Introduction

Zalman is known to produce some of the best CPU and graphics card coolers ever made. Most of their coolers are aimed at enthusiasts who want either a quiet cooling solution or one that can deal with the massive heat loads that an overclocked system produces. Today I will be taking a look at Zalman's newest addition to their performance VGA cooler lineup namely the much anticipated VF1000 LED which is the natural successor to the VF900 cooler.

This new cooler builds on the legacy of the VF700/900 series graphics card coolers in the sense that it is an actively cooled pipe cooler. Where the VF900 had two heat pipes this newer model has four and furthermore sports an all new fin design from Zalman. Instead of the usual round design this one looks like an elongated oval with some odd shapes near the edges.

One of the improvements over the VF900 is that the VF1000 with the RHS88 supports the new 8800 GTS/GTX/Ultra cards as well both from a mounting and cooling performance aspect. The only downside to the VF1000 is that it is a dual slot cooling solution which means that it takes up the adjacent slot to your graphics card.

The Package

Since I will be testing the cooling capabilities of the VF1000 LED on a GeForce 8800 GTS I will also need to mount the all new RAM and FET cooling solution from Zalman the RHS88 which basically cools down all the other chips on the card besides the GPU. Both of these items come in Zalman's new colorful package. The RHS88 is necessary in order to keep the memory on a 8800 GTS/GTX/Ultra at reasonable temperature. If you are going to mount the VF1000 LED on an older card it does come with the usual blue Zalman RAM heat sinks.


As you can see on the image above you need to buy the RHS88 if you plan on installing the cooler on a GeForce 8800 Series card. If you fail to do so you will damage the card because the I/O chip and RAM circuitry will overheat. Also worth noticing is the compatibility list for this cooler. Even though it supports most of the newer generation cards it doesn't provide support for many legacy cards. For the complete compatibility list go to Zalman's own home page.


On the back of both packages you can read up on both specifications and installation method.


On the back you can read a lot about what these products offer. The VF1000 LED employs a new technology developed by Zalman it's called VFP (Variable fin profile) this should increase the cooling performance of the cooler. The RHS88 is the VF1000 LED's perfect partner for use with GeForce 8800 Series cards. The RHS88 is an aluminum heatsink that covers all of the heat producing components on 8800 cards.


The specifications for this VGA card cooler are somewhat out of the ordinary. It weighs an astounding 380 grams. Besides the weight it is also worth noticing the extraordinary dimensions of 160 (L) X 100 (W) x 30 (H)mm. For those looking to build a quiet performance PC this is definitely the VGA cooler for you. At only 18 dB in silent mode this is one of the quietest coolers out there for the hot 8800-series cards.


Both the VF1000 LED and the RHS88 are extremely well protected inside their package. The RHS88 is packed in several layers of Styrofoam which is a both a tight fit and ensures that the cooler won't get scratched. The VF1000 LED comes in a plastic case that fits the cooler perfectly like the plastic cases that Intel ships their cooling solutions and CPUs in. The plastic seems quite durable and can take a decent amount of abuse before breaking a part.


Both the VF1000 LED and the RHS88 come with all the parts you need for a typical installation. Besides the stuff you need to assemble the cooling solution you also get a case badge and a tube of thermal interface material. The installation method is quite simple with this product and with the extensive manual that Zalman provides I think that almost everybody can put this cooling solution together.