Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZV9 VGA Cooler Review

[Capper]

As GPUs have become more powerful, heat has become a true concern for mid-range and high-end videocards. Couple this with the fact that many manufacturers have begun overclocking their videocards at the factory and you aren't just burning up framerates! Luckily, there are a wide range of after-market video coolers available to help us combat these thermal issues. Zalman has long been a source for outstanding performance and cooling products, so we jumped at the opportunity to be the fisrt to kick the tires on their newest offering, the Fatal1ty FC-ZV9 videocard cooler. Read along as we take this cooler out for a spin in order to see if it can keep our GPU cool, or if its just a lot of hot air.

http://www.hardwarelogic.com/news/62...006-09-06.html

[polobunny]

Very impressive product. I would have liked to see it on a X1900 series card though. (being the owned of one, haha)

On a unrelated note, i'm very tired of seeing the name Fatal1ty on everything from Zalman, Creative and Abit. There's just so many products with this name, it's ridiculous. It's even more ridiculous when you see Abit throwing out 2 AMD 64 board with a Fatal1ty tag, one SLI and one single PCI-e 16x, both based on the NF4. :P I also think most Fatal1ty products are over priced, you know, playing on the name and whatnot.

[Tuathal]

Originally Posted by polobunny

Very impressive product. I would have liked to see it on a X1900 series card though. (being the owned of one, haha)

On a unrelated note, i'm very tired of seeing the name Fatal1ty on everything from Zalman, Creative and Abit. There's just so many products with this name, it's ridiculous. It's even more ridiculous when you see Abit throwing out 2 AMD 64 board with a Fatal1ty tag, one SLI and one single PCI-e 16x, both based on the NF4. :P I also think most Fatal1ty products are over priced, you know, playing on the name and whatnot.

hehe - I would have loved an ATI x1900 to test with :P

Seriously though, I have to admit that I'm struggling a little with the Fatal1ty line of products too... I suppose it was only a matter of time before everyone else figured out how cool it was to be geek - and now we have spokespersons for it lol :sigh:

[Capper]

Um, I was at one of the first events of the partnership and spent about two hours talking to Mark Walden, the mastermind behind "Fatal1ty" (the guy barely stopped long enough to take a breath, I almost missed my flight home).

He went on and on, putting Fatal1ty in the same breath as Michael Jordan, calling him one of the greatest athletes ever, and how everything was going to be Fatal1ty....probably would have worked out better if they had used AMD instead of INTEL, and anything other than ABIT.

I think the marketing has hurt both sides, its seriously damaged Wendell's credibility in pawning merchandise...which in turn has hurt some good products through the association to the Fatal1ty name

[One4yu2c]

I know it's become chic in the geek world to hate on Fatal1ty products, but as Rich touched on, I attribute that more to botched decisions by manufactures than to Wendel himself - Fatal1ty logo or not, Abit wasn't getting into my system with the Asus A8N32-SLI and MSI K8N Diamond Plus kicking all kinds of a** in the high end s939 world. And those weren't inexpensive mobos either, especially at launch.

The cooler reviewed by Chris, on the other hand, is a whole other story. With the killer temp reductions he got (20C @ load), that's actually a desireable product among the competition. And for those into the LED thing, that spinning blast of red is icing on the cake for a product that already catches the eye. Overpriced when all is said and done, but then again, so are a pair of Jordans.

[polobunny]

I personally don't have a problem with Abit,. Their products are great, though far from being for "overclockers". They lines rolls too fast, your motherboard is not available 1 month after you bought it most of the time. =/

[One4yu2c]

I don't have a problem with them either - Abit used to be a top contender for overclockers back in the nForce2 (NF7-S) and Northwood (IC7-G Max II and III) days, however it's a highly competitive market in the top spot(s) and they've since let others take the reigns (Asus, MSI, and DFI). And then with the focus on the Fatal1ty branding coupled with the financial troubles that led to the buyout from USI, they've pretty much fallen off of my radar with all the other options out there.

But really, that's a topic for another thread...

[polobunny]

Ditto.
Any test planned with an ATI card for this cooler? I might buy it, though I just spent a bit buying my VX2025WM and this cooler is somewhat expensive. I know the X1900 series are rather hard to cool too.
I hate spending money. :P

[Capper]

Originally Posted by polobunny

Ditto.
Any test planned with an ATI card for this cooler? I might buy it, though I just spent a bit buying my VX2025WM and this cooler is somewhat expensive. I know the X1900 series are rather hard to cool too.
I hate spending money. :P

We all hate spending money, and thats the beauty of a community like this, hopefully we can make spending your money easier (in that we'll help you make a good decision). I'd highly recommend this ooler over the Arctic Cooling coolers....unless you have a case with great ventilation.
I have to say that I've become greatly impressed by Zalmman's latest cooling solutions...they haven't sacrificed accoustics for performance.....gone are the days when the Zalmans were poor performers that were quiet...now they are quite and perform quite well.