Zalman VF3000A

Zitat: Getestet mit Zalman ZM-RHS69: + Sehr gute Kühlleistung, LED-Lüfter + Umfangreiches Zubehör inklusive Fanmate - Mit 1,5 Sone nicht voll silent-tauglich

Zitat: + Gutes Zalman-Zubehör, gute Kühlung - Bei 12 V laute, schleifende Lüfter - Kompatibilität schlecht angegeben

Zitat: The VF3000 marks the first dual-fan VGA cooler for Zalman, whose past products typically incorporated a single fan into a radial fin array. Since the debut of the VF1000 the fin area has gotten progressively larger and more rectangular, taking advantage of the full length of most high-end video cards surface area. With other manufacturers also using this design, like the Thermalright T-Rad and Thermaltake DuOrb, it is good to see Zalman finally adopt the same strategy. And in typical Zalman fashion, they´ve given us a very attractive and highly efficient VGA cooler. By using aluminum for the heatsink fins and fan shroud Zalman has kept the weight down to well under 500g, while the five copper heatpipes and mirror finish base do an excellent job of getting heat away from the core. The dual fans operate quietly when throttled back using the included FanMate 2 controller, yet offer a decent improvement when run at full speed, while keeping noise to at least a reasonable level. Only one additional slot is taken up by the VF3000 compared to the stock cooler, which should still allow dual-card configurations in most systems, yet performance is significantly enhanced, up to a 23°C reduction of load temperatures in our tests. The VF3000 comes in three different kits to fit both nVidia and ATI, as well as current and previous generation cards. Other fitments may be possible however some of the component heatsinks are tailored specifically for certain model reference cards. As we discovered with our non-standard 5870, installation and resulting great performance is still possible, however care should be taken when using the product on models unsupported by Zalman. I have read several reports from customers who damaged their cards, and it seems most of those attempted the install on non-reference or unsupported models. I´m guessing the VRM sink in particular was likely touching some metal contact it should not have. By all means, if the Zalman VRM sink does not fit exactly right, leave it off. Another option is to separate the stock GDDR/VRM plate from the factory cooler and use that instead, assuming it allows the VF3000 to fit without interference. My only two complaints with the VF3000A version are Zalman´s use of blue LED fans on a decidedly red ATI-marketed cooler, and not having automatic control over the fan speed. If they could use green LED fans on the green nVidia version, why not red on the red ATI model? Or better yet, why even force one color choice on customers at all? Since the coolers are basically the same and only the included component heatsinks change, how about letting us pick red, green or black regardless of which card we have? And what happened to Zalman blue? I found the VF3000A readily available online in the $45-$50 range, which seems a decent price for a great VGA cooler, although the nVidia VF3000F version costs a whopping $30 more. The difference seems to be Zalman´s inclusion of a custom, one-piece GDDR/VRM plate for the Fermi version, rather than the more generic individual sinks included with the ATI kit. Given the number of complaints from improperly-fitted component sinks, maybe it would be better if Zalman simply gave everyone a bunch of the little stick-on sinks and called it a day.

Zitat: The Zalman VF3000A has a good price tag, being actually cheaper than the Zalman VF1000 LED. Its installation is also very simple and its looks great. The set of memory and VRM transistor heatsinks is not as complete as the one we found with the Scythe Musashi, but does the job cooling them, because the fans push air into the board. However, besides not removing the hot air from the case, it has some other drawbacks. First, it is not as quiet as the Scythe Musashi and the Zalman VF1000 LED. At minimum speed it is somewhat noisy, and at maximum speed it is even annoying. The second problem is its weight. It is big and heavy, and the video card may bend with the weight. Zalman recommends to removing the cooler any time you must transport the computer; otherwise it can damage something. The third problem is that it makes your VGA use three slots, which can be a problem if you want to use SLI or CrossFireX arrays using two of them, and practically makes the use of three video cards with a VF3000A at each one, impossible. The main point is that the Zalman VF3000A has impressive cooling performance, even with its fans running at minimum speed. Because of this extreme cooling performance, the Zalman VF3000A VGA cooler receives the Hardware Secrets Golden Award.