| Zalman VF900-Cu Ultra Quiet Heatpipe VGA Cooler |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Cooling | |||||||||||||||||
| Written by Bruce Normann - Edited by Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 18 June 2008 | |||||||||||||||||
Zalman VF900-CuUltra Quiet Heatpipe VGA CoolerDo you need a better GPU cooler? It wasn't long ago, that this question only referenced CPU coolers. Aftermarket cooling for your CPU used to be confined to the overclocking toolkit. If you were going to crank up the clock rates, over-volt everything, and then play hi-res 3D games on it for 6 hours straight, you didn't have a choice. The stock HSF that came bundled with your CPU wasn't going to keep it from having a nervous meltdown. All that's changed, though. Benchmark Reviews has tested a number of cooling solutions and we've found that not everyone buys an aftermarket cooler to max out their top-line processor. Some are building value systems for friends: start with an OEM E21x0 chip from Intel, put a decent cooler on it, heat-pipes and 120mm fan, and crank it up to 3.0 GHz without breaking a sweat or breaking the bank. It's a lot quieter, too...! Now we are seeing the same sort of awakening in the GPU world. The competition between ATI and NVIDIA is fierce; it's definitely a buyers market in video cards these days. New chips are coming out every six months and they're almost always running more transistors, faster. There's a fair chance that the hottest and noisiest component inside your PC is the video card. Fortunately, the PC cooling industry has responded with some excellent products to keep the GPU heat and noise down. Join Benchmark Reviews as we look at how the Zalman VF900-Cu Ultra Quiet Heat-pipe VGA Cooler saved the day for one system builder. Aftermarket coolers for CPU, GPU and RAM, used to be confined to the overclocking toolkit. In the last few years a substantial market developed for coolers of every size, shape and color. Every company with a stake in the game has been competing to offer the biggest, baddest, most outrageous cooling solution, and lay claim to the title of King of the Hill. There's also been some genuine innovation in the field and some technology shifts that have helped keep pace with the exponential growth in processing power harnessed inside the typical PC. But, what about the "rest of us"...? What if I'm not a heavy duty gamer and I just want to build a nice mid-range PC that can handle everything I throw at it, including some light gaming. Luckily, there's a vast amount of hardware sitting in the sweet-spot, where you don't have to pay big bucks for the latest, the biggest, and the fastest. You can get all the performance you need for half the cost of the flagship products.
GPU Coolers, like all products, each have specific features and performance characteristics that make them unique. Each customer has needs, the key to happiness is to match them up as closely as possible. For a GPU cooler, my requirements break down to these: None of this was on my mind as I started buying components for two recent builds. I needed some new PCs for the house, nothing special; just browsing, photo editing, office duty, and maybe some light gaming or folding. So, I put together a quality MB with a P35 chipset, a mildly overclocked E2180 CPU, a good CPU cooler, a nVIDIA video card, SATA2 HDDs, good quality (Micron) RAM on the cheap, a stable and quiet PSU, a case with good airflow, etc. What I didn't expect, was that the video cards would be the hottest and noisiest components in the box. I expected the modest requirements for video, which translated into nVIDIA GeForce 7300GT and 8400GS cards from major manufacturers, would keep me well away from the bleeding edge on heat and noise. What I got was something a little closer to the edge than I counted on. The 8400GS was running 17C above ambient at idle, with a reasonably quiet stock fan, and the 7300GT was running 22C above ambient at idle, with a stock fan that was louder and more irritating than my electric toothbrush. Clearly something had to be done, as I could hear the 7300GT in the adjacent room when trying to sleep at night. I wasn't quite satisfied with the graphics performance of the 7300GT, so I bought an 8600GT. It turned out to have a very quiet fan, but the idle temps were still 24C above ambient, and it hit 80C while running 3D graphics benchmarks using 3DMark06. Foiled again...time to start researching GPU coolers. My requirements hadn't really changed; the video cards in use were modest, middle of the road units. I started looking at what was available and quickly found a variety of GPU coolers in all price ranges. I didn't need a high-end cooler, but I knew that the low-end wouldn't cut it either. Thankfully, the middle ground was well covered with products from all the major manufacturers. My experience with CPU coolers gave me some insight to the success factors for air cooled, heat-sink-fan devices, so I had a good idea what I was looking for. I wanted: heat pipes, a large fan, as much copper as I could afford, excellent surface finish on the base, some way to adjust the fan speed, and a well designed mounting system (No plastic push-pins, please...!)
