Zalman Interview and 2012 Preview

Zalman is one of the elite companies in the world of PC cooling, in addition to making big waves in other segments of the PC components industry. On top of that, they’ve released a slew of products that PC enthusiasts have been giving high marks for quality. At CES 2012 in Las Vegas, we caught up with Zalman’s Jeff Liu to talk about what’s new with Zalman, some exciting products debuting this year and a preview of some exciting things to come.

GI: This is Sean Gibson at the Zalman booth at CES 2012. I am with Jeff Lu. Jeff, could you introduce yourself and what you do at Zalman?

JL: Hi, my name is Jeff. I am a Sales Account Manager here with Zalman USA.

GI: We’re standing right in front of the CPU coolers. It was the first thing that drew me over here. I mean, you have some amazing products that you’re debuting here, and let’s first talk about that 12X cooler that we saw. Why don’t you talk about the design, the lightweight form factor that I saw – just really introduce us to that product overall?

JL: Sure. For the 12X, it’s a world first – a triple fan technology, true copper/nickel plated, 1 kg in total weight. What’s so special about it is it again has a triple fan and it definitely cools the CPU. And also what makes it even better is direct touch heat pipes, so there’s no extra layering between your CPU and the fan.

GI: Also right next to it here we have the liquid cooler that attaches on the fan; this is directly to the CPU. I have a similar unit on my home rig. I’ll be honest with you it’s not a Zalman, but I love this kind of design because it’s quiet and it’s like the best between quiet and cooling. What are you guys doing specific to your model?

JL: So for this one, this all-in-one is actually just for us to stick our toes in the water and find out how warm the market is. What’s so special about this is again the Zalman fan. We spin at 3000 RPM versus regular fans which spin at 2400 RPM, and then our DBA is still around 17. So with the higher RPM is lower noises and we’ve just accomplished our mission.

GI: Yep. And I’m seeing “All New Three-Way Digital Power.” Are these new products here?

JL: [Some] are not and this [specific] one is. We’re actually coming out with 8900 Quiet and Extreme. The main purpose for these are for people to fit into their Mini-ITX or Micro-ITX. So these fans are no taller than 60mm so you will definitely have no clearance issue.

GI: I know in the gamer market, we love the small form factors, either to take it on the road or just as a media center PC. I’m looking at getting or building one, and I want to actually build it myself, so something like this product as a cooling solution specific to a miniPC – are you seeing a big market for the small form factor for people who still want performance?

JL: Yes, of course. Again, this fan is made out of true copper. It enhances the quality of it; it’s definitely exceeding the traditional small coolers. In addition these are direct touch as well, so again, there’s no other extra layer of obstacle between the CPU and the fans.

GI: I’m seeing SSD drives; I’m seeing some amazing power supplies. Are these products going to be available to us in the United States?

JL: Yes. The power supply will be available to you. Again, it’s divided into three categories – entry, mainstream and high-end. We’re going anywhere from 360w up to 1000w. As for the SSDs, P series and F series, these will be not available in North America yet. As of now we have the N series and S series that are available to go.

GI: Yeah, I’m seeing a 240 GB SSD on display here. I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

JL: Actually this is something new. As for why we came out with 240 GB I really don’t know, I’d have to ask HQ but definitely 240 GB is I would say good enough for almost anything.

GI: It’s pretty high. I have one that’s 120 GB and that’s the minimum I’m telling people, between your operating system and maybe that one game you have to have on your SSD – you still have to have a ton of space just to let the operating system breathe. So I’m not too big a fan of the 60s but it’s good to see things bigger than 120 come out.

JL: With the given technology right now, 240 or 256 may be the max capacity but we’re hoping to somewhat break through in that coming in 2012.

GI: Something else on display here is that I see an entire PC gaming solution. I mean this rig, I’ll be honest – if I wasn’t a married man I’d fall in love again right here. Talk about what Zalman is doing here in the PC gaming solutions business.

JL: With Zalman we started off in the CPU cooling system and that’s still our core business. But throughout the years we’ve kind of branched off, and now we’re making cases, hard supplies, video cards, SSDs. So anything besides you can say the optical drives, the motherboard, the CPU and RAM – we’re making them and help design as well.

GI: Let’s talk about the manufacturing process. What QA is in place to make sure these products last? Gamers will destroy these products if they’re not well-built.

JL: For all of our products, we make them in Korea. They’re manufactured in Korea and then all the tests are passed through, for example the CE RoHS and everything else.

GI: Okay. Any other big announcements that gamers should be aware of at CES with Zalman?

JL: Just look forward to the end of Q2. Again, we’re going to have a lot of surprises – I’m not going to reveal that right now so definitely look into it. Quite a hint would be maybe a little DIY kits for people who want to maybe put things together by themselves.

GI: Oh, okay, a nice little hint there. Well Jeff, thank you so much, I appreciate it. Thank you for being a guest of Gaming Illustrated.

JL: Thank you guys.

Gaming Illustrated would like to thank Jeff Liu and the rest of the Zalman team for being so hospitable at the CES 2012 booth and for their time with this interview.