Installation

The installation procedure can be tricky sometimes and certainly needs some attention. The VF1000 wasn't really a challenge for me to get it fixed on my video card, none the less I did spend around 1h before I actually got my card ready for action. Most time was not spent on installing the VF1000 though; the PWM/memory heatsinks drew most of my intention as I had to replace their adhesive tapes. The manual provides clear instructions how to mount the VF1000 in a proper way, though non-experienced users might have some problems fitting the heatsink because of the springs which are needed for a proper installation. Springs always tend to jump away if you can't get the bolt screwed on from the first time, this sometimes can lead to frustrating installing procedures. On the other hand, the installation mechanism needs to remain as small as possible in order to get two video cards installed in one pc without the mounting mechanism of one card blocking the fan of the other card, and it is not really that hard to get the VF1000 LED installed in a proper way.



The fin area is placed high enough to mount many different kind of memory/PWM cooling devices, though this also makes the VF1000 LED a dual slot cooling solution which not everybody is very keen on. On the other hand, bigger always tends to be better, and with today's computers having about everything on-board I can imagine some people questioning the negative points of dual slot heatsinks. For our Geforce 8800GTS it doesn't really matter, the card always has been a dual slot design.

As seen on previous page, the VF1000 LED features many different mounting mechanisms. This provides huge video card compatibility compared to competing products, here is a line-up:



The FAN MATE 2 fan speed controller installed and worked without issues, only downside here is that you need at least one free 3-pins fan connector in your pc. On high-end boards this isn’t such a problem, though for cheap low-end components such connectors are a bit scarcer. Zalman didn't add a "molex to 3-pin fan" converter; still those things can be had at a very low price at a nearby computer shop.

Time to dive into the performance charts right, read on ->