Mini-review - Zalman VF900-Cu Fatal1ty

[Pedro Rocha]

A friend of mine from www.aquapc.com, bring from the CEBIT a sample for review of the Zalman VF900 Fatal1ty (with read leds) - of course the retail box will be diferent - big with Mr. Fatal1ty marketing and full of useless things

Here is 2 photos:





I presume that, except the leds, the perfomance is equal to the performance Zalman VF900-Cu, the max rotation speed is exactly the same (2400rpm).

Here is a photo monted in a SLI-DR with a X1900XT Crossfire Edition



1st - The assembling is quite simple if you RFM - diferent from previous Zalman video card coolers

No screw-driver is necessary and you will get a perfect contact with the core at the 1st atempt ..bravo Zalman nice work

2nd - noise, an abysmal diference - at full speed (2400rpm) is very aceptable / at low speed (around 1200rpm) is vaguely audible - what a huge diference from the vacuum cleaner noise of the ATI stock cooler

3rd - perfomance

Here is the temp with ATI Stock Cooler after testing artifacts for 2min



- 70ºC on core (penultimate sensor)
- 67ºC temp on PCB near voltage regulador (critical area)
- 56º C on memories (I think)

And now with Zalman VF900-CU on, also after 2 mins. of artficat scan - fans at around 75% (near 2000rpm)



- 48ºC on core (a 22ºC gain )
- 59C near the voltage regulador (a 9ºC gain)
- 38ºC in memory area (18ºC gain)

I was so amazed with the decrease in the temperatures that I repet the test again - but thats true ..core never passed 49ºC

Once again Zalman did a very nice job, maybe it is time to ATI start talking with Zalman experts before doing such a dreadful stock coolers

In conclusion : an absolutely essentital upgrade for all ATI X1900 and and X1800 owners.

Pros:
- Silence
- Big improvements in temperatures (not only in core, but also on PCB and voltage regulator)
- Nice-looking (altought I dont like leds)
- Small (with expert or crossfire DFI / Asus no problem with SLI or CF)

Cons:
- None (except that is not yet largely available in the stores)

Next: overclocking test and testing with 7800GTX 512MB

This is Pedro Rocha, over and out [/SIZE]