The 15.4? Smackdown: Zalman NC1000 VS NC2000 *detailed*

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First off I would like to apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors and the poor image quality. I had attempted multiple photo shoots but lighting in Tokyo is just not right for pictures. The red you see in some pictures is due to me covering the flash in order to make the image not be a bright shine.

Important Notes:

1) I have attempted to make this the most fair and equal test and comparison possible. I had redone the test over a dozen times in order to achieve this. It has been very time consuming.

2) The history of the coolers used in this comparison is quite important. As for usage notes the Zalman NC1000 was used for about 15 hours in total and blown out with compressed air as well as every vent on the top cleaned out with a Qtip. The Zalman NC2000 has been in use since the beginning of April 2008, the cooler was cleaned with Qtips (Vents and fans) and blown out with air. The NC1000 will undoubtedly have a slight advantage as the coolers were not opened to get any non visible dust removed.

3) I have used every cooler to their full potential.

4) Every notebook will have different results but this can be used as a basic guideline but do not use it as your only basis for the decision for your cooler but try and measure your base/align vents with cooler vent placement.


Background Knowledge:

There has been quite a bit of controversy of which notebook cooler is the “best”. For a notebook cooler to be the best the layout of the bottom of the chassis is very important. Although that may be the case the cooler is just as important and today I will be comparing two coolers that have been marketed for separate sized notebooks but has been debated which is “better” for a 15.4” notebook. They are the Zalman NC1000 and the Zalman NC2000, both are very popular notebook coolers for their build, design and effectiveness.

The Zalman NC1000 is recommended by Zalman to be used for 15.4” notebooks. A while after the release of the Zalman NC1000 the Zalman NC2000 was released. The NC2000 is very similar to the NC1000 but with more bulk. It was designed “specifically” for 17” notebooks and larger. Although advertised like so I like some other members went ahead and purchased the NC2000 for 15.4” rigs.

The main argument that the NC1000 “outperforms” the NC2000 is that it has a higher CFM. With a higher CFM it was said to have “better” cooling due to more airflow. For those of you who are not familiar with CFM it is an acronym for Cubic feet per minute, which is a measure of the volume of air flowing in a system. The argument for why the NC2000 would match if not “exceed” the NC1000 was that although it maintains a lower CFM it does have more vents. With more vents it can hit more vents on the actual notebook itself and cool the general chassis “better”.

Equipment Used:

Notebook Used: Dell Vostro 1500

Age: 11 months
Fan Condition: In good shape, blown out regularly and believed to be cleaned by Dell technicians.
Specifications:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 1.8Ghz (Not Undervolted)
4GB Corsair Value Select PC5300 DDR2 SODIMM 667Hz
Nvidia 8600m GT 256mb DDR2 (Running Stock)
Windows XP Home (Tweaked slightly using Tunexp)
9 Cell Battery (Installed during testing)

Notebook Coolers Used: Zalman NC1000(B)

Price: 45$ Cdn or 50$ USD

Dimensions 308(L) x 330(W) x 40(H) mm
Weight 1,195g
Base Material Pure Aluminum, ABS
Noise 18.0 - 25.5 dBA ± 10 % (I would say less)
Input Voltage 5V (Connects with Notebook USB Port)
Color Black

Fan
Type Dual Centrifugal
Fan Quantity Two
Individual Fan Size 6cm Diameter or 3Cm Radius
Bearing Type Hypro Bearing
RPM 1,100 ~ 1,500rpm ± 10 %

Zalman NC2000(B):

Price 56$ Cdn or 57$ USD

Dimensions 318(L) x 400(W) x 42.5(H) mm
Weight 1,460g
Base Material Pure Aluminum, ABS
Noise 18.0 - 25.5 dBA ± 10 % (I would say less)
Input Voltage 5V (Connects with Notebook USB Port)
Color Black

Fan
Type Dual Centrifugal
Fan Quantity Two
Individual Fan Size 6cm Diameter or 3Cm Radius
Bearing Type Hypro Bearing
RPM 1,100 ~ 1,500rpm ± 10 %

Desk Used: Made out of compressed wood chips with thin wood cover on top and sides.

Software Used: HWmonitor, RivaTuner, NHC, ORTHOS, 3dMark06

First Impressions:

Looking at the boxes it was quite obvious which cooler was housed in which box. Both boxes had the same information labeled around it. The main difference besides the size of each box was the writing on the box on the NC1000 had a more “older 2000” kind of look to it while the box for the NC2000 had a more “futuristic” font used as well as how diagrams were presented etc.

Inside the box both coolers were wrapped in a nice foam sleeve and held from either side by pieces of styrofoam.

