VGA Heat-Pipe Cooler Roundup 2006
Zalman's VF900-Cu
Zalman's VF900-Cu
Best price found: $33.99
Zalman is the king of quiet; can its newest cooler keep the noise down and deliver superior cooling performance as well?
Hardware
The VF900-Cu looks a lot like its older cousin, the VF700-Cu. Like that model, the cooling fins are in a radial configuration, and in the center sits one of Zalman's legendary quiet fans. Where the VF700 is a solid cooling block simply adorned with cooling fins, the VF900-Cu utilizes heat pipes to draw the heat away from the block. Also like the VF700-Cu, the VF900-Cu comes with memory heat sinks. The VF900-Cu was the only aftermarket cooler in this comparison, other than the KuFormula VF1 Plus, that featured fan speed controls.
Zalman's VF900-Cu package
Installation
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The VF900-Cu was very easy to install. First we applied the memory heat sinks, which was easy enough since they come pre-applied with thermal tape. Then, we attached the spacer bolts to the appropriate bracket holes on the bottom of the cooler, so that it fit the X1900 XTX. Finally, we installed the fan speed control, which is a separate little box that can be mounted outside the PC case.
The control box has a long wire to connect to the VF900-Cu, and also a 3-pin power connector on the motherboard. Once again, a Molex power option would have been nice.
Current page: Zalman's VF900-Cu
Prev Page Thermalright's V1 Ultra Next Page Test System & BenchmarksDon Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.