ZEROtherm Nirvana NV-120 CPU Cooler with FREE LGA1366/1156 Clip Ultra

For a limited time period all ZEROtherm Nirvana CPU Coolers will be supplied with the mounting kit ZT-ZC1366 for free. This will make the Nirvana compatible with Intel’s LGA1366 and LGA1156 sockets out of the box!!

It is getting more and more difficult to choose a suitable high-end CPU cooler because there are so many great products available to choose from. Yes you can read reviews and act on recommendation but are you 100% sure you are still choosing the best cooler for your system? ZEROtherm’s latest incarnation, the Nirvana is trying to make your decision even easier and to be honest this cooler mightily impressed us here at Quiet PC.

The first thing that will strike you about this cooler is its size. It stands 150mm tall, so make sure it will fit inside your system. For the record only the Scythe Infinity and the Thermalright IFX-14 stand taller than this cooler, but the Nirvana looks more compact than the two for mentioned CPU coolers due to the fact the 120mm fan is built into the body of the Nirvana.

Gone are the references to butterflies and in are references to bees! We say this because the heatsink features a Honeycomb Structure. This feature increases air pressure at the centre of the heatsink to aid cooling, and boy does it work! During our evaluation no matter what we tried we could not get our Intel QX6600 Quad Core CPU over 41° and this was with the fan speed on its absolute minimum. Not only does the Honeycomb Structure help but also the copper base and the four U-shaped copper heatsinks play a massive factor. They transfer the heat quickly and efficiently into the fins where everything is cooled by an extremely quiet fan.

The supplied 120mm blue LED fan is built into the unit in a similar way to ZEROtherm’s Butterfly coolers. What is different about this fan is that it is not a PWM fan. The Nirvana fan has a standard 3-pin connector which connects to the supplied fan speed controller. This controller works in a similar way to Zalman’s FANMATE2 and when connected you can change the speed of the fan to a RPM that suits you, instead of the motherboard dictating the fan speed. When the fan speed is set to minimum the noise from the fan (if you can call it noise) is virtually inaudible. You can only hear it if you place your ear directly next to the fan!

To improve the look of the cooler ZEROtherm has nickel plated the whole cooler so it has a finish that looks fantastic and feel very smooth, although it does show finger prints easily, but I’m sure you will agree, that is nothing to worry about.

Compatibility and Installation

The Nirvana is compatible with Intel’s LGA775 and AMD’s 939, 940 and AM2 sockets. Installation is extremely easy. The images below show the two different brackets required to mount the cooler depending whether you have an Intel or AMD system. The AMD bracket will just attach to the supplied black retention module currently around the CPU. Unfortunately it is not that easy with the Intel socket. The motherboard requires the supplied backplate installing and once it is done the cooler simply screws through the motherboard and into the backplate.

PLEASE NOTE: LGA1366 and LGA1156 compatibility is only possible when used in conjunction with the ZC-1366 Clips.