The weight of the coolers did not surprise me at all. The larger NC2000 was not noticeably heavier then the smaller NC1000, technically it is only a mere 265g heavier then the NC1000. Both coolers felt the same, strong durable metal top and plastic base. In a unintentional durability test neither cooler suffered any damage when rammed against a hinoki wood pole. Hinoki is Japan’s strongest wood used in select homes.

Overall Size:

The NC2000 is bigger and that cannot be denied but not by a large margin. The pictures below should provide you with a general size comparison

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The Vostro 1500 measures in with the dimensions W x D x H - 13.13 x 9.61 x 1.52 inch (without 9 Cell Battery). When loaded up on a NC1000 it had noticeable overhang on both sides and the front of the cooler was not visible in order to align the notebook up. Saddled up on the NC2000 the Vostro 1500 fits comfortably but with roughly the same over hang turned into extra realstate on the sides.

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General Tour and Comparison of the Coolers’ features and/or layout:

Both coolers look identical from the top with one exception, size. The NC2000 is larger then the NC1000 and boasts more vent holes and more vent space. Here are pictures displaying the measurements of and to the vents of both coolers. May I apologize for the blinding colors but I chose them according to visibility and nothing stands out like 80's pink, purple and lime green.

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On the left of the NC1000 it is blank but still attractive. As for the NC2000 it has its spare USB port placed there.

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On the right for both cooler we have a more crowded area. Both coolers have a power button and speed knob as well as USB port(s). Both power buttons and knobs are the same and have the classic quality touch and feel to them. The larger NC2000 only has one USB port provided on the right (other on the left) while the NC1000 has both of its USB ports placed on the right. One of the USB ports must be utilized in order to power the cooler. There is one last feature on the right side which is the power indicator which in the case of the NC1000 is a red light and for the NC2000 is a blue light. Both lights are very bright and will partially light up a dark room.

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The bottom of the chassis of both coolers is built out of durable plastic. This is where the coolers differ noticeably but not greatly. The NC2000 has a built in cord carrying cartridge as well has flip open legs which will raise the tilt of the cooler slightly which allows better airflow. I have also included the cords into this section. The USB cord of the NC1000 for some reason is almost double the length of the cord for the NC2000 and has a more boxy/aged look. I am not quite sure behind the reasoning for this, I don’t see someone fitting a 20+inch notebook on there in order to take advantage of the generously long cord.

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A few interesting but almost meaningless differences are that the NC1000 also has "www.ZALMAN.co.kr” stamped into the bottom. One other very subtle difference is that the imprinted fan prints on the NC1000 are different from the real fan vents while on the NC2000 the imprinted fan prints are the same as the vents.

As for height the NC2000 is slightly taller without using the extra legs and when the legs are opened the difference can be seen below.

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There is use for this as it provides better air flow. I believe if wanted you could just chuck something under the legs of the NC1000.

Portability is important for those who like a cooler on the go. I would say these are not for daily movers but still quite portable. As stated in the first impressions both coolers are not very heavy but the NC2000 may have a hard time fitting in your bag when compared to the NC1000.

Statistics:

Now we get to what really matters, the numbers.

For load temperatures I ran ORTHOS for 15 minutes then three straight runs of 3dMark06 followed by another 5 minute ORTHOS stress test.

After ever test I did let the notebook and the desk have a cool off period. The desk was clear of objects within this period of 15 minutes and the notebook was being held opened at a right angle (90 degrees) and held up by the battery to keep the lid and the base in the air. All cables were disconnected and power was cut.

The room temperature was set at 26C with an air conditioner but changed (explanation under the load section) but was made sure to be back at 26C before every test.

Enough with the technical lets get to the results. Here are idle temperatures for the Desk, NC1000 and NC2000.

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As you can see the desk had the highest temperatures followed by the NC1000 then the NC2000. But it is important to note that the temperatures there are just the minimum and maximum temperatures. Actual average idle temperatures were a bit different.

For the desk the average idle temperature was constantly switching between the max and 1C below the max and sometimes going lower. The NC1000 triumphed over the desk by be able to hold an idle temperature on average idle temperature right in between the min and max temperatures. The “winner”, the NC2000 was able to keep average idle temperatures very close to the min temperatures. The GPU was actually able to usually stay at the min temperature.

Now it is time for the load temperatures. As many members and even non members just browsing NBR are avid gamers this will be of interest for you. The method upon how a load was set on the notebook was posted above in this very statistics section.

