Introduction

Zalman has been alive and kickin ever since they unleashed the Super Flower heatsink back in 2000. The heatsink claimed quiet, yet cool performance which was hard to come by at the time. Three years later, Zalman has extended their product lineup and is producing some of the best quiet heatsinks to ever hit the market. After Zalman's success with air cooling products, they took the dive into water cooling. Zalman now produces the ZM-WB2, a high performance copper water block to cool the latest AMD and P4 CPUs. Does Zalman's quality and craftsmanship carry over from air to water? Well, read on my friend. Read on. NOW!

Overview

The Zalman water block consists of a copper base inserted into an Anodized aluminum housing. This block uses compression hose fittings much like those found in Innovatek products. The block comes with 10mm (~5/16") , 11mm (~3/8"), and 13mm (~1/2") outter diameter fittings for different size tubing. The block we were sent was a preproduction model that does not include all of the accessories found along with the retail block. Our block came with Socket 468 (P4) mounting hardware, but the retail block also comes with Socket 462 (Athlon) and Socket 754 (Athlon 64).


The block itself is pretty heavy, but the quality and construction is top-notch. The compression fittings included with the block use 1/4" threads (pretty much standard) and have rubber grommets for a water-proof seal.


The base of the block was machine lapped EXTREMELY well. This is, by far, the smoothest, shiniest surface I have ever seen on a water block. The copper base screws into the aluminum casing and a rubber seal between the halfs keeps water from leaking.


The inside of the block is fairly original. The copper base and the inside of the block (which you can see through the fitting hole) are all machined from a single piece of copper. The base extends into the housing and forms three disks which create channels which the water flows through to cool the block and ultimately the CPU.


Installation

Mounting the block on a P4 board is fairly simple. The two blue aluminum bars are inserted into the stock plastic mounting mechanism located on the motherboard. The block is placed over the CPU, and the metal arm is placed on top of the block. Two screws go through the arm and screw into the blue aluminum bars. This method securely holds the block in place and is easy to do.


Now it is time to connect the tubing. First you must remove the outter part of the compression fittings. Slide the outter part of the fittings over the tubing. Push the tubing over the inner part of the fittings, then screw the outter part of the fittings back on. This creates a very secure, water-proof seal.

Just to be sure everything is connected securely, you should run the water cooling loop outside of your computer to check for leaks. Personally, I let any water cooling setup run over night before I install it on my precious hardware.

Performance

Well, the block looks good, and installs with simplicity, but how does it perform? To test this block, I used the pump from the Swiftech H20-8500 kit (which we reviewed here), and a basic 120mm radiator. I used 1/2" OD tubing. I leak tested the loop overnight. The next morning everything was as dry as a Presbyterian during Prohibition (don't flame, that was meant to be dumb!).

The Zalman block was installed on a P4 2.4C Hyperthreaded processor. I will be comparing the Zalman block to the Swiftech block found in the H20-8500. During all testing the room temperature was within half a degree of 32*C.

Zalman ZM-WB2 Performance
(Show All Graphs) (Collapse Graphs)

Idle

Load

Zalman: 2 Fans

Zalman: 1 Fan

Swiftech: 2 Fans

Swiftech: 1 Fan

35

35

35

36

0

Temperature ( °C )

100

 

 

Idle

Load

Zalman: 2 Fans

Zalman: 1 Fan

Swiftech: 2 Fans

Swiftech: 1 Fan

48

49

47

48

0

Temperature ( °C )

100

 

 

As you can see, the Zalman block was pretty much on-par with the Swiftech block (only a degree warmer under load). Both blocks are high quality, both are anodized blue, and both perform within a degree of each other. For Zalman's first step into water cooling, I must say they did a great job.

Conclusion

Overall I am pretty impressed with Zalman's attempt at a water block. The quality is superiour, there are many accessories included (more mounting hardware and fittings than any block I've seen) and the performance is up there with the Swiftech block. The ability to mount it on the upcoming Athlon 64 is nice and saves you the cost of buying a new block if you do upgrade to AMD's new chip. I see nothing wrong with this block, and would recommend it to anyone looking to water cool their PC.

Pros

Superior quality/construction
Mounting hardware
Compression fittings
Performance

Cons

If you can think of one, let me know!