I recently bought a VF700cu for my evga 6800 ultra (agp). I have an Epox 9nda3+ (fantastic agp mobo) and wanted to access the sata ports which get covered by the fan/heatsink on a large video card. I also wanted to reduce the noise level and improve the cooling. After installation, the max temps dropped from 73c to around 70c when running rthdribl at 640x480, and idle dropped to 50c. The sound level, using the 12v lead, is quite low, although audible.
The VF700 can mount on a 6800 ultra card two ways, 90 degrees apart. Using the factory recommended location will obscure the 9nda3 sata ports. Rotating 90 degrees out gives me plenty of room to run the sata cables to the board. Both positions seem to provide plenty of cooling air for the other chips on the video card.
Unfortunately, after a successful installation, I broke one of the fan blades! What to do? I had read that it's possible to replace Zalman flower fans with modified case fans. Sure enough, the VF700 is very easy (and safe) to disassemble, work on and modify. The fan motor is mounted with two little screws onto a steel backing plate, which mounts to the copper heatsink assembly. I selected an old no-name 80mm case fan I've had for years. I removed the fan and motor by clipping the four plastic sprues which suspend the motor in the center of the fan housing. I hand pre-drilled the two little holes in the base of the plastic motor using a dremel tool and 1/32" drill. Locating the holes was easy, I just put the steel backing plate on the motor and used the holes as guides to drill the motor. The original Zalman motor had two little plastic tabs on the base of the motor for the mounting screws. The replacement motor didn't have tabs, so I had to drill the holes into the bases of two of the plastic sprues where they mount to the motor. Re-assembly took about ten minutes. The original screws were able to cut their own threads in the new holes.
The substitute 80mm fan turned out to be quite superior to the original Zalman. The Zalman is a low profile 15mm thick fan, with rounded ends on the blade (I assume to prevent finger snag because there is no grille). The 80 mm fan I used is 25mm thick, with very sharp leading edges (like a Panaflo) and moves more air, quietly. The only problem is it projects past the Zalman flower. It definitely uses up the adjacent slot space. It's easy to snag a finger on the tall fan: no grille.
Temperatures dropped another 2~3 c. Idle is 49c and rthdribl drives it to about 68c. It runs Doom 3 at high settings in the mid 50's. I'm real happy. I was considering buying a new Panaflow high speed 80mm and butchering it, but it doesn't seem worthwhile at this point. I wouldn't put a heavy or high output fan on the Zalman because the two screws are quite small and only mounted in plastic. I guess you could fit a Vantec Tornado and try to beat watercooling... Wow, 120cfm for a video card!
I had previously used trimmed sata cables to solve the problem of sata port access. That worked fine, but this is a cleaner and more functional solution. For anyone with an Epox 9nda3+ and a 6800 ultra, this is the best way to go.
I would recommend the Cu version for 6800 cards and the Al version for 6600 cards. The 6800 cards run hotter and can use the ~2c lower temps. They're also larger and can support a little more weight. The Al version is much lighter and may reduce the possibility of warping the video card.
My wife's A64 3000+ Shuttle runs a Leadtek 6600GT with stock cooling and it gets up to 80c in the blink of an eye when running rthdribl (Doom 3 is much kinder). I haven't dared to see how high it actually goes. That's because the Shuttles have very poor airflow for radial-flow video card coolers like the VF700. The stock fan is smack-dab against the inside of the case. The VF700 would be worse (I haven't checked to see if it fits, but I doubt it). Cross-flow cooling like the Arctic Cooling NV series would be better. Too bad they don't make one for the Shuttle. Are you listening Thermalright?