Zalman VF1000 LED: view inside the boxWe received a retail sample of the VF1000 LED, the box we received will also be the product which you will find in your local retailer, have a look:
No hiding here, you can clearly see the product itself being used as design for its box. But there is more inside:
One VF1000 LED VGA Cooler
Eight RAM Heatsinks
Four Nipples
Four Fixing Nuts
Four Fixing Nuts for SLI/CrossFire
One PVC Washer Plate
Four Rubber Rings
Four Springs
One Thermal Grease
One Fan Controller (FAN MATE 2)
One Cable for FAN MATE 2
One Double-Sided Tape (to attach FAN MATE 2)
One User’s Manual
Specifications
Copper has proven to worthy its extra price in the past, though with the actual price of copper aggressively increasing last few years we're still glad to see heatsink designers deciding to build full copper heatsink. The size of this cooler is huge compared to most other aftermarket cooling solutions, seems like Zalman wanted to get the best out of there product this time. The extra weight could be a problem on some video cards, the 380g could easily damage the GPU core if the heatsink is attached in a wrong way. On our 8800GTS we won't have those problems because the actual GPU core is being protected by a heat spreader, don't suspect to find anything extra inside Zalman's box which makes it easier to protect the core used on your video card.
Closed-up shots
The heatsink is made in symmetry with the fan placed right in the middle. It is equipped with Zalman's patented Variable Fin Profile Technology (VFP) which maximizes the cooling efficiency; with its huge dissipation surface area it should provide excellent performance. In order to improve the cooling ability's Zalman has added for high performance copper heatpipes, making this an all-copper cooling solution for your videocard. The position of the fan does not only increase the cooling efficiency, it also provides airflow over the entire video card, this way not only the GPU will benefit from lowered temperatures but also the video memory, PWM components, IO-chips, ... will have their temperature decreased.
Flipping the heatsink on its back reveals the polished core baseplate which is also made out of copper. The baseplate itself is connected to the dissipation fins through 4 heatpipes. The baseplate itself features mounting holes for almost every different kind of VGA card, we tried the outer holes which are used on the NVIDIA 8800 series.
The VF1000 LED also comes with the classic Zalman ZM-RHS1 memory heatsinks which features double sided adhesive tape as mounting mechanism. Inside the box we found only 8 pieces, definitely not enough for the Geforce 8800 series, instead Zalman offers a second product which should handle the 8800 PWM and memory cooling, the ZM-RHS88. Unfortunately we didn't receive such sample, and with time not on our side we decided to do our testing while using our own memory and PWM cooling devices. In the end the impact on GPU temperature would be rather low and the memory/PWM does not really require advanced cooling either to remain stable, not even when being overclocked.
A gadget we've seen multiple times now with Zalman products is their FAN MATE 2 adjustable fan speed controller. This tools regulates the fan speed and so each user can adjust the noise/cooling to his own likenesses with an easy 180° turnover. Inside the box you'll also find double sided tape in order to stick the controller outside your pc housing for easier access.
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