Summary

Performance

Oh dear. Those who have read my Zalman VF900 review will know that I wasn't impressed by it's temperatures at all, and while that particular cooler did better here than it did before, the VPower did considerably worse. What's a shame is I am sure little changes would have made this so much better. Gigabyte have built an exhaust cooler, one that sends the hot air out the back of the case, except the shroud that directs the air is made up of a large grill... you know, the type with holes in. So some of the hot air being pushed to the back of the case ends up coming out through the holes into the case again. It's then most likely sucked back in through the fan, and over and out again; not the best way of doing things.

Something else that would have been nice to see is a little more variation in the heatsink design. Not just aesthetically, but to increase the surface area. Where are the grooves in the fins, or the bends and kinks to increase the time that the air spends in contact with the heated metal. Currently the sink on the VPower resembles that of the Sytrin KuForumla which, while being effective, relied on an instanely loud and powerful fan to acheive it's temperatures; something that Gigabyte's offering here, doesn't have.

Cost

The only place I could actually find this for sale was an American one so I can only give a rough idea of what the cost would be like here in the UK. It was retailing for $55 which would equate to about £27.50 if there was equality in world trade. However, since we tend to pay more for our stuff over here, let's round it up to £30. That seems an awful lot for an air cooler than can't fit any current gen cards.

If you know of a better price somewhere else, please let me know.

Noise

At full tilt - where it's cooling ability is at least, mildly effective - the VPower is quite audible, and most non-headset users will find it irritating after a while. You can use the included fan controller to lower the fan speed enough to make it almost silent which is nice, but I would make sure you keep an eye on your temperatures if you do this.