I found everything I wanted in the Zalman VF900-Cu. There were a couple of competing units, but the Zalman looked like the best of the bunch and I didn't want to go through this exercise and end up with a solution that almost succeeded. So I "safed out" and placed an order with Newegg for the VF-900Cu and some Tuniq TX-2 thermal compound. About the company: Zalman
Zalman Tech was founded in 1999 and focused their early efforts on "silent" cooling solutions; their moto was "Noiselss Computing". They grew rapidly and their cooling product line has expanded to match the thermal challenges posed by the rapidly increasing heat load inside high performance PCs. They have also diversified with new products like 2D/3D convertible LCD Monitors, Heatpipe Cooled Power Supplies, Notebook coolers, Surround Sound Headphones, and their newest product, a FPS gaming interface. They are headquartered in Seoul, Korea and have a staff of ~169. The company went public in 2007 and is listed on the KOSDAQ stock exchange in Korea. The CEO, Young-Pil Lee, in his greetings on the corporate website, captures the essence of their success: "Zalman will not content itself with present results and will continue its innovation driven efforts to guarantee client satisfaction." Zalman VF900-Cu Features
Zalman VF900-CU Specifications
Closer Look: Zalman VF900-CuThe rest of this article goes into a fair amount of detail about the installation of the cooler. I noticed that there isn't much information available about how to replace stock GPU coolers. People are much more familiar with installing CPU coolers and many of the same principles apply, but there are some differences. So let's see what's involved. Here is the stock 8600GT video card, with its cooler attached. 
The stock cooler is a low profile type with a single fan exhausting through a shrouded heatsink. The fan features a backwards-curved impeller wheel which no doubt contributes to its low noise. The heatsink assembly covers the GPU and the RAM chips and features a large copper insert for the GPU. The first step is to remove the stock cooler, by taking out the four spring-loaded screws on the back of the card. 
Once the screws are out, and the power cable for the fan is disconnected from the header on the card, you can easily lift the cooler away from the chips mounted on the top face of the card. Some coolers, like the one on my 7300GT use plastic inserts, which you have to compress with a pair of pliers and push them back out at the same time. Looking at the card now, without its cooler, we can see what we have to work with. There's lots of room around the GPU, with no high profile components in the vicinity to interfere with a new cooler. The GPU is mounted inside a plastic socket of sorts and is firmly glued in place. The four RAM chips are located in pairs, equidistant from the GPU; not so close that they will interfere with the new cooler, but close enough to benefit from the airflow coming from it. There were no RAM chips on the reverse side. 
Now we can also see the business end of the stock cooling solution. The GPU contacts the large copper back plate of the heatsink near the exit of the fan. The RAM chips dump their heat into the shroud, which is an aluminum casting, through slightly over-sized thermal interface pads covering rectangular bosses that make up the height difference between the GPU chip and the four RAM chips. VF900-Cu DisassemblyOverall, a highly custom design that makes the most of the size and cost envelope that it has to operate within.
Taking a closer look, the GPU was completely covered with thermal interface material, with some excess hanging over the sides. At first look, it appeared thick and clay-like, but was easily smoothed out with a little finger pressure. The thermal interface pads did not leave any significant residue on the RAM chips, although one of the four did stick to the chip when the stock cooler was removed. 
Our next step is to thoroughly clean the surfaces of the GPU and RAM chips with a lint free cloth and some isopropyl alcohol. Oh, did I mention that anti-static handling precautions need to be followed whenever handling the card; that's the pink-colored foam you see in the background sometimes. There are enough warning signs on the package to alert you to the dangers of static electricity (plus an extra warning sign on the alcohol <g>). 
The next step is to mount the small heatsinks directly to the four RAM chips. They are roughly the same size and have a self-adhesive backing on the base which doubles as a thermal interface pad. The adhesive is not very "tacky"; once you place the heatsink onto the chip, it can slide around a bit. 
This is actually a nice feature, since you can get the heatsink aligned very easily and precisely once it is in place. The adhesive cures with time and heat, so don't worry that they will slip off later. Zalman VF900-Cu InstallationNow we start to work with the actual cooler. I deviated from the manufacturer's instructions somewhat here. They recommend applying the thermal compound to the GPU chip at this point, and I'm thinking, "But, but, but....I KNOW I'm going to mess it up. Let me try putting it together first without the goo." Sorry, I'm firmly in the measure twice and cut once camp, especially when there's messy, sticky stuff involved. I also left the protective film on the base of the cooler until the last moment; the marks seen in the photos are the result of three rounds of cleaning as I moved it between different video cards. The surface finish as it came out of the box was flawless, partly as a result of the copper plating on the base. 
