Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler<base href="http://www.atruereview.com/" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.atruereview.com/images/favicon.ico" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <link href="http://www.atruereview.com/templates/rt_versatility_iii/css/template_css.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="http://www.atruereview.com/templates/rt_versatility_iii/css/style10.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="http://www.atruereview.com/templates/rt_versatility_iii/slimbox/slimbox.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="http://www.atruereview.com/templates/rt_versatility_iii/css/rokmoomenu.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />  <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.atruereview.com/images/favicon.ico" /> <style type="text/css"> td.left div.moduletable, td.right div.moduletable, td.left div.moduletable-hilite1, td.right div.moduletable-hilite1, td.left div.moduletable-hilite2, td.right div.moduletable-hilite2, td.left div.moduletable-hilite3, td.right div.moduletable-hilite3, td.left div.moduletable-hilite4, td.right div.moduletable-hilite4, td.left div.moduletable-hilite5, td.right div.moduletable-hilite5, td.left div.moduletable-hilite6, td.right div.moduletable-hilite6, td.left div.moduletable-hilite7, td.right div.moduletable-hilite7, td.left div.moduletable-hilite8, td.right div.moduletable-hilite8 { width: 175px; 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While the holes on the mounting clip may have been designed with that goal, the overall design of the VF700 leads to far more incompatibility issues. Zalman has lists of tested compatible and incompatible video cards on the VF700's <a href="http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=149&code=013">product page</a>. If you are considering the VF700, please check the lists.</p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/12.jpg"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/12th.jpg" width="250" height="213" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>One video card that is not listed in the incompatible list, but should be, is my initial test card, the Sapphire Radeon 9600 Atlantis. Two problems were presented when I tried installing the VF700 on this card. First, a capacitor next to one of the mounting holes on the card interferes with the mounting clip. </p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/11.jpg"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/11th.jpg" width="250" height="181" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>Second, the location of two of the memory chips is too close to the GPU. This creates a clash between the VF700 and two RAM sinks, if the RAM sinks are to be installed. Basically, like its CPU counterpart, the VF700 needs a good amount of clear space around the GPU.</p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/14.jpg"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/14th.jpg" width="250" height="153" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>Installation on my secondary testing video card, the BFG GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, had no problems. The included User's Manual gives a very thorough guide for installing the cooler. All the necessary installation parts are included as well as a tiny tube of thermal grease. With a height of 30mm, the VF700 will take up the space of one adjacent expansion slot.</p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/01.jpg"></a><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/16.jpg"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/16th.jpg" width="250" height="86" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p align="left"><strong>Performance:</strong></p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/15.jpg"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/15th.jpg" width="250" height="162" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p align="left"> Zalman's VF700-AlCu will be tested against the BFG GeForce FX 5600 Ultra's stock cooler. The GPU temperatures are obtained with the temperature readouts in the Temperature Settings menu that is available with the Forceware driver. The RAM sinks will be compared against the video card's stock RAM sinks which are rectangular sinks that cover two RAM chips each, but have shorter fins. Memory temperatures are obtained with a temperature probe attached to the side of the memory chip.</p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/18.jpg"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/18th.jpg" width="250" height="221" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>Idle temperatures were derived from turning on the computer and doing nothing for 10 minutes. Load temperatures were obtained from playing Far Cry for 30 minutes and noting the highest temperatures reached. All temperatures are in Celsius and the ambient temperature is about 27C degrees.</p> <p>The GPU temperature results were:</p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/gputemp.gif"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/gputempth.gif" width="350" height="185" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>As the results show, the VF700-AlCu does an excellent job cooling the GPU in normal mode and performs more than adequately in Silent mode. You may notice that for the stock cooler, the idle temperature is higher than load. This is because the BFG 5600 Ultra runs in two modes: Standard (2D) and Performance (3D). Mode switching is done automatically depending on an application's needs. In Performance mode, the video card runs the GPU at the rated 400MHz. In Standard mode, the GPU is underclocked down to 235MHz. Additionally, the fan does not spin in Standard mode.</p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/17.jpg"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/17th.jpg" width="250" height="218" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p>The VF700's 80mm fan's main function is to cool the heatsink, but its big size and towering presence also lets it cool the all the other VGA components around the GPU. For the BFG 5600 Ultra, this includes half of the memory chips. The following temperatures are of the memory with the VF700 in Silent mode.</p> <p>The RAM temperature results were:</p> <p align="center"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/memtemp.gif"><img src="atruereview/zalman_VF700/memtempth.gif" width="350" height="185" border="0" alt="Zalman VF700-AlCu VGA Cooler"></a><br> <font size="-1">Click on image for larger picture</font> </p> <p align="left">As you can see, in addition to cooling the GPU, the VF700 also does a great job cooling down the video memory, albeit only half of them. The RAM sinks still did an adequate job cooling the memory on the opposite side of the video card, performing slightly better than the BFG 5600 Ultra's stock sinks. One thing to consider is that my test system's CPU is water-cooled; therefore, there is no CPU cooling fan blowing air around the CPU. If your computer were equipped with a CPU cooler like the <a href="http://www.atruereview.com/zalman_cnps7700cu/index.php">Zalman CNPS 7700</a>, then the video memory chips on the non-GPU side would also become actively cooled.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong></p> <p> For a "traditional" fan/heatsink cooler, the VF700-AlCu performs exceptionally well. The addition of RAM sinks helps cool the video card's other speedy component. For those who cherish silence, the included multi 3-pin to Molex adapter allows the cooler to run nearly silent while still providing superb cooling.</p> <p>The VF700 does have a few blemishes. Though, its oversized design provides exceptional cooling performance, it does require the space of an adjacent PCI slot. In addition, despite what the packaging claims, the VF700 has some strict compatibility issues. Overall, if you are looking to upgrade your GPU cooler and your video card is compatible, the Zalman VF700-AlCu is a great choice.</p> <p><strong>Pros:</strong></p> <ul> <li> Superb cooling performance</li> <li> Cools components around GPU</li> <li> Can run silently</li> <li> RAM sink included</li> </ul> <p><strong>Cons:</strong></p> <ul> <li> Takes up adjacent expansion slot</li> <li> Strict compatibility requirements</li> </ul> <p><strong>Ratings:</strong></p> <table border="0"> <tr> <td>Packaging:</td> <td>Very Good</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="95">Esthetics: </td> <td width="88">Excellent</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Performance: </td> <td>Excellent</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Compatibility: </td> <td>Fair</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Price: </td> <td>Excellent</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Overall: </td> <td>Excellent</td> </tr> </table> <p>(Ratings Possible: Terrible, Very Bad, Bad, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent)</p> <p align="left"><a href="atruereview/zalman_VF700/index.php"></a> <a href="zalman_VF700/index.php">Previous (Introduction & Description)</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <div id="footer" class="clr"> <div class="rk-1"> <div class="rk-2"> <div id="the-footer"> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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