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Thought I'd post my experience with this cooler in case anyone was considering getting one. Bottom line, amazing quiet performance.
I grabbed a VF3000F the other day and got it installed on my Gigabyte card two nights ago. Installation was a lot easier than I expected, the kit included pretty good illustrated instructions (although they didn't provide any instructions on how to remove the stock cooler). The fit of the RAM / VRM cooler plate on the card, one of my big areas of concern, was really good - flush fitting on all the components with plenty of clearance where needed. The cooler plate was also securely mounted with rubber and plastic washers and spring bolts, so no worries there. Also excellent finish and fit on the GPU cooler, again with plastic washers and spring loaded screws for good contact.
The TIM that was included seems to work okay, but the consistency was a little strange - kind of gummy and thick, which made it hard to apply soothly and easily - I eneded up getting some of it on the card around the VRM area but it doesn't seem to have had an ill effect on the card.
The whole cooler was also lighter than I had expected/feared. I didn't directly compare it to the stock cooler, but it didn't seem significantly heavier than the stock cooler once I had it on the card. I was worried about the stress of it pulling on the card hanging in the slot, but it didn't seem to be a problem at all. I had a little bit of clearance issue on my motherboard because of the location of the SATA ports, but the VF3000 sits a little higher off the motherboard than the stock cooler, so I was able to make it work out okay. It does take up three slots obviously, but there is enough clearance to put a card in the next lower slot without impeding airflow to the fans - I have my X-fi Forte tucked in there with no problems.
Performance of the cooler was all I expected and more. I initially had the fan hooked up to a motherboard header, which was providing something less than full voltage (although I didn't know it at the time) and the card was amazingly quiet compared to a stock GTX 480, while still providing a 25C drop in Furmark load temps. When I hooked the card up to a power supply connection the fans were much louder - not as loud as a 80% GTX 480 fan, but still louder than I'd like, and the performance wasn't actually much better, so I ended up using the included Fan-mate controller to throttle the fans down to about half speed.
Now the card is quieter than my case fans, and I get a solid 20C lower temps in Furmark (I was getting close to 100C with the stock cooler - now I get 77C at the same overclock - I live in Hawaii so my ambient temps are kind of high). My case (CM 690) doesn't have the best airflow, but I haven't noticed any secondary effects from dumping the video card heat into the case (my CPU temps haven't gone up any, for instance). I'd think that in a case with good airflow, like the RV-02, the VF3000 would be even better. I haven't tried to up my overclock any because I was mainly looking for quieter not faster, and I'm very happy with the result. Put in two hours of F1 last night, and the card temps never got out of the 50s.
I grabbed a VF3000F the other day and got it installed on my Gigabyte card two nights ago. Installation was a lot easier than I expected, the kit included pretty good illustrated instructions (although they didn't provide any instructions on how to remove the stock cooler). The fit of the RAM / VRM cooler plate on the card, one of my big areas of concern, was really good - flush fitting on all the components with plenty of clearance where needed. The cooler plate was also securely mounted with rubber and plastic washers and spring bolts, so no worries there. Also excellent finish and fit on the GPU cooler, again with plastic washers and spring loaded screws for good contact.
The TIM that was included seems to work okay, but the consistency was a little strange - kind of gummy and thick, which made it hard to apply soothly and easily - I eneded up getting some of it on the card around the VRM area but it doesn't seem to have had an ill effect on the card.
The whole cooler was also lighter than I had expected/feared. I didn't directly compare it to the stock cooler, but it didn't seem significantly heavier than the stock cooler once I had it on the card. I was worried about the stress of it pulling on the card hanging in the slot, but it didn't seem to be a problem at all. I had a little bit of clearance issue on my motherboard because of the location of the SATA ports, but the VF3000 sits a little higher off the motherboard than the stock cooler, so I was able to make it work out okay. It does take up three slots obviously, but there is enough clearance to put a card in the next lower slot without impeding airflow to the fans - I have my X-fi Forte tucked in there with no problems.
Performance of the cooler was all I expected and more. I initially had the fan hooked up to a motherboard header, which was providing something less than full voltage (although I didn't know it at the time) and the card was amazingly quiet compared to a stock GTX 480, while still providing a 25C drop in Furmark load temps. When I hooked the card up to a power supply connection the fans were much louder - not as loud as a 80% GTX 480 fan, but still louder than I'd like, and the performance wasn't actually much better, so I ended up using the included Fan-mate controller to throttle the fans down to about half speed.
Now the card is quieter than my case fans, and I get a solid 20C lower temps in Furmark (I was getting close to 100C with the stock cooler - now I get 77C at the same overclock - I live in Hawaii so my ambient temps are kind of high). My case (CM 690) doesn't have the best airflow, but I haven't noticed any secondary effects from dumping the video card heat into the case (my CPU temps haven't gone up any, for instance). I'd think that in a case with good airflow, like the RV-02, the VF3000 would be even better. I haven't tried to up my overclock any because I was mainly looking for quieter not faster, and I'm very happy with the result. Put in two hours of F1 last night, and the card temps never got out of the 50s.
