somewhere. I should dig it out and see if it works.


(edited multiple times as i had to find the correct model number)

I really liked the Zalman Z machine case, it was made out of thick aluminum. My friend had one.
It was like this or something similar to it:
https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/cases/zalman_z-machine_gt1000/1/

Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 Champ1on Series Gaming Case Review - PC Perspective

Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 Champ1on Series Gaming Case Review The Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 Champ1on Series Gaming Case is Zalman's first entry into the mid-tower enclosure

pcper.com

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I really liked the Zalman Z machine case, it was made out of thick aluminum. My friend had one.
It was like this or something similar to it:
https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/cases/zalman_z-machine_gt1000/1/

Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 Champ1on Series Gaming Case Review - PC Perspective

Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 Champ1on Series Gaming Case Review The Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 Champ1on Series Gaming Case is Zalman's first entry into the mid-tower enclosure

pcper.com

That case must have been pretty expensive back in the day. I never saw a single person have that case. I did see that case a lot in PC magazines though. Especially in one called CustomPC that we have here in the UK.

 

[Vario]

That case must have been pretty expensive back in the day. I never saw a single person have that case. I did see that case a lot in PC magazines though. Especially in one called CustomPC that we have here in the UK.

Yeah it cost the guy a couple hundred. The aluminum was quite thick, very solid case.

 

[WonderSnail]

Hey all!
Everything arrived and I have been busy at work on the cooler!

Here's everything in the Noctua kit (The critical NM-SFB4 is bottom Left bracket!) The screwdriver is pretty nice and gives me an excuse to show off my Noctua screwdrivers (can you tell I'm a fan? )

I used this drill bit to drill out the hole in the bracket, It's a HSS (High speed steel) stepped bit that goes from 4mm - 12mm

It worked extremely well, only took a minute to drill it out. The result is clean but I should note the original plan was to drill it out to 10mm, I found at 10mm it couldn't quite sit flush to the plate
(the nub on the Zalman base plate is very slightly cone shaped)
So in the end I drilled it out to 11mm

Quick test with the rest of the mounting hardware (For LGA1700):

The replacement fan also arrived and I've been working on it as well

The fan seems okay in quality but they've made a horrible manufacturing decision:

GLUE!?? common Corsair... In hindsight if I had any choice I would probably avoid this Corsair fan and get something else, if anyone reading this is wondering about fan replacements and doesn't have as strict requirements I found the APNX FP1 140mm fan is probably the best choice, its hub lit RGB, 140mm and 30mm thick (which definitely fits in the heatsink space) or if you don't care about RGB, the Superflower Megacool 140mm also seems like a good option in black.

So to get the fan mounted to the cooler I have to modify it to screw into the plastic donut holder that the factory fan uses. I marked 3 points on the back of the fan and drilled them through.
If you are doing this yourself make sure to make special note of the orientation of the plastic donut holder relative to where the cable comes out of the fan's PCB! The top of donut piece has two plastic 'slots', your fan cable should be directly opposite this like in my picture. When this is reinstalled back on the cooler the fan cable should route down and between the heatpipes.

The plastic there is surprisingly thin and I had to be super careful not to drill too fast or hard as the Fan's PCB is right behind it!

Next is getting rid of the frame, this particular fan uses a lot of very thin spokes to hold the fan in place, the plastic is very brittle so it was easy to separate it just using some electrical snips
I couldn't remove the glue, its seems to be quite a hard and high temp glue so I snipped it out of the housing too.

I cut to make sure I retained the length of the spokes as these are critical later for mounting to the cooler and creating a 'sandwich' with the plastic donut on the heatsink. The length of them can be cut down a little to make it cleaner looking as long as they make contact with the heatsink.

After that was done I decided to do a little sound treatment by sticking foam stickers on all points of contact with the cooler. The original fan all have hard plastic contact on the heatsink which is not optimal. This should hopefully help with acoustics:

After that's done everything just screws into the heatsink (with the original screws) and the job is done!

I gave it a little test and the rattling and vibrations are completely gone! Here it is running:

So everything is all good for the install which I'll be doing later when I get the time. So far its going well