Specifications
As far as size goes, the cooling module is quite small compared to, say, an Arctic Cooling Silencer. It is quite a bit deeper than the stock cooler, to accommodate the heat pipes, but it is neither very wide nor very long. If not for the fan bracket taking up the slot, both video card and the cooler would easily fit in a single slot.
The squirrel cage cross-flow cooling fan has three speed ranges. You select the speed using a three-way switch attached to the PCI slot bracket, which you can reach at the back of your PC once the device is installed. It is hard to see, but easy to feel with your fingers; you can also tell which range the device is in by listening to the fan noise as you switch fan levels - although you really have to strain to hear it at all.
Note that the noise specifications are 24, 28, and 32 dB(A). The first level, 24 dB(A), is close to silent operation, while 32 dB(A) is comparable to a regular case fan. That is still pretty quiet for running full-out VGA cooling.
Now that we have an idea of what the VF1 Plus includes, let's make it work with the X1800 XL.