When I removed the stock cooler, I noticed there were two sets of holes in the board, so there was potentially a choice. Upon closer inspection, I saw that there was a capacitor located very close to one of the inner set of holes. I test fit one of the insulating washers and quickly saw that the outer set was OK and the inner set wasn't. 
A quick measurement showed that the outer set of holes on the board matched up perfectly with the outer set of mounting holes on the cooler. The information in the manual and on the website doesn't list any of the 8-Series nVIDIA products, but two things work in our favor; the flexibility of the cooler design and the standardization of video card designs. I grabbed four of the plastic-bodied standoffs and threaded them into the cast aluminum mounting arms of the cooler. 
The threads mated perfectly and there were no rough spots; a simple thing, but always appreciated. 
The small rubber o-rings went on over the longer threaded section of the standoff and it was time for a test fit-up to check for proper alignment of the base and clearances between the cooler and components on the card. Zalman VF900-Cu AssemblyEverything fit fine, there were no interference issues and I could see there was going to be good airflow over the RAM heatsinks. 
Now that I knew how it was all going to go together, I was finally ready to put the thermal compound on the GPU and install the cooler for real. The surface of the nVIDIA GPU chip is a mirror finish, as is the cooler base, there wasn't a need for lots of TIM to fill in any voids or surface roughness. Because there is no heat spreader on the GPU chip, I wanted to make sure I got full coverage of the chip face and I chose an X-shaped pattern to make sure I didn't leave any corners bare. I admit to doing this step a couple of times, using less TIM each time, until I was satisfied with the results. 
The mounting scheme develops enough pressure to spread the TIM out even when it's cold, I'm sure it flowed a little more once it got up to temperature. I know that after two days of constant running the idle temps dropped a couple of degrees C. Once the cooler is sitting on the GPU, follow the manufacturer's instructions; flip it over carefully and install the insulating washers and the spring-loaded, plastic-bodied nuts. Once again, these threaded on smoothly, which is doubly important when you're working against spring pressure. Once the threads were started, the nuts were tightened in an alternating cris-cross pattern until fully tight, per the manufacturer's instructions. 
At this point I inspected the card for any bowing and didn't see any; everything seemed to be flat, level and aligned over the GPU chip. I rested a bit, admired my work and patted myself on the back for taking a measured, methodical approach. 
The completed card fit back into the motherboard and case without a hitch, and it was time to plug in the fan. I decided to use one of the motherboard fan connectors, since I wanted to have RPM monitoring available through one of my favorite utilities, CPUID Hardware Monitor. I also took advantage of the FAN MATE2 controller packaged with the cooler, since I wanted to minimize any noise from the fan. I needn't have worried; even at the maximum RPM of 2400, it's inaudible with my Antec Sonata II case located on the floor at my feet. The fan controller is mounted in a convenient spot inside the case, with the high-bond double stick foam tape supplied. There was plenty of cable supplied with both the fan and controller to make logical and practical wire routing a non-event. If you want an extra touch of snob appeal, you may want add some polyester mesh sleeving to the cables. I'm not bothered by the sight of bare cables, as long as they are well routed and tied down. It makes a notable difference on my PSU cables; but for a couple of small fan cables, I'm OK. Testing & ResultsTesting MethodologyMy testing revolved around the two core performance characteristics of any cooler, the temperature of the semiconductor device and any noise that the cooler makes. After trying out the VF-900 Cu on the original GeForce 7300GT, I realized that I needed to push the cooler a little more and did all my testing on a brand new eVGA Geforce 8600GT card. This GPU is the least expensive nVIDIA model that can realistically be used for light gaming. If you play more than once a month, the minimum would be an 8800GT. I measured the idle and load temperatures with the on-chip sensor, as reported by CPUID Hardware Monitor. I also used this program to get ambient temps for reference. Under idle conditions, the South Bridge sensor on this motherboard gives a very good reading of the ambient temperature inside the case. I know this isn't true for everyone, but in my case it is, very consistent and is easily monitored via software. The load for the GPU was provided by two 3D benchmarking utilities:
In each case, screen resolutions were set to 1280x1024, and the tests were looped a minimum of 5 times to ensure that the maximum temperature had been reached. Individual tests were run to verify that no temperature increases occurred after 3 successive loops. In the case of the 3dMark06 test, the SM2.0 Graphics Tests and the HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests were the only two sets of tests run, so as not to give the GPU chip any break during other tests that primarily load up the CPU. I ran the final tests only after giving the thermal interface material plenty of time to settle in. The Tuniq TX-2 is not known for needing any specific cure time, but I did notice better idle temps after 2-3 days of hard running. The noise factor turned out to be a go-no go test. My goal was for the cooler to be inaudible, as the rest of the PC was already meeting that standard, when placed on the floor at my feet. Test System
ResultsThe fruits of all this labor: a cooler and MUCH quieter PC. The temp reductions at both idle and full load are significant:
With the minimal temperature differences between low fan speed and high when the chip is under load, it's clear the Zalman VF900-Cu has plenty of headroom left when dealing with a nVIDIA 8600GT. It would be interesting to see how well it could do on a 8800GT or ATI 3870. This is excellent thermal performance, load temps are basically cut in HALF! The noise performance was outstanding. In only one situation could I ever hear the fan, with the FAN MATE 2 set on High and the side door completely off the case. With the side door on, or if the fan was set on Low, it was completely inaudible. What a nice difference, and completely fitting with Zalman's product origins, "Noiseless Computing". Zalman VF900-Cu Final ThoughtsDespite the fact that I originally didn't think I needed or wanted a GPU cooler for these two builds, I am happy that I ended up with one. I want the ability to do some light gaming or even GPU folding without having to worry about the health of my GPU. With the 7300GT card, I also got an immensely quieter PC, as well. Your mileage may vary; my experience is solely with mid-range video cards that are at the bottom rung of the gaming application ladder. Any nVIDIA 8800/9800 or ATI 3870 card is going to have a much more sophisticated and integrated cooling solution. On the other hand, the aftermarket cooler manufacturers also have much more powerful and highly developed solutions for those applications, too. 
Zalman VF900-Cu ConclusionMy inner engineer loves this thing. Beyond the fact that it works really well, it looks good too. It's a classic case of a design where form follows function. It's round because the fan is (naturally...) round, it's made out of copper because copper conducts heat 70% better than aluminum. The incredibly smooth base is plated with copper instead of nickel because copper conducts heat 400% better than nickel. The company name, Zalman, is stamped into every fin, cleverly disrupting laminar airflow and increasing heat transfer in the area right next to the heat pipe. Everywhere I look, there's no fat on this design, no pretense to art, no nod to any consumer fetishes. It just looks right, because it is right! The cooler was packed in a reasonably attractive box, with a large window that allows you to clearly see the product. There were no swords or dragons or anime characters on the box; just basic blue, which contrasts nicely with the copper color of the cooler. The PET clam-shell packaging inside the box has separate compartments for all the bits and pieces; everything was easily visible and there was no way for any of the smaller pieces to get lost. The overall package wasn't much larger than it had to be, a compromise between product protection and shipping efficiency, no doubt. Mine made it to my doorstep, via UPS, in perfect condition The instructions were clear and legible, a noticeable improvement over some of the CPU cooler instructions I've encountered lately. There is a video on the website that was useful as well; sometimes a little 3D animation makes more sense than anything you could put on paper. The Zalman VF900-Cu fit my needs perfectly; the time I spent comparing different models, their capabilities, features and cost was well spent. I didn't pay for an overkill solution and I don't have to wonder if it will perform under tough conditions. The market is mature enough that there are many solid choices at each performance and price point to choose from. Zalman has a lot of experience in this market segment, and it shows in this well balanced design that is squarely aimed at the mid-market. The current price at Newegg is $37.99, which is middle of the pack; it's not a screaming value, but it represents a good choice for the money. Honestly, I don't mind paying decent money for a high quality product; I have no buyer's remorse on this purchase and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it others who are looking for a solution to a hot and noisy video card. There weren't any rebates on offer when I bought mine, but keep an eye out. There is now an equivalent model available with blue LEDs, so the un-lit version might get discounted. Pros:
+ Full Copper design looks great, works great at all speeds Cons:
- Application data out of date, no nVIDIA 8XXX or 9XXX cards listed Ratings:
Final Score: 9.2 out of 10.Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.
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