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The results are once again the same. The idle temperature of the desk was clearly the highest by a large margin, the average temperature it held for all of its components were the max temperatures which continuously rose. The NC1000 held an average temperature for everything but the HDD at around the 70C mark. The temperature of the HDD continuously rose.

One very interesting point I would like to point out occurred during temperature tests with the desk and the NC1000 is that the room temperature rose to 28C due to the heat produced by the notebook. With the NC2000 the temperature rose to 26.7C.

The NC2000 held lower temperatures then the others and held an average temperature for every component between two to five degrees Celsius below the max temperature varying by component.

I found it interesting the ACPI temperatures between the NC1000 and NC2000 were identical. I am not sure behind the reasoning of this.

Noise:

The NC1000 has noticeably more CFM then the NC2000. During my tests I continuously listened to the noise produced by both coolers. I then ran a 15 minute test in a silent room with both coolers running. I have concluded that the NC1000 is louder then the NC2000. I believe the culprit of this is the higher CFM. With the higher CFM the air is pushed more forcefully through each of the vents on the top, therefore producing more noise.

Mods:

Currently there is only one mod I would deam "safe" for the Zalman. Modding the Zalman can often result in ruining its engineered airflow, therefore chucking many mods out the window.

This mod by Gophn will concentrate the airflow making the cooler slightly more effective regardless if you have the NC2000 or 1000. Enjoy

Conclusion:

In this case the NC2000 “triumphed” but as stated in the important notes section up top (#4) it is the combination of the notebook’s vent placement and the coolers vent placement to get optimal results.

Acknowledgements:



Also for more cooling tips I highly recommend you stop by cooling central.

On a side note:

I will be editing my several parts of my Zalman NC2000 review such as the cooler comparison etc. (refer to sig for link) COMPLETE

Afterwards I will be updating/redoing my notebook cooler buyers’ guide to be more informative to first time buyers.

 

what an amazing review, that's why i love this site. I've been thinking about the NC2000 and now i'm sure.

thanks!!!

 

Why do they put those imprints?

 

the nc1000 is ideal for my xps m1330, though this is a nice comparison

repped!

 

Woah..and wow! What a great review you did!

Very informative ) Kudos.....


Cin

 

That was an amazing job

 

Thanks for the comments everyone!

I believe the fan imprints are there since if it was plain by each fan it would look rather boring. As for why they load the NC1000 up with their URL, a little odd they only do it on only the NC1000.

 

Nice and detailed.

I was about to do the same type of comparison with my 17" notebook with a NC1000 and NC2000.

Thanks X2P.

 

very nice review.
wish i had a digi cam so i could do the same and show u my cryo LX numbers.

 

XD this always happens Gophn. Points at the Cooler buyers guide XD Cant wait to see your 17" comparasion!

Thanks Gophn!

 

Very helpful review actually. Just letting you know it's appreciated. The 2000 piques my interest.

 

I was looking into the NC2000, but I have a newbie question: Does it blow cool air in or suck hot air out?

Thanks for all the info on this - it has been awesome!

 

Totally GREAT review. Just what i have been looking for, CHEERS!

 

Blow air up, you may want to look at the review (in sig)

 

Good review. Too bad Dell doesn't offer the 2000 on their site

 

Thanks a lot!

 

Excellent review! +1 for all your hardwork & efforts.

 

don't notebook coolers actually make the notebook hotter under load?

 

wouldnt that be counter productive?
there are some cases where on some notebooks, some notebook coolers block the intake vents on the notebook and infact do make the notebook coolers. but that is not usually the case and if you know what you are doing that wont happen you.

 

Exactly. It is usually passive coolers that cause the issue of generating more heat under load.

 

i love my zalman 2000

 

Nice review man... Looks like the NC2000 is worth the extra $. I'm getting an XPS M1530 so I want to keep it as cool as possible while gaming.

 

Excellent review. I have a NC1000 but I game a lot on my machine and I thought about getting a NC2000 (more vent holes) which would keep it cooler, looks like a 2000 it is.

 

Hi, thanks for a great review. I'm wondering if it's possible to somehow disable the light on the NC2000?

 

It is not possible though it is probably possible to cover it up with a bit of black electrical tape.

 

you can open it up and remove or disconnect the LED.... unless if its soldered onto a microboard.

I agree the NC2000 led is quite bright... so I just used piece of opaque tape or Post-It piece to cover it.

 

I wonder if this holds true for all 15.4" laptops.. good review.

 

In my opinion it will hold true for notebooks that have a decent amount of vents on the bottom. Some notebooks have only a single vent which is not very large with a fan, those notebooks would not benefit from a larger cooling surface unlike notebooks which can make good use of the larger surface.

