Reviews for Zalman VF900-CU VGA Card Cooler

Great, Quiet Cooling

Strengths: Very quiet, very effective.

Weakness: Installation.

I replaced the stock cooler on my eVGA 7900GT (256P2N584AR), which was rather noisy, but moderately effective. The VF-900 was a little troublesome to install. I've done 2 other Zalmans before on a CPU and a GPU, but this one was difficult to tell when to stop tightening. The instructions said to tighten all 4 screws completely. I opted to stop early on all of them. The heatsink was secure and I do not think there needs to be so much stress on the video card board. Even if the heatsink mounts are supposed to flex, it would cause a lot of pressure on the board.

There is no loss in performance from stopping early. My card idles at 42C consistently in a warm room. I forget what the load temps are, but I think about 60, and about 15C less than the stock HSF.

Best of all, this fan is quiet. I have another Zalman on my CPU and they give off a pleasant whir that is unobtrusive in an actively cooled case. Very good value!

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Zalman VF900-CU VGA Card Cooler

Strengths: Great cooling on 7800 GTX cards. Quiet

Weakness: Costly, comes with 3 pin connector for fan and my graphics cards have 4 pin connectors. Although, the vga cooler does come with adaptors. Still, it's extra wiring.

I have two 7800 GTX cards, which ran 53C idle, and 70C full load. These have dropped the vga temps to 36C idle and 51C load. Additionally, my case temp dropped 5c and the cpu temp dropped 5c as well. They were easy to install, about 10 minutes each.

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Amazing

Strengths: Quiet and eficent

Weakness: None so far- its not overly expensive like some other reviewers have noted

I've heard a lot of good things about Zalman but this GPU cooler still blew me away. With my stock cooler I was idling at 43-46 C; and getting up to about 66 C under load. With the VF-900 CU on its "silent" fan speed setting I am idling at 35 C and running at 48 C under load. The cooler makes no noticeable noise on the "silent" setting and is noticeable nut not loud on full speed.

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Zalman VF900

Strengths: Easy to install. Lightweight. Dual copper heatpipes.

Weakness: A bit pricey. Fan Mate 2 is a bit obtrusive, because you have wires running out of your PC.

All copper heatpipes, smooth base and fins are indeed a great combination, at least 10C drop on temps, compared to stock cooler. Runs quiet even on max output. Fits almost all VGA cards.

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By member: yikes - Oct 28, 2006

Kick a$$ cooler for the price

Strengths: Super quiet, powerful cooling, easy install, good quality item, and good instruction.

Weakness: Should have included a 3 pin connector adapter or use 3 pin connector.

Just got myself an ATI X1900GT 256mb card for my 3D intensive game. Within 30 mins of playing, I got a message that the temperature had exceeded its limit and it would tune down the clock speed to protect itself. As I play on, the message continue to pop up and game became painfully slow. On top of that, under heavy load, the stock fan is very very loud. My only remedy is to open the side panel and have a fan blowing directly at it to work. Pretty sad.

Upon reading the review of this VGA cooler, I was confident that it would solve the problem. From start to finish, it took me about 30 mins to install. As I am very very careful (I had broken my old 6800 before). After all is done, The difference is immediate. I had it tuned to max speed due to my DELL 9100 has only a puny 120mm fan in front. Once I closed the side panel, I can barely hear it, even under heavy load. And guess what, no more pop up window saying that the card is overheating. Sweet. I guess that all Copper dual heatpipe and fins really works. Oh, I am using the Artic Silver 5 instead of the stock paste. I figured that if I am going aftermarket, mind as well go all the way.

My only complain is that the fan has to be powered via 4pin motherboard or adapter. It would be much cleaner if it has the stock 3pin connector, so that power source is not wasted. Since my DELL does not have any 4pin connectors, I had to get a adapter to power it. A bit of hassle.

All and all, a great product. Highly recommend it.

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the best

Strengths: quiet, easy to install, very good cooling, tons of ...

Weakness: pricy

I love this fan! Installed the fan on my 7600 GT in less than 10 minutes and the temp went down about 10c (idle) and about 20c (peak). Very satisfied and strongly recommended!

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Great VGA Cooler

Strengths: Quiet and it works.

Weakness: Don't work with dells unless you buy an pin adapter. Expensive.

Lower My VGA temp by 5cs. Much more quiet than my stock cooler. Best of both worlds. Great looking. But for $50 is it worth it?. But then again, these are for $500 cards, what's another $50?

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Excellent

Strengths: Cooling power, Dropped my evga overclocked 7600gt down from 58/71 (idle/100%) to 45/58... totally worth it now games dont lock up!

Weakness: The wiring is a bit obtrusive.. I think they should have sleaved teh cables with black to make them less visiable. Also copper heatsinks for the ram would be a plus.

Definitely worthwhile buy! Tons of reviews mark this as the next best thing to watercooling. I have a pci slot exhaust fan right below it so it does not add a lot of extra heat inside the case either. be prepared for up to 20C drop in temps!!

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ok product, too little voltage on its lowest setting

Strengths: quiet

Weakness: may not spin up on startup on the lowest controller dial setting, it just sits there and trembles like its not getting enough voltage.

be sure to keep the original fan and heatsinks available in case your card fails and you have to send it back to the manufacturer. not having the original fan and heatsinks will void your warranty, i learned this the hard way.

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Cool Cooler!

Strengths: Ease of installation, compatibility.

Weakness: None

The directions were clear and consice. I had no problems installing this item. I used it on an old Geforce Ti4600 since the stock fan was whining. Cools well, quite, and looks good too.

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Excellent Cooler for ATI X1900XTX

Strengths: Super Silent, Cool LED, Ultra cooler

Weakness: does not blow out. Need a fan to blow it out

Installation was not bad. There were some screws that were hard to remove on the ATI VGA orginal coolerbut other than that, installation was easy. Excellent performance, silent. Worth the $$$

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VF-900 CU 2nd Install

Strengths: Quiet, Cooling is awesome!

Weakness: Tightening the thumb screws.

Overall this is an amazing GPU cooler and worth every penny. I've installed two of these now - one on a 7900GT KO and the other on a 7800GT. It dropped the idle temp to 38C on the 7900GT and 41C on the 7800GT...both drops of around 10C from stock cooler. I also used Arctic Silver on both of them.

Best of all it's much quieter than the stock 7800GT cooler and somewhat quieter than the 7900GT.

The install is easy enough if you follow directions, just be careful not to overtighten the screws as you can actually cause the card to start to bend.

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Zalman VF900CU on a Evga 7900GT KO

Strengths: Easy installation, took about 5c off idle and about 8c on load off my video card. Works on many different series of cards ATI or Nvidia.

Weakness: Little pricey but worth it in the end.

Best option out there when cooling your video card. A good buy and a must if you plan on doing any overclocking. I would easily recommend this over other cheaper cooling solutions for your video card. Also have a nice look and build to it.

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Zalman VF900-CU

Testseek.com has collected 29 expert reviews for Zalman VF900-CU and the average expert rating is 89 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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