With nVidia and ATi releasing their next generation graphics cards that require more and more power, which in turn generates more and more heat it was only a matter of time before Zalman released a new quiet graphics card cooler, introducing the VF700.

Zalman have taken all their expertise in heatsink design to manufacture something special. As you can see from the image above the heatsink looks similar to the very popular CNPS7000B Super Flower CPU Cooler. The major difference between the VF700 and the CNPS7000B is that the radial arrangement of the VF700 is split into two half-moons - one smaller than the other. This approach, combined with the use of a smaller fan, ensures no clearance issues when fitted to the graphics card. The airflow from the fan is spread very evenly across all fins and adjacent components, to give cooling unmatched by any other design. Also included are eight RAM heatsinks (anodised blue), to capitalise on the extra airflow generated by the fan.

Product Differences

Just like the CNPS7000B, the VF700 is available in full copper (CU) or aluminium and copper (ALCU) versions. This means you will benefit from a lower GPU temperature of around 3-5° with the CU version compared to the ALCU.

Animated installation instructions are available (requires Flash) here.

Compatibility

The VF700 is compatible with all native AGP and PCI-E (PCI Express) graphics cards which have pushpin holes around the GPU. Unfortunately it is not compatible with Matrox or nVidia's PCX series graphics cards. If you own a Matrox card please consider using the ZM80C/D-HP. nVidia PCX owners, we are sorry to say we do not have a solution for that particular series of graphics card. Known PCX graphics cards which are incompatible include PCX5300, PCX5750, PCX5900 and PCX6600GT cards. PCX graphics cards incorporate an extra chip on the PCB called the High Speed Interconnect (HSI) chip. If your card includes this chip then it is a PCX graphics card and therefore not compatible with any of our quiet VGA solutions. The reason for this is because the HSI chip runs very hot and needs additional cooling.

We recommend the VF700 if you are intending to install it on the following graphics cards - nVidia FX5800 or above, nVidia 6800 (all models), ATi 9800 (all models), ATi x800 (all models). If you have a graphics card with a lower specification than the ones mentioned it is recommended that you opt for the fanless ZM80C/D-HP!

VF700 Specifications