Now 6 Zalman VF900 Video Card Cooler Reviews......

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: the Chase

Never even considered the CNPS7000!! The problem I would have is it would block all my PCI slots so no more sound card. Do they fit (holes line up) the graphics cards?? I agree with your thoughts on pricing. Selling less for more dollars bites.

I dont think you can fit CNPS7000 on a graphics card without using some creativity. The point I was trying to make is that that cooler sells for $30 to cool cpus and is a much better cooler. Yet the same company sells 185 gram copper (ok 1 heatpipe....) cooler for $20 premium?

The CNPS7000 is only better from a certain point of view: it's bigger and has more surface area. Unfortunately, it's too heavy to sit comfortably on a GPU (~500 grams), does not have heatpipes, and does not have any mounting equipment for a GPU. So the price difference does not reflect the final cost to actually get the CNPS7000 mounted, not to mention the inconvience of having all of your PCI slots taken up, the fact that it would probably break the GPU, etc.

The only gripe I can see with the VF-900 is that they're releasing it as a "premium" version of the VF-700 instead of just replacing it at the same pricepoint. Are heatpipes really that much more expensive to manufacture?

Btw, the VF-900 has two heatpies, one in each direction from the halfway point, and it cools better than the VF700, so it's not like it's an inferior cooler... It's the GTX 512MB of coolers: good performance, overpriced.

 

[nib95]

Guys I have a question.

I dont think I have any 3 pin connectors left on my mobo as they have all been used up by extra fans.
My question is, can I not just stick the VF900 fan connector to the one on the actual GPU and not use the fanmate controller?

 

[the Chase]

I'm not sure the connection is compatible? At least it wasn't on my X800GTO but not sure about the 7900GT, it may be.

 

[nib95]

Crap, I need to find this out, because theres no point me buying 2 if I cant even use them!

 

[jiffylube1024]

You can get a 3-pin adaptor to 4-pin molex adaptor for dirt cheap; a lot of people probably have extra lying around they'd sell for $1 ...

 

[Munky]

The zalman vf700 comes with a 4-pin molex adapter, which then has 5v and 12v 3-pin outputs, so you can chose how fast the fan runs.

 

[Vesper8]

argh! has ANYONE made a review of the VF-900 combined with any x1900XTX ??

that's what I need to see! that's THE card that is in major need of a great cooler

from the reviews I've read though the vf-900 seriously outperforms the accelero x2.. so it seems a safe bet to buy and install on a xtx.. still I'd like to see someone comment on the temperture decrease with one of these

 

[Munky]

If it keeps the x1800xt at 55C load, I'd imagine it would have no problem cooling the x1900xtx with load temps below 65C. In fact, it looks like the vf700 is about 5C hotter, so even 70C load with a vf700 should be better than stock. Currently my x1900xt runs about 75-80C in gaming with stock cooler, but when running rthdribl in fullscreen for 10 minutes the temps climb to 89C, and that's after I reseated the cooler with AS5.

 

[zephyrprime]

Doesn't look very impressive to me. And I saw in one of the reviews that the stock cooler keeps things the case the coolest. In my opinion, it's foolish to design a gpu cooler that doesn't exhaust directly out of the case. The high end cards are consuming 100watts nowadays and you don't want that air recirculating in the case.

 

[nib95]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Doesn't look very impressive to me. And I saw in one of the reviews that the stock cooler keeps things the case the coolest. In my opinion, it's foolish to design a gpu cooler that doesn't exhaust directly out of the case. The high end cards are consuming 100watts nowadays and you don't want that air recirculating in the case.

I solve this problem by leaving one side of my case off.
It's not much louder and does wonders for temps.

 

[zephyrprime]

Apparently the Arctic Cooler 5 rev3 will fit onto a 7900 if you cut off some of the plastic. Something to keep in mind for those with a 7900.

 

[gamejunkie]

If you compare photos of the Sytrin VF1 heatsink mounted without the fan to pictures of the bare motherboard he's using to review on, you'll see that the heatsink actually takes up less than two card slots (barely, but it does). Because of the design of these heatsinks, you could mount one to each card and mount a 120mm fan across both of them. That's what I'm planning on doing when newegg gets the VF1 back in stock.

 

[exitous]

There are 5 Sytrin vga coolers in stock now at newegg. I bought one and it should be here friday. The ability to mount whatever fan you want makes it much better than the zalman to me.

 

[orion23]

In stock now at zipzoomfly.com with free second day air shipping!

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=373501

 

[the Chase]

Bumping as ZipZoomFly is the best deal on this that I can find.(Free shipping)

 

[Hauk]

I love zipzoomfly. I buy from them before I do the Egg.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Where are the VF700 vs. VF900 benches??? The VF700 costs half as much and is more readily available.

