Heat has become a real concern for PC enthusiasts as video card GPUs have become more powerful. Many manufacturers have even begun to overclock their video cards at the factor, adding to the heat issue. Even though OEM heatsinks have become more robust, they are not nearly as efficient as many aftermarket VGA heatsinks. Zalman is one aftermarket heatsink manufacturer that has consistently provides excellent quality products to subdue the heat monster in our rigs. Zalman’s newest offering, the Fatal1ty FC-ZV9 VGA cooler is aimed at the extreme gaming enthusiast, bearing the elite “Fatal1ty” brand.
As a PC enthusiast, you should be more than familiar with Zalman already. Many of their products offer excellent heat dissipation and near-silent operation. They became famous with their noiseless “flower” coolers, which led to the CNPS (Computer Noise Prevention System) line of coolers.
The Fatal1ty FC-ZV9 should look familiar, at it’s an updated model of the VF900. Zalman has received a lot of mileage out of their flowered heatsink concept, and with reason, as it’s an excellent design with a proven track record of performance. Zalman has started to incorporate heatpipe technology into their heatsink models to further improve cooling efficiency. While this sounds good on paper, other manufacturers have failed to impress just by using the latest buzzword: the heatpipe.
From the onset, the most obvious difference in this cooler is its unique color and shiny mirror finish. The Fatali1ty FC-ZV9 is made from full-copper, and implements a dual-heatpipe design just like its predecessor, but sports a bright red LED fan and a chrome-like shiny finish. Here are some of the features:
| Features | Specifications |
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96(L) x 96(W) x 20(H)mm Weight: 185g Base Material: Pure Copper Bearing Type: 2-Ball Speed: 1,650 ~ 3,600rpm ± 10% Noise Level: 20 ~ 36.0dB ± 10% |
The cooling fan is more powerful than previous models. While it is not as quiet as its predecessor (1.5dB louder in “silent” mode), it provides more cooling potential (by moving more air across its many fins, which are fed heat by the heatpipe core).
Just picking up the box, you know this is a quality product. It has a good weight to it, and the packaging has a clear window to show off just how polished and professional this elite nugget o’ metal really is. The back of the packaging also has a small see-through window, showing off the heatsink’s shiny hiney. Seriously, Zalman wants you to see just how smooth its mirror-like contact plate is.
Upon opening the package, we find a slew of goodies contained inside. Zalman does an excellent job of providing components placed in individual bags and packaging to help us find what we need.
- Amount Included Item Description
- One (1) Heatsink Assembly (FC-ZV9)
- Eight (8) RAM Heatsink
- Four (4) Nipple Posts
- Four (4) Fixing Nuts
- Four (4) Rubber Rings
- Four (4) Tension Springs
- Six (6) PVC Washers
- One (1) Thermal Grease
- One (1) FAN Controller (FAN MATE 2)
- One (1) Cable for FAN MATE 2
- One (1) Dual-sided Tape (used to attach the FAN MATE 2)
- One (1) User’s Manual – in English and Korean
- One (1) Zalman Case Sticker
Zalman’s FAN MATE 2 is a standard component in most of their performance cooler kits. We appreciate the flexibility that Zalman gives us in installing the FAN MATE 2, using the provided cable, we had the option of installing the controller either inside or outside of our case for ease of use. While we appreciate the ability to control our speeds, and like the way that Zalman faciliates this, all of Zalman’s fan mate controllers look the same.
It would be nice if Zalman provided stickers or color variations for their fan controllers to help identify our different FanMates, at least to separate the Fatal1ty version from the rest.
The eight RAM heatsinks provided are anodized aluminium feel well made. Each heatsink has thermal tape pre-applied, allowing for easier installation.
The FC-ZV9’s nipple/spring retention system is provided with all of the screws, washers, etc. that we needed to properly install the VGA cooler. Some of these items are rather tiny so be careful not to lose any, as the kit only provides only amount needed for installation. While two extra PVC washers were provided, they were the only surplus items.
With the Fatal1ty logo is prominantly displayed on the fan, so you can feel the awesomeness raditating as soon as you remove it from its cardboard prison. The heatsink is very well-made, cleanly finished, and feels incredibly solid. The curved heatpipes even hold the fins in place, so there is no way they are going to bent; and the spacing between the fins will always be uniform. There is no doubt that based on its construction, this cooler will provide you with a lifetime of cooling.
Looking at the back of the cooler gives you an even better view of the heatsink base and retention system. The base is perfectly flat and the finish was mirror-smooth, promising excellent GPU contact and heat dissapation.
The heatpipes are solidly constructed and well mounted on the base. The flower-shaped fins extend from the base and radiate out in a circular design. The heatpipes are incorporated, soldered, and completely surrounded by the fins to help provide even better cooling.
