Zerotherm Zen FZ120

[Kougar]

Reviewer: Mr. Steven "Srpeters18" Peters

Date Published: June 26, 2008

Excerpt: "Today we examine the ZEROtherm Zen FZ120, a large heatsink/fan combo at an affordable price. "

http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revimages/coolers/zerotherm_zen/intro%20image.jpg

Please feel free to post your comments and questions here!

Link To Review (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1287)

[Sadasius]

Dude....What the hell is wrong with your water loop? You got 42 under load stock??? Something is not right there. Good review BTW. Looks like this product is a real winner. Nice to see Zerotherm come out with fists of fury for a new company.

[the_dope_chaud]

yeah, was wondering the same thing...
would of been good to explain what the custom water loop is.

[slugbug]

Good review :icon_tiphat: I need to look into changing my CM Hyper 212. At 3.0ghz on my Q6600 I'm getting 58c under full load.

[Frag Maniac]

Yes this is extremely well priced for such a product. I would have liked to seen the Noctua just reviewed go up against it though to see if it's much higher price is justified. At least with the Noctua it will support the upcoming LGA1366 socket though. Also, I'm not sure I'd trust those flimsy fan clips to hold up.

[srpeters18]

The fan clips actually held up quite well, just a pain to install. The fan feels quite secure once its installed.

As for the water loop, I am looking into what is wrong with it. Honestly, it seems like the Zen got much better contact. When I pulled it off the AS5 was spread nice and thin across the entire surface. When I pulled the waterblock off, there was a circle in the middle but it didn't spread all the way to the outside, seems like one core on the quad may not have had much AS5 and not much contact, thereby heating the entire thing up more. Looking at lapping the waterblock to even it out. BTW here's what the loop consists of:\

Swiftech 2x120 rad
MCP655 pump
D-Tek FuZion with quad nozzle
1/2" ID tubing.

Pretty standard CPU only loop. Like I said, looking to see what's going on with it, and probably going to pick up a bigger rad as well. I wanted to throw a V1 from ThermalTake in the mix, but I no longer have it. I do know the Zen far outperformed it however. I was quite impressed with the Zen.

[Sadasius]

Hmmmm Switech rads are not exactly the best either unless you have some good fans on there with good static pressure to get rid of the heat buildup. The D-tek block is a good block and usually are pretty flat. It's the mounting that counts most. The stock mounting kind of bits as the springs weaken and the temps go up gradually. I think there is 3 different mounting mechanisms out for it right now. Best way.....HARD MOUNT! No springs!

Also for the D-tek did you put the washer in the spacer when you put in the quad nozzle? If not you are going to be doing alot of back washing through there with the added pressure of the quad nozzle. There is a gap that comes naturally between the top part of the block and the spacer where you insert your quad nozzle. That's where you have to place that black washer.

Hope this helps bro!

[srpeters18]

Hmm, good info, thanks! I will check on the black spacer and will look into getting a different mounting system. As for the fans, I'm using the med. speed yate loons.

[joz]

ZeroTherm walked into the Heatsink Bar-n-Grill and told everyone to get the **** out, even Chuck Norris left after loosing his witts.

[Sadasius]

Hmm, good info, thanks! I will check on the black spacer and will look into getting a different mounting system. As for the fans, I'm using the med. speed yate loons.

:offtopic:Might want to change your fans for that rad. Yate's are an okay fan, their cheap and quiet but their static pressure blows chunks. They work pretty good on Thermachill rads because of the wide fin spacing. They don't need much static pressure. But the HW labs and Swifties do need the pressure to perform. To help cheat use a push/pull configuration if your going to use low pressure fans. That will help a great deal.:offtopic: