Zalman VF3000F GTX 570/580 GPU Cooler Review

[Rob Williams]

Hi spixel:

I admit I am still left a little confused. You state the RPM doesn't increase after 50%, but the medium and high temperatures differ... I'm not sure what's up there, when mine remained the same. The fanmate I have doesn't state low/medium/high; it's just a dial with the word "up" and an arrow showing which way to turn it. I judged the 50% mark based on how much I had to turn it from its lowest setting to its highest.

For what it's worth, I'm still using the cooler in the same PC it was tested in. Sitting idle at 35C at the moment... not too bad given the rather high ambient temp in here.

/me kicks his A/C.

 

[spixel]

Hi spixel:

I admit I am still left a little confused. You state the RPM doesn't increase after 50%, but the medium and high temperatures differ... I'm not sure what's up there, when mine remained the same. The fanmate I have doesn't state low/medium/high; it's just a dial with the word "up" and an arrow showing which way to turn it. I judged the 50% mark based on how much I had to turn it from its lowest setting to its highest.

For what it's worth, I'm still using the cooler in the same PC it was tested in. Sitting idle at 35C at the moment... not too bad given the rather high ambient temp in here.

/me kicks his A/C.

Epic bump again!

Our fanmates are the same. What I meant is the medium should have been tested at 30 percent. Like you mentioned turning the fan contoller past 50 percent does not increase fan speed so it was a bit pointless putting 50 as medium, instead that should have been high. There is 3 distinct speeds on the fanmate, but they only operate over a half a turn of the control knob.

I think one reason your temps might have been high is due to poor case airflow. The Zalman dumps all the heat into the case and it doesn't look like you had an exhaust fan in your test setup because of the corsair cpu cooler. There is also no direct fresh air going to the gpu so it will keep recycling the hot air it blows out.

 

[Rob Williams]

Our fanmates are the same. What I meant is the medium should have been tested at 30 percent. Like you mentioned turning the fan contoller past 50 percent does not increase fan speed so it was a bit pointless putting 50 as medium, instead that should have been high. There is 3 distinct speeds on the fanmate, but they only operate over a half a turn of the control knob.

It's hard to judge what's a true medium when the sound and feel of the fan differs so little at >50% speeds. I do agree somewhat, however. 50% might seem like a medium but if a fan doesn't kick in until well past 0% on the dial, than that could be adjusted.

I think one reason your temps might have been high is due to poor case airflow. The Zalman dumps all the heat into the case and it doesn't look like you had an exhaust fan in your test setup because of the corsair cpu cooler. There is also no direct fresh air going to the gpu so it will keep recycling the hot air it blows out.

That's a good observation, and I agree. But with the advent of these AIO coolers, I can see many running into this "problem". I wouldn't mind a chassis design where I could mount a fan off the door to point towards the GPU. I have so much stuff crammed in my chassis, it heats up something awful. Almost to the mount where I'm considering a better cooling solution.

For what it's worth, I'm still running this Zalman cooler, and it's been holding up well. Idling at 39C. I moved apartments since we last spoke, and this one happens to be a wee bit warmer.

The test bench with three monitors might be contributing to that a bit though ;-)