While we’ll be the first to point out that lapping a heatsink’s base until it has a mirror finish does not promise perfect heat transfer, but in virtually every test we’ve ever performed, we’ve found that a base that has been lapped to this level of appearance can provide as much as 5 degrees celsius in cooling performance improvements. Zalman is to be applauded for the amount of work put into their heatsinks in this regard as it demonstrates their commitment to superior products.
After reading the manual, we began the process of installing the FC-ZV9 to our XFX 7800GT video card.
The first step was to remove the nine (9) screws that were used to secure the stock cooler to the 7800GT card.
The stock cooler is a huge machined block of aluminum. The GPU area has a copper heatsink base that is secured to the rest of the heatsink using thermal grease and four (4) small screws. The RAM is cooled using thermal tape attached to 4 “raised” areas of the heatsink.
While this is the most common design for coolers, it is not without problems. Because the RAM and GPU are all cooled using the same overall heatsink, the RAM actually adds to the combined heat, thus creating more heat that has to be cooled by the small 40mm fan.
After cleaning, our next step was to attach the RAM heatsinks to each of the RAM chips. As mentioned earlier, providing an individual heatsink for each RAM chip should, under proper conditions, provide better cooling than the all-encompassing stock cooler.
Along with reading the manual, we also suggest checking out the manufacturer’s website for additional installation information. Zalman does an excellent job of providing a flash-based video that details the installation instructions for this card.
The installation instructions found within the manual were well-laid out and did a good job of leaving nothing to chance. They detailed every step of the installation procedure, providing drawings for each step as well.
The FC-ZV9 uses the same retention mechanism found on the VF900 series of coolers. As seen in the image above, this retention apparatus allows us to install this cooler onto a wide array of video cards:
Graphics Card Compatability
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This list is nice and expansive, making the Fatal1ty FC-ZV9 usuable by a wide user-base. The FC-ZV9 user guide as well as Zalman’s website provides additional information in their notes section that informed us that there were other products, not listed in the above list, that the FC-ZV9 could not be installed upon.
Notes
- By installing this product on a VGA (Video Graphics Array) card, a PCI slot adjacent to the PCIe (or AGP) slot will become unusable.
- The product cannot be installed on Matrox VGA cards, NVIDIA PCX 5 , NVIDIA Geforce 6600 AGP Series and ATI Radeon 9550/9600 Series.
- If the VGA card and its components interfere with the installation of this product, stop the installation, refer to the list of compatible VGA cards at Zalman’s website and install this product with one of the compatible VGA cards.
- The use of an exhaust fan positioned on the rear side of the case is recommended for enhancement of product performance.
The Fatal1ty FC-ZV9 provides for more airflow across more areas of the card, but the fan is taller than the stock cooler. It is important to point out, just as the manual and website do, that using this cooler requires a PCI slot for clearance purposes, making that slot unusable.
The FC-ZV9 uses a dual-ball bearing 80mm fan instead of the 40mm fan that comes stock on the video card. Because of this it is necessary to install the Fatal1ty cooler to either the motherboard or a 3-prong fan connector on your PSU if they are provided. In order to test for vibrations and proper installation, we attached the fan to our test PSU using a fan connector and the FAN MATE 2 system provided by Zalman. If your PSU doesn’t have any of these connectors, or you don’t have any extra fan connectors on your motherboard, you’ll need to purchase a fan-to-molex converter in order to install this cooler in your system.
We’ve removed the stock cooler, installed our FC-ZV9 cooler, and have properly re-installed the cooler into our system. Now the real tests of the card begins as we see how it compares to our stock cooler.
Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound was used on all the coolers. Idle temperature was recorded after reboot and the system at desktop for one hour. Load temperatures were recorded after one hour of 3Dmark05 loops. A constant ambient temperature of 21C was maintained in the testing environment and the results are as follows:
Even though the stock cooler covers all components (GPU & RAM), it still cannot compete with the superior design of the Zalman Fatal1ty heatsink. At high speed, the Zalman was almost able to reduce the GPU to temperatures to the idle temperature of the stock cooler! This certainly will give you room to overclock your video card, and can extend the life of your video card. You can certainly game for hours and hours with no fear of lockups due to heat buildup (which happens occasionally with stock coolers).
Zalman FC-ZV9 Performance on XFX 7800GT
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The Zalman FC-ZV9 also looks great. The red LED is not affected by lower voltages and remains bright in low or high modes. The copper construction is solid, and the workmanship is absolutely perfect. The fins and the heatpipes reinforce each other, so this cooler will remain in near-mint condition for most of its life. As long as video cards continue to use standard mounting methods, you will be able to use this cooler and many generations of future video card upgrades.
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