Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus

Examination:

With the Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus, there are two major parts to its design - the actual heatsink and then the holder area. Composing of the actual heatsink are dual heatpipes that extrude from the copper base and run through the series of aluminum fins above it. In total there are approximately fifty aluminum fins to assist in the dissipation process. Examining the copper base, it was relatively free of any imperfections noticeable by the human eye. On the two sides running perpendicular with the heatpipes are two holes for use with the ATI and NVIDIA mounting links. Both holes are threaded and are reinforced by additional metal due to the softer consistency of copper. Looking at the heatsink it appears to be well designed but before drawing any conclusions on that area, we will wait for the performance results to share the rest of the story.

The next major area with the Sytrin KuFormula VF1 Plus is the holder/mounting area, which provides a ledge for the heatsink fins to rest upon when installed in an adjacent expansion slot. In addition, it provides external speed control abilities for the heatsink fan and mounting holes for positioning the cross-flow fan to achieve the greatest cooling effect. Unfortunately, however, this design relies upon the graphics card to be installed in a traditional ATX chassis in order to properly align the fan bracket with the heatsink. The status quo should be suitable for most applications; however, the criteria cannot be easily met if the system is running in an open-air environment or perhaps various custom PC cases and modifications. In addition to mounting the included cross-flow fan with the VF1 Plus, the mounting bracket does support 80, 92, and 120mm axial fans, however, this option is mainly geared toward the non-Plus users where the Sytrin fan is not included. On the rear of the fan bracket is a switch that offers three options of low, medium, and high, for adjusting the voltage supplied to the fan. Onto the final area of examination are the RAM heatsinks. As the engineers at Sytrin focused upon making the KuFormula VF1 series universal, they turned to creating ordinary RAM heatsinks. Included with the VF1 Plus are eight golden colored heatsinks that come equipped with a thin layer of thermal tape to attach to the RAM modules. Although the RAM cooling may not be as elaborate as other coolers, it is indeed universal and the cross-flow fan, or whatever fan you may decide to adapt, should be able to provide some airflow across the RAM heatsinks at least on the bottom side of the graphics card PCB.