Today I will be looking at the Vizo Sleet VGA cooler.  Vizo is the maker of the well regarded Sleet line of copper chipset coolers for video cards.  Realizing that cooling the video RAM was not enough, Vizo has released an all-in-one cooling solution for most graphics cards.  This kit fits almost all models of video cards from ATI and NVIDIA up until the 7600 lines for NVIDIA and the x1300/x1600 series for ATI. Whether you want to cool down your VGA, tone down the noise level or add some led bling, Vizo now gives you the option in one complete kit.  Lets get started…

Vizo Sleet VGA Cooler

Reviewed by: Tomas Ratas

Sponsor: Vizo

Edited by: Kristofer Brozio

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

FEATURES:

Compatible to most NVIDIA & ATI VGA cards

Unique apertures design for various VGA cards

Different clips enclosed for option

Pure aluminum shaped cooling core

Silent ball bearing fan with blue LED

Additional 8 pcs memory heatsinks

SPECIFICATIONS:

Cooler Dimensions : 120.0 x 92.0 x 32.0 mm

Fan Dimensions : 60 x 60 x 12 mm

Heatsink Material : Pure Aluminum AL1070

Reted Voltage : DC 12.0 V

Rated Current : 0.15 A

Power Consumption : 1.8 W

Fan Speed : 2500 R.P.M

Bearing Type : Ball Bearing

LED : Blue Light

Noise : 24.5 dBA

Weight : 180 g

PACKAGE INCLUDES:

VGA Cooler

Accessory Package

A Better Look at Things

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The packaging is a plastic clam shell design resting on a blue card with a Vizo logo. The card doubles as the instruction sheet when folded open. The package prominently features the fan, the clips and the ramsinks. In a small square attachment, all the additional parts can be found.

Once open, the package contains eight copper ramsinks, a cooling fan with an aluminum cooling core, two different sized attachment clips, Vizo thermal grease, four standoff screws, four screws, four washers, four adhesive discs, 3M double sided adhesive squares, four springs and a three pin to molex adapter.

The fan is a semicircle shape. On upper part of the circle, there is a white Vizo logo. The upper circumference is covered with aluminum fins. Off the left side of the base, a three pin fan connector adapter can be found. The bottom features a large aluminum square base. On the periphery of the base, there are multiple numbered holes for the standoff screws. These numbers correspond to the installation position for the various video card models.

Installation, Testing and Comparison

To test out the Vizo Sleet VGA Cooler, I will use an EVGA 7600GT OC. The stock cooler on the 7600GT OC is flatter and smaller than the Vizo model.

Once the fan was removed, the VGA chip was found under a thick mound of silver thermal interface material.

Consulting the table on the instruction sheet, the number 3 holes were the match for the NVIDIA 7600GT series of video card. After inserting the four stand-off screws, the rubber adhesive discs were placed over the corresponding holes on the upper surface of the 7600GT card.

Next, the Vizo thermal grease was applied to the VGA chipset.

Installation, Testing and Comparison Continued:

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The Sleet ramsinks were applied to the four memory chips using the 3M adhesive. So far this does not seem too complicated.

My main problem with Vizos instructions is that they are not clear. They do not accurately explain if the springs and washers are required for the installation onto the model graphics card I was using. Please note there are only two clips included in the package (Clip A and Clip B). This is directly from the instructions.

6-1. For Clip A or Clip B user: Fasten VGA cooler onto VGA card from its backside by Screw B (see Fig. 5)

6-2. For Clip C user : Put Spring on Screw B (see Fig. 6), put on Insulation Spacer after Spring (se Fig. 7). Fasten VGA cooler ontoVGA card from its backside by Screw B kit (see Fig. 8)

Since, there is no clip C in the packaging or shown on the Accessory List picture on the inside of the instruction card, you can see where this may get confusing. In the future, this issue needs to be clarified.

I ended up not using the spring and just used the washer and screw to mount the clip onto the back of the 7600GT OC.

Installation, Testing and Comparison Continued:

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Installation required the alignment of the fan to the proper mounting holes, turning over the card and tightening the screws on the clips.

As you can see, there is plenty of clearance for the ramsinks and the vga fan.

All that is left is installing the card back in the PC. The fan controller can be plugged into one of the fan headers on the motherboard or can be attached to a spare molex connector. The VIZO Sleet emits a blue light form the led on the fan.

Test System:

Opteron 146 running at stock 2.0 GHz

AsRock939 Dual SATA2

2x1024MB Corsair XMSPRO 3500LL

Arctic Cooling Alpine 64

Antec Sonata II Case

I tested the cooling capacity of the Sleet VGA Cooler using Futuremarks 3DMark05 and 3DMark06, NVIDIAs Luna demo and the F.E.A.R. built in game demo. For testing full benchmarks were run for both 3DMarks and the Luna and F.E.A.R. demos were cycled twice.

As the results show, there is an improvement of the GPU temperatures running at baseline and during heavy load with the Vizo Sleet VGA Cooler. Audibly, there is very little difference in noise from the Sleet as compared to the stock EVGA cooler, but once there is heavy video usage, then the noise difference is noticeable. The EVGA cooler tends to ramp up in speed and thus volume when playing something graphically intense such as F.E.A.R. The Vizo Sleet remained quiet even when running under full load.

Summary:

The Vizo Sleet VGA Cooler is an excellent option for both cooling and silencing a pc. The fan itself is not too bulky and is fairly simple to install. Plus, it adds a nice blue light if you have a case with a window.

While the temperature decreases are not tremendous, I believe if the included Vizo thermal interface used is replaced with either Arctic Silver Ceramique or Arctic Silver 5 (if you are careful with the application), then the temperature drops will be even better.

For their first foray into the VGA cooling market, Vizo does an admirable job. I think there are some things that will need to be addressed, primarily the instructions. However, I would recommend this product as a cooling option for any pc, whether for a gamer or a home theater setup.

DragonSteelMods gives the Vizo Sleet VGA Cooler a 4 out of 5 score.

Pros:

Quiet Operation

Improvement in GPU temps

Blue Led Fan

Cons:

Instructions not clear

We would like to thank Vizo for the chance to review the Sleet VGA Cooler and for their continued support of DSM.