Zalman VF1000-LED

Manufacturer:	Zalman
Price:	£29.98 inc VAT
Reviewer:	Phil Hartup
Review Date:	Jun 2008
Cooling	35/40	88%
Design	26/30	87%
Value	21/30	70%
Overall	82%

Verdict: [+] ZALMANGreat cooling; quiet; blue LED[-] BATMANPricey; 3-pin fan connector

Reference graphics card coolers can be poor at cooling. The GPU on our pre-overclocked Asus EN8800GT TOP card when fitted with the Nvidia reference cooler hit 95°C after an hour of running Crysis, for example. This temperature might not be fatal, but it's hardly ideal. Replacing the single-slot cooler with a better cooler is a good idea, especially if you opt for the Zalman VF1000-LED. The VF1000-LED is a dual-slot cooler but, unlike the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev 2, it doesn't overhang the edge of the card. The chunky copper heatsink is connected to the GPU by four heatpipes, and cooled by a blue-glowing 80mm fan. Also supplied are small RAM heatsinks that attach via double-sided thermal tape. Zalman has a list of compatible graphics cards here.
TESTING
Installing the VF1000-LED is fairly easy. Although the fan doesn't connect to the graphics card fan connector - and therefore won't react to the temperature of the GPU in the same manner as a normal graphics card fan. Instead, the VF1000-LED is supplied with a FanMate fan controller. However, you could plug the 3-pin connector directly into your motherboard or a fan controller. With its fan set to maximum speed, the VF1000-LED lowered the temperature of our Asus card to a much more satisfactory 58°C after an hour under full load. With the fan set to its lowest speed, the GPU ran at 62°C. At both high and low speeds, the fan was effectively inaudible, and the card remained perfectly stable. CONCLUSION Paying £30 on top of the cost of your graphics card is quite a lot - in fact, it's money that could have gone towards buying a better card in the first place. However, if you already have a sufficiently fast graphics card, but are annoyed by its noise or heat levels, the Zalman VF1000-LED is a great choice. The Zalman's ability to reduce the GPU's temperature by 37°C is excellent, as is the low noise level.You can buy the Zalman VF1000-LED from Quiet PC for £29.98 inc VAT (price correct at time of review)For more information on the Zalman VF100-LED, visit Zalman's website