Conclusion
Test Rig:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ NewCastle s939 at 9×250/2250MHz
Abit AV8 v1.1
Asus V9999 6800NU 128MB at 325/700MHz, unlocked to 16x1pp/6vp
2x512MB OCZ EL DDR PC3200 Platinum rev 2
QTechnology QT-03460G / Papst Series
Seagate 7200.7 120GB & 160GB 8MB cache SATA
Lite-ON 40x12x48 CD-RW
Arctic Silver 3
I’ll be using a program called “rthdribl” v1.2 (Real-Time High Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting) to load the video card for 20min and the temperatures are taken from the Asus Smartdoctor, which comes with the V9999 6800NU card. All idle temperatures are taken under idling in Windows. The room temperature was 24C +/- 1C when testing, and I’m using the Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5 as reference. My Lian-Li PC60 case was open during the tests.
The test results:
The NV Silencer 5 has a bit better idle temperatures but the VF700-Cu at 12V takes home the gold medal with only 1C at full load. The temperatures at 5V on the VF700-Cu are entirely acceptable, plus 6C at full load isn’t so bad at all. After all, it’s nearly dead silence at 5V!
Well, the VF700-Cu performs better at 12V but equally at 5V againt the AC NV Silencer 5.
Conclusion:
The Zalman VF700-Cu performed better at 12V but the results could have been a bit different though if I hadn’t test the two coolers with a open case. Since the Arctic NV Silencer 5 blows out the “used” cold air out of your case but the VF700-Cu hands over that job for the case fans. If we take a look at the sound levels of the two coolers then I would say that the Zalman VF700-Cu is for sure much more silent at 5V than the NV Silencer 5, but at 12V the NV Silencer 5 is a bit more silent than the VF700-Cu. Overall, I’ll pick the Zalman VF700-Cu as the winner between these two coolers.
Pros:
+ Great performance
+ Dead silent at 5V
+ Cool design
+ Good manual
+ Relatively easy to install
+ Included heatsinks for the memory
Cons:
- None that I know of
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