Zalman VF3000N NVIDIA GPU Cooler

A Closer Look – Components and Design

Once we get everything out of the box we can see that there is a lot to this kit and that it will take a bit of time to complete the task, but hopefully the outcome will be worth the effort. Included in the box is the cooler itself that houses two 92mm cooling fans, a variable fan speed controller, 16 VGA RAM heatsinks, NVIO Chipset heatsink, and nine different FET heatsinks.

This images give a pretty good idea on the construction of the cooler. The black piece is the fan shroud that is made of metal and it covers the entire cooler. Below the shroud and fans we have the finned cooler itself which is made of aluminum and then the GPU heatsink at the bottom of the pile.

The heatsink is of good size and it covers the entire board as it should because the 92mm cooling fans not only cool the heatpipes but it also cools the surrounding heatsinks that we will be installing in just a bit. Looking at the design of the cooler we can see that two of the heat pipes run through the cooling fins and towards the rear of the card while the other two do the same towards the front end. Also on one end there is the power cable for the two cooling fans.

I am sure that you have heard that the better the finish on the heatsink the better the cooling. This is not so that it looks good but what it really does is to removed the fine grooves that can be made during the making of the heatsink itself. When the bottom is sanded and polished to a mirror finish it can help create a much better surface to help transfer the heat. The Zalman VF3000N has a copper GPU heatsink that has a very clean looking bottom on the cooler which is important for this cooler to have.

The section of the cooler that the fans reside are at each end and they serve two purposes. One is that is where the cooling action for the heatpipe setup needs to happen to cool down the material inside the pipe and to send it back to the heatsink. Second a clear path to all the sinks is need to cool them down since the heatpipe heatsink is only used to cool the GPU.

The cooling fins are spaced far enough apart to allow for airflow and maximum cooling plus it helps reduce the amount of dust that could collect on the fins. From angle we can see that the 92mm fan almost extends from side to of the cooler.