Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus

On March 23 of last year, we had presented the world's first review of the Sytrin Nextherm ICS-8200. Knowing about the ATX chassis in development since late 2004, when our sources had stated to us information in regards to this product, our expectations were already set high with this being the first high-end case to come equipped with an air conditioner. As we had shared in the article, the cooling power was attributed to a 120W thermo-electric cooler. To top off the chassis, it shipped with an incredibly reliable 460W power supply unit. Running off the success of the Nextherm ICS-8200, which was Sytrin's first product and was created as a joint project between them and the thermal division of a large OEM manufacturer (which wishes to remain anonymous), they immediately began work on expanding their product selection. The products presently out, and those coming out in the near future, range from innovative cooling solutions to high-end power supply units. In May of 2005, when the NVIDIA GeForce 7 and ATI Radeon X1000 series could have only been a figment of the public's imagination, one of the enticing products Sytrin sought after designing was a high-end GPU cooling solution. Knowing of the project since its conception, after consulting with Phoronix, the product was originally designed to launch towards the end of 2005 but it had not been publicly premiered until late last week with a silent introduction on their corporate website. The product has been introduced as the KuFormula VF1 series, and presently occupying this chain is the vanilla and Plus variants. Skipping ahead to today, we have wrapped up our testing of the Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus, and have our world premiere article here today with incredibly stunning results.

Features:

· High compatibilities for both NVIDIA and ATI video cards for AGP or PCI Express
· Efficient dual heat pipe cooling design for upmost cooling performance
· Free cooling building & upgrading
· Customized multi-functional cross flow fan - compact & powerful
· Free speed controlling - 3 speed modes for E-Z set-up
· Easy to upgrade for future new video card releases
· Easy Installation
· Dual Heat Pipe Cooling Design for efficient and upmost cooling performance
· Universal Frame Holding Design for Variety of fans
· RAM Heatsinks
· 242 grams
· 1550/2400/3150 RPM @ 24/28/32 dBA

Contents:

Receiving the KuFormula VF1 Plus from Sytrin's Taiwan bureau, the retail unit came well packaged in a green and black container that prominently displayed the product image on the front while on the rear was the specifications for the unit as well as the differences between the VF1 and VF1 Plus. Largely, the differences between the two VF1 modules is that the Plus variant features a cross-flow fan, RAM heatsinks, and fan controller. With the model under our microscope today being the VF1 Plus, the parts list consisted of a cross-flow fan, fan speed controller, eight VGA RAM heatsinks, one PCI holder, one VF1 heatsink module, one fan frame holder, two ATI links, four NVIDIA links (two variations), one thermal paste packet, two standoffs, eight small screws, two plastic C rings, two plastic washers, two spring-loaded screws, two plastic rivets, two fixing bolts, and one user manual. Each of these parts came safely packaged inside of the cardboard container, which was reinforced by a wealth of Styrofoam and additional cardboard. One of the areas we would have liked to see improvement upon would be applying a thin layer of protective film to the copper base, in order to protect the heatsink during shipping and handling to ensure no blemishes could possibly occur as well as to ensure no dust or other particles could accumulate. It is also a good time to mention that there is presently a patent pending on the GPU cooler design.