More than one year, the Zalman VF900-Cu keeps its top position on the VGA coolers market. And that is not very common. It has been already 15 months since releasing Zalman VF900-Cu, and the Zalman Company, satisfied with success and VF900-Cu results, has still no reason to develop new and more powerfull cooler for graphic cards. I do not count now the special edition Fatal1ty FC-ZV9, which is only a copy of VF900, with different design and more effective fan, which I do not consider to be a new product. But it is not a matter of Zalman’s resting on its laurels. The VF900, with its potentail, really was fully satisfying until the arrival of nVidia-8800 and ATI-2900. For the very long time it has presented the absolute top of VGA coolers. How it is doing, comparing to its younger concurence, we will see in today’s roundup.

Looking at the VF900 casing, you can notice that at least something has been changed. Design of the box is different now. Cardboard box with one transparent plastic window, has not any more typical Zalman’s blue color, but is black and blue. It is difficult to say, if this change could affect the salability, but the fact that Zalman is trying to draw up the attention is positive.

The content of a box with VF900-Cu has not changed. Let’s have a look what is inside. Apart from the cooler, there are eight little blue ramsinks, little tube with thermal paste, voltage regulator with an extension cable and a selfadhesive sticker for securing the regulator to a side plate of a cooling box, sticker with Zalman logo, and set of screws, arrays, washers and gussets. Than there is detailed manual’s user.

Technical specifications of Zalman VF900-Cu:

VF900 differs from previous models of VGA coolers in many ways. The first inevitable difference is in using of heatpipes. To get maximum cooling effect, Zalman decided to use whole copper construction, as copper has much better heat conductivity than aluminium. However regarding dimensions VF900 is comparing to other two already presented coolers smaller, its size absolutely matches to needs of a cooler.

Radially aligned fins copy the shape of heatpipes. The fin construction does not come out from a base, like in the case of VF700. Only two heatpipe tubes support heat transfer from graphic card to a system of fins. System of fins comes out from a heatsink base. Cooper fins are of course welded to heatpipes.

Manufacturer installed a fan with 11 wings inside a heatsink with diameter 80 mm and 2 ball-bearing system. I cannot say, that this cooler is absolutely silent. Total sound level (with fan speed 1350 – 2400 rpm) is in a range 18.5-25 dBA, and that means that fan is always hearable. At smaller speed, when cooler is placed inside a case, the noise vanishes away. Speed regulation under 1500 rpm is very convenient, even for demanding users.

Construction of heatsink base is a very nice surprise. The quality of elaboration of a contact surface is superior, polished to perfection, without a sligthest malformation. From my own experience, I can say that heatsink does not loose its shine even after multiple installations. Also the second part of the heatsink, which servers like an assembling modul, is worked up perfectly. I would like to highlight extensive compatibility of VF900, guaranteed with an excellently designed multi-hole assembling modul.

Installation of VF 900 onto a graphic card is quick and without any problems. Users manual is detailed and helpfull, but I am sure, many of you could install this cooler with your eyes shut.
Little RAM heatsinks are perfectly fixed, and cooler, when placed onto a graphic card, creates more than sufficient thrust.

When installed onto ATI X1800GTO2 graphic card, Zalman does not take much space. Comparing to unistalled stock cooler, Zalman took approximately half of a room. However wings of a fan are designed intelligently, thus the air fluctuation affects cooler and the bigger part of a graphic card. Part of a draught gets also to area of the voltage regulator.