X-bit labs

New VGA Coolers from Zalman and Gigabyte: Zalman VNF100 and Gigabyte V-Power Review

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 07/31/2007 | 05:43 PM ]

Today we would like to introduce to you two new graphics card cooling systems from Zalman and Gigabyte that use popular heatpipe technology. However, their design, application field, efficiency and pricing are very different from one another. Read more in our review!

Table of contents:

• Zalman VNF100
  
• Package and Accessories
  
• Design
  
• Installation Tips
  
• Gigabyte V-Power (GH-UDUP21-VC)
  
• Package and Accessories
  
• Design
  
• Installation Tips
  
• Technical Specifications
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Thermal and Acoustic Performance
  
• Conclusion
  

Heatpipes have become an irreplaceable part of overclockers’ lives. Being something exotic in the earlier days, now they are an integral part not only of every CPU cooling system, but are also actively used in cooling solutions for graphics cards, chipsets, mainboard power elements and even hard disk drives. Most CPU and GPU coolers are currently designed with heatpipes in them.

Today we are going to introduce to you two new graphics card coolers that are also no exception from this rule: their heatsinks are built on heatpipes, too. However, their design, application field, efficiency and pricing are very different from one another. Nevertheless, we decided to check out both of them in together in a single article.

Allow me to introduce: Zalman VNF100 and Gigabyte V-Power!

Zalman VNF100

The Korean Zalman Company doesn’t need a special introduction, I assume. The cooling systems from this well-known manufacturer have been in the market for a long time already and have won the computer enthusiasts’ hearts. These days each new product from Zalman is being expected as something supernatural to say the least of it. It is sad however, that Zalman hasn’t really launched anything really impressive from the overclockers’ standpoint lately dealing mostly with the modifications of the already existing cooling solutions.

But today we are not going to discuss the efficiency of these modifications, but would like to introduce to you a true Zalman newcomer – VNF100 VGA cooling solution.

Package and Accessories

Flat carton box Zalman VNF100 comes in is pretty small and is designed in light color gamma. The front side of the box has the cooler model name written on it alongside with the 0dBA of generated noise and the list of graphics accelerators this solution is incompatible with:

On the back side of the back you can find a list of Zalman VNF100 key features and technical specifications.

Inside the box there is a transparent plastic casing that holds the main cooler component – the Zalman VNF100 heatsink. All accessories are packed in a separate box:

Among the accessories coming with the Zalman VNF100 there are the following things:

• Six plastic washer pads;
• Zalman logo sticker;
• A set of low-profile aluminum heatsinks for the BGA memory of the graphics card;
• A set of retention screws and rubber ring-pads;
• Two tubes of Zalman CLS850 thermal grease;
• The assembly and installation manual;
• Socket A and Socket B retention types for different graphics cards;
• Decorative Zalman heatsink pad;
• Aluminum base.

Now let’s take a look at the Zalman VNF100 cooler.