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Where are the VF700 vs. VF900 benches??? The VF700 costs half as much and is more readily available.

According to Techgage, the numbers are;


VF900

# @ Idle the temps were 31 degrees celsius
# Aqua Mark3 @load the temps were 34 degrees celsius
# 3D Mark 06 @load the temps were 34 degrees celsius

VF700

* @ Idle 32 degrees celsius
* Aqua Mark3: 33 degrees celsius
* 3D Mark 06: 34 degrees celsius


According to Tweaknews

The results speak for itself.

@ high load, the 900 is only 10% better than the VF700. But, it cost 45% or more than a VF700. $50 for VF900 $24 for the VF700.

According to Blane. The NV5 rev3. works with his x1900xt. SVC has the the NV5 silencers on sale for $19.99. So why pay more for a VF900 @ $50 when you can just purchase a NV5 Rev.3 for $19.99 if you have an x1900 or 1800? If you have a 7900GT, an Accellero is only $29.

This is just my opinion.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Is the Accelero compatible with the 7900GT?

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Is the Accelero compatible with the 7900GT?

Correction: It is NOT compatible with the 7900GT. But, the GTX it is. According to AC's site. A VF700 would probably be a wise choice for 7900 until AC releases the new revision to the X1 series.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I hope to get my step-up eVGA 7900GT OC within the next week or two at the latest. WTF is Artic Cooling waiting until JUNE to release an HSF for the GT???

Looks like VF700 vs. VF900 for me.

 

[the Chase]

Originally posted by: Remedy

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Where are the VF700 vs. VF900 benches??? The VF700 costs half as much and is more readily available.

According to Techgage, the numbers are;


VF900

# @ Idle the temps were 31 degrees celsius
# Aqua Mark3 @load the temps were 34 degrees celsius
# 3D Mark 06 @load the temps were 34 degrees celsius

VF700

* @ Idle 32 degrees celsius
* Aqua Mark3: 33 degrees celsius
* 3D Mark 06: 34 degrees celsius


According to Tweaknews

The results speak for itself.

@ high load, the 900 is only 10% better than the VF700. But, it cost 45% or more than a VF700. $50 for VF900 $24 for the VF700.

According to Blane. The NV5 rev3. works with his x1900xt. SVC has the the NV5 silencers on sale for $19.99. So why pay more for a VF900 @ $50 when you can just purchase a NV5 Rev.3 for $19.99 if you have an x1900 or 1800? If you have a 7900GT, an Accellero is only $29.

This is just my opinion.

In both of those reviews you linked to it was the Fatality version that they compared the VF900 to- not the VF700. The Fatality version has a higher fan speed than the 700 which results in cooler temps and more noise than the VF700. It is also priced higher-$45-$49. So with the VF900 you can have slightly better temps at the same price but with less noise than the Fatality VF700. Unless you can buy the Fatality for $25 somewhere- then disregard this!!
The NV5 that Blane got to work on his card only resulted in a 10 degree C temperature drop from the OEM cooler and he replaced that with the V-1 Ultra so I dunno....

 

[Remedy]

The NV5 that Blane got to work on his card only resulted in a 10 degree C temperature drop from the OEM cooler and he replaced that with the V-1 Ultra so I dunno....

The NV5 only cost $19 though. So, replacing it with a $45 cooler with a $19 one seems to be a perfect trade off for price/performance ratio.

But, the rest of the articles that are hot linked above in the OP post seem to reflect the same opinion that I posted. Why pay $50 for the VF900, but not search for an alternative that is half the cost?

I can understand paying $45 for a Thermalright V1 Ultra where it has flexibilty of adding 2 80mm fans or 1 80mm fan or ran passive with no fan at all, etc. But, $50 for the VF900 according to all the results posted in comparison to what other products are on market at various prices doesn't seem logical.

Maybe Zalman will introduce an all Aluminum version @ $29 or so. But @ $50 each for VF900 and you have SLI or Crossfire, that's $100 spent on heatsinks that may not be better than a pair of say, previous Silencers @ $19 to $25 each.

JMO though.

 

[the Chase]

Yeah I can see the rationale. I think the V1 is a good deal as you said. Some peeps have gotten really good results with the VF900 and others pretty crappy compared to other coolers. I wish the V1 was a little more user friendly- I'd snap one up in a heartbeat.

 

[Munky]

I seriously doubt the NV5 has the cooling capacity for x1900xt(x) duty. It has no heatpipes, and an aluminum heatsink that looks smaller than the stock cooler. It'll be quiet for sure, but the Accelero has a heatpipe cooler that's like 2x as big as the NV5, and even that one seems to give mixed results in temps.