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]

[ingentingmendeg]

thats not a Fatal1ty? whoops, it is. hmm, i wish it was red then

[Aerlix]

It just angers me so much that I ordered an Accelero X2 before I knew this thing was available! That's $25 of worthless air cooling I don't know if I can afford to replace immediately :P

The Accelero actually cools less than the stock cooler at full speed, so overclocking is going to be interresting..............

Anyway nice review thanks for the heads up, at least my rady will look beefier inside my case than yours does

[Vapor]

Thanks for the preview Pedro

Looks a lot better than I was predicting. Though it looks different than the standard VF900-Cu.....I thought the standard one was 1 slot? This looks like double-stuffed or something.

[Pedro Rocha]

Here is some quick overclocking tests

This is the card stock voltages



I raise the voltage to this :



I raise the core from 500 to 620mhz, and the memories from 600 para 700mhz - here is the result after 3 minutes of 3D artifact scaning:



With the stock cooler (even I can stand the vacuum cleaner noise of full speed - I can not) at this voltages speeds I suspect the 1900XT (non-XTX) will crash and quickly pass the 80ºC on core and near 90ºC on volt regulator..

What a difference - very nice work Zalman

[nn_step]

very nice review man

[Nanometer]

Good review there. Too bad this version will be 20 dollars more.

[Shadowmage]

He said the fan speed is the same, so performance should be identical.

[NightCrawler™]

It's still not going to beat my CNPS9500 LOL
But still I might be interested to try one of these and reclaim my PCI slots.... :p

[ReD.SkY]

they look OK

[chinkgai]

hi, can you raise the vgpu to 1.425, because that is what stock is (in 3d mode)

right now i believe you are scanning in 2d mode with the voltage at 1.225v...which is actually only around 1.2v if measured with a multimeter (which i did)

please post results after you raise the voltage to stock! thanks!

[alpha0ne]

I'm surprised at how well it seem to fit - nice and low profile

Nice review Pedro, if I did'nt have my Fusion block I would definately buy one

[MaxxxRacer]

very nice upgrade from the stock cooler.

still doesnt touch water though

[chinkgai]

of course not...its 58c at an undervolted 1.225v...

at stock voltage of 1.425...it'll be low to mid 70's i would assume

also...takes more than 2-3 min to heat up to max temp from scanning...more like...5-10min for me

[cantankerous]

Good job Chinkgai this is exactly what I was going to bring up. Big deal if it keeps the card cool at stock settings and what kind of voltage bump is 1.2? Try putting 1.4v+ and let it run longer than 2 mins to see how it will really hold up. I just installed an Accelero X2 with ceramique on my card last night and I am sure it is doing at least what that Zalman is. I get between 38-40c idle on stock and with an overclock of 680/750 1.38v for 15mins of running 3D I barely get 66-68c which I find very good for a dead silent cooling solution. This is running the card immediately after install so no cure time has taken place yet. If you got 58c after 3 mins of running only 1.2v I am sure you will hit late 60's with higher clocks and volts matching mine as mentioned here in this post. Remember as well, and this goes for us both, temps are only going to get hotter as the season moves on so we can expect higher temps in the summer months due to higher ambient temps.

I am not knocking your findings, I really appreciate them as you are one of the only ones to post results on this cooler. I am just asking that you go a little higher and be a little more extensive in your testing and please get back to us with your findings. Low temps on low volts is great but I am sure most people are putting 1.4-1.5+v through their card and need to know how it will cool at those high loads. Thanks.

[NightCrawler™]

I can pick one up for €39... Unless reviews convince me it cools a hell of a lot better then the vf700 I'm not going to bother...

[topaimz]

It has a slight increase in cooling performance compared to vf700, and produces the same, if not quieter, sound.

I like this cooler cuz its low profile design + cooling performance
Probably the best aftermarket cooler out there that allows good air flow
in SLi setup, and also gives you more potential PCI slots

BTW, thanks for the review Pedro awesome work

[mindwreck]

nice review.
Aren't the heatpipes rendered useless in that position. They're facing down instead of up. temps might decrease some more if positioned right.

[nn_step]

nice review.
Aren't the heatpipes rendered useless in that position. They're facing down instead of up. temps might decrease some more if positioned right.

I smell a mod coming

[NightCrawler™]

nice review.
Aren't the heatpipes rendered useless in that position. They're facing down instead of up. temps might decrease some more if positioned right.

Another reason why I love my Lian Li..

[g0dM@n]

nice review.
Aren't the heatpipes rendered useless in that position. They're facing down instead of up. temps might decrease some more if positioned right.

The cooler can be put on upside-down?

[alpha0ne]

The cooler can be put on upside-down?

Sorry I could'nt help myself

[nn_step]

Sorry I could'nt help myself

he has a good point.. you can mount that thing 4 different ways and yet they all cool the same

[high5]

Aren't the heatpipes rendered useless in that position. They're facing down instead of up. temps might decrease some more if positioned right.

contemporary heatpipes use wicking material which pretty much eliminates gravitiy from the equation, if that's what you had in mind.

IIRC this was discussed here several times.

BTW nice review Pedro!

[LiQU!D]

contemporary heatpipes use wicking material which pretty much eliminates gravitiy from the equation, if that's what you had in mind.

I was told it used water.

So what exactly is wicking material?