 

x2p: i think that since the fan specs are exactly the same for the NC1000 vs NC2000, their cooling capabilities should be alike.

But i think its important to note that since the NC 1000 is smaller, its cooling surface area is thus smaller, so it must harder to align your vents on the optimal cooling area, resulting in slightly higher temperatures.

If aligned perfectly, i bet NC1000 vs NC 2000 should have the same capabilities.

good job on this review btw

 

I wonder if anybody has had a problem with the spare USB port being on the opposite side on the NC 2000.

In my set-up, the laptop (Clevo D901C with 4 USB ports on right-hand side) is sat to my left, and the external monitor/keyboard/mouse in front of me, so if the cooler takes up one port, and I run out of ports on the right side of the laptop, then the mouse or keyboard USB would have to go on the opposite side of the cooler, which could be a bit messy as the mouse/keyboard USB would have to stretch across the length of the laptop to the other side.

Have I understood that right?

Not convinced about the imprints either. It just makes me think of car dashboards with bits of plastic filling in for switches reminding you of the optional extras you didn't get, i.e. as if there were, say, an NC 4000 with 4 fans.

 

1) a)you could buy a USB extention cable for a buck b)buy a USB to wall and power it off that not using a usb port but a better solution c) buy a USB hub, plug everything but the mouse in (incase of lag on the mouse) and its not trouble. I actually have all 7 usb ports on my hub full while my laptop is only using one port, the hub.

Cable ties will solve any cable issue no problems.

From what I have been gathering there are a couple reasons behind the non four fan design. 1) NOISE the Zalman is meant to be quite just like all their products while being effective if you chuck two more fans in there it will not beat out the competition in terms of noise reduction although cooling is already at times superior 2) Engineering, from an engineering stand point if you toss in 2 fans where there are currently no fans it would not work to have even air flow coming out of the vents as the fans use the air drawn in to control the direction it goes along with the chassis, chuck in two more fans and that will not work. Another similar cooler to the NC2000 and 1000 is the Cooler Master notepal infinite if you look at images of the airflow on there the only reason the cooler works is due to its 1 fan design.

 

In reference to the air flow direction, the fans in my laptop blow downwards, out of the bottom of the laptop. Would a laptop cooler blowing upwards not 'interfere' with the airflow in this case, reducing cooling efficiency?

To anyone that has this cooler, in the case of the air flow being up towards the laptop, how easy do you think it would be to take the cooler apart (basically is it held together by screws, and if so, are they easy to get to?) and swap the power supply over for each fan to reverse the air flow direction, in order to 'suck' the hot exhaust away from the laptop?


Cheers.

 

What notebook is it?

Ive never seen a notebook that blows air downwards. Its always to the back or a side vent.

It would be a bad design because the bottom vent can easily be blocked

 

It's an HP dv5000. I've checked that it blows down by holding a leaf of paper against it.

 

Update

I have added a "mods" section along with a mod

 

Great info! Thanks for the tip on the mods

 

It would be kind of useless IMO and if the CFM is too high it could cause damage. What you want would be a complete waste of money. I recommend getting a notebook cooler that sucks .. there is a buyers guide link in my sig. Thermal take makes a couple models.

No prob...

 

dear X2P, may i know is Zalman (NC1000 or 2000) suitable (effective) for hp pavillion 2500z? tx2500 just too "warm" everytime i used it...haha

 

Thinking about it a NC1000 may be suitable could you post a pic of the bottom please

 

Sorry for bumping up an old thread but I had a question. I have the Zalman NC1000 and just bought a Dell Studio XPS 1640. Do you think it will be okay to use the NC1000 with it? I already put so much into my laptop so I'd hate to have to go buy the NC2000. Thanks!

 

Do you have a pic of the bottom of your notebook J3n?

 

This is slightly off topic but, X2P, I was wondering if you could answer this post. LINK

 

I don't have my laptop yet, still in production. Here is a picture I found though:

 

Hey J3n,

Sorry for the delayed response. I believe the NC2000 would be more effective for your notebook. As you can see on the measurements on page 1 the cooler surface is noticeably larger meaning it would be able to cover more vents and push air where you need it.

 

Thanks for the reply X2P. My laptop is supposed to be here tomorrow so I'll give I'll be able to try it with my NC1000. If it doesn't work right I'll just sell it and get the NC2000. Thanks again!

 

good review
to bad that this cooler don't have vents on top
do You think it's possible to add small 30-40mm fan in top left corner?

 

There is no way to do that as that is where the fan is located. If you want a fully adjustable cooler the Cooler Master X2 is in your targets.

 

Nice review Thanks!