Zalman VF-900 fan mod

They make noise, too.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
SebRad
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 1121
Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2003 7:18 am
Location: UK

Zalman VF-900 fan mod

Post by SebRad » Sat Jul 14, 2007 8:32 am

Hi, there are other threads on swapping the fan on Zalman’s VF-900 graphics card cooler and I thought I’d show what I’ve managed to do to mine.
None of it was very difficult or technical but it was time consuming, took me around 3 hours from start to finish.
The card in question is Sapphire X1950pro Ultimate which comes fitted with a VF-900, I forgot to take a picture before I started but my card looked just like this one:
Image
The reason for changing the fan is the original had a sort of hissing sssshhhh sound, even at low speeds. The default fan profile for the card wasn’t particularly quiet but AtiTool easily changed the fan speed profile. I had it set for the minimum speed, 9%, up to 60°C, 18% to 70°C, and then steeper to reach 100% at 85°C. I never saw more than high 60s so it’s fair to say the cooling got plenty of headroom.
Getting the cooler off the card proved very easy, just undo the 4 thumb screws on the back and then I had this:
Image
Looks like plenty of “silverâ€

tehfire
Posts: 530
Joined: Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:57 am
Location: US

Post by tehfire » Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:54 am

Nice job. I did basically the same thing with an old 9800Pro and a Panaflo. I used Arctic Silver Adhesive on the Ramsinks, as it was DDR1 and those things get really hot...

fresh
Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Dec 24, 2006 2:30 pm
Location: Slovenia

Post by fresh » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:48 am

Really nice build. Vf-900 is a superb cooler with really poor fan on it. One of best things on it for me is it's mounting mechanism. It can be put on any graphic card out there. Guess I'll try the same thing, when I gather apropriate tools.

Das_Saunamies
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2000
Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 1:39 am
Location: Finland

Post by Das_Saunamies » Sat Jul 14, 2007 2:53 pm

I only find my 900 fan annoying at above idle. It's not what you'd call silent, but it's smooth and unintrusive. Can't distinguish the sound from all the background noise, which is an indication of "good enough for me".

No hissing to report. RPM gets alternated between 1300 RPM(idle) and 2400 RPM(load). Even at load it just drones but doesn't falter or bother.

Post Reply