Processors

Now let’s discuss Zalman VF2000 LED installation onto mainboards and processors. This cooler is compatible with AMD Socket AM2 and AM2+ CPUs as well as with Intel LGA775 processors. It was a little strange to see no retention for LGA1366 platform, which will make it hard for this cooler to become truly popular in the contemporary market.

The following schematics show the installation procedure in detail for each type of platform:

Everything seems to be pretty simple, but at this point we faced some problems. For example, we couldn’t install Zalman VF2000 LED cooler onto a DFI LANPARTY DK X48-T2RS mainboard (LGA775), no matter which way we turned it, because it was always pressed against the heatsinks over the voltage regulator components and mainboard chipset:

Since the cooler cannot be installed onto an LGA1366 platform, I couldn’t use the Asus P6T Deluxe that I had at my disposal. So the only option left was a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H mainboard for Socket AM2+:

There are heatsinks around the processor socket on this board, too, but they didn’t interfere with Zalman VF2000 LED because they are a little farther away. I strongly recommend you to make sure that this cooler is compatible or incompatible with your mainboard before you buy it.

The cooler is installed on a CPU the same way as on a graphics card. The only difference is that the mounting spindles with rubber rings are in this case inserted not into the loops on the retention panels attached to the cooler base but into the retention panels inserted into a special groove in the base plate and fastened with additional screws:

There is no mention in the manual on the preferable cooler positioning during CPU use. According to our experience with coolers of top-design (when the airflow is directed towards the mainboard surface), these coolers work best when the ends of their heatpipes are facing up. However, in our case the heatpipes were interfering with the chipset heatsink. That is why we had to install Zalman VF2000 LED with the heatpipes lining up horizontally (when the mainboard is installed into the system case):

Below are two more photographs of the cooler on the CPU and mainboard:

Although the heatpipes coming out of the cooler base were running very close to other components on the mainboard, they didn’t prevent us from installing a memory module into the first DIMM slot.

Mild blue lighting is also working when the cooler is installed onto the CPU:

Well, that’s about all I wanted to mention regarding the cooler installation. Let’s check out the detailed technical specs and move over to test results: