First Impressions

On paper, the VF900’s specs are quite impressive.

The VF900 was made to be compatible with all video cards. This is good if you have a lower end card, so you can transfer the cooler upon an upgrade. Let’s get to installation.

Here’s what you get in the package:


List of parts:

1. Heatsink Assembly (VF900-Cu)
   
2. Eight RAM Heatsinks
   
3. Four Nipple
   
4. Four Fixing Nuts
   
5. One PVC Washer Plate
   
6. Four Rubber Rings
   
7. Four Springs
   
8. Thermal Grease
   
9. FAN Controller (FAN MATE 2)
   
10. Cable for FAN MATE 2
    
11. Dual-sided Tape(to attach FAN MATE 2)
    
12. User's Manual - in English and Korean
    

Zalman’s new cooler has a few significant changes from its previous generation VF700. As you can surely notice, it has heatpipes, and an all-copper design, while the VF700 was only offered in both copper, aluminum, and a mixture of the two. The VF700 had no heatpipes either. The fins on the VF900 are closer together, smaller, and thinner, this makes the cooler lighter and smaller, however the cooling isn’t reduced: the Zalman VF900 compensates for the size of the fins with a greater number of them. Heatpipes increase performance greatly as well.

The VF900 weighs 85g less and is 30mm less wide than the VF700. Many aspects are left unchanged though. The fan size is the same, as well as its dual ball bearing design. Zalman also uses the same ZM-RHS1 heatsinks for the RAM (a.k.a. ramsinks) for both series. The installation method and mechanism, which we will discuss later, remains the same as well.

Another important accessory is the Zalman Fan Mate 2 unit. This has been included with most of Zalman’s coolers VGA and CPU coolers. It is a mini fan controller, giving you full control of the fan’s speed, not just 12V/5V (full speed/silent) like many others. It is also extremely small, so it can be mounted almost anywhere in your case, as long as cable length permits.

The included thermal paste from Zalman by far isn’t the greatest. If you want another 2-3 degrees shaved off, use Arctic Silver 5. On top of that, you have to spread out Zalman’s thermal paste across the core, while with Arctic Silver, all you need is a drop about half a grain of rice size in the center of the core. The extra $5 for better paste is well worth it.

As you could see from the above diagrams, the Zalman VF900 is compatible with most video cards today – it can even fit on cards up to 4 years old! (Ti4xx). However because its price tag is about $40, the cooler would be worth more than some older video cards.