German based EKL Alpenföhn brand is well known for their very powerfull processor cooling solutions. EKL now tries to gain ground in the GPU cooling market. This with a single fan design baptised Heidi for mainstram cards ( a revised version Heidi 2 is soon to be released). And a dual or more fan solution for the more powerfull (read hot) cards with todays reviewed Peter VGA cooler.
The Peter VGA consists of 12 high end 6mm heatpipes,. The total cooling surface is made up by 91 soldered aluminium fins. This thing is freaking huge. Measuring 253.5mm x 100mm x 44mm and weighing a total of +/-650 grams ( cooler alone ). The weight might not look like a concern, but keep in mind that the only point of contact with the videocard is the GPU. The PCB is not stiffened at all.
Cooling power is not included and can be chosen according your requirements ( maximum performance, low noise,...) Mountable via the black anodised Alu bracket for a max of up to four 120mm fans or two/three 140mm fans.
The boxart is nicely looking. Alpenföhn adheres to typical german names for their products. No funky stuff nor inspiration by any media form.
Some shots of the cooler. The copper base is nickel plated for a perfect surface. The rest of the pictures speak for themselves.
The included accessoires providing maximum GPU compatibility, via removable brackets and with an enormous amount of heatsinks. Really the amount of heatsinks leaves no option open. There's even a screwable VRM cooler provided for ATI cards. Alike the Arctic G1 thermal solution, Alpenföhn includes a similar thermal glue. Though curing time is way faster and there's no need to mix different compounds.
The big black anodised bracket allows multiple fans to be installed. The whole fan setup is fixed directly to the case. This to unload the PCB of extra pressure as the total weight could be too much too handle.
VGA Cooler Compatibility:
43mm mounting hole distance
ATI Radeon HD 5770/5750/5670
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Series
ATI Radeon X1600 Series
NVIDIA Geforce 8600/8500/8400/
7600/7400/7300 Series
NVIDIA Geforce 6600 Series(Except 6600 AGP Series)
51/61mm mounting hole distance
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 200 Series
53mm mounting hole distance
ATI Radeon HD 6850/6870
5870/5850/4870/4860/
4850/4830/4750/4670/4650/3870/3850/
3690/3650/3450
ATI Radeon X1900 Series
NVIDIA Geforce GT 210/220/240
NVIDIA Geforce GTS 250
NVIDIA Geforce 9800 GTX+/GTX/GT
NVIDIA Geforce 9600 GT
NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GT/ GTS(G92)
NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX/GT/GS
NVIDIA Geforce 7800 GTX/GT
NVIDIA Geforce 6600 Series(Except 6600 AGP Series)
80mm mounting hole distance
NIVDIA Geforce 7400 Series
NIVDIA Geforce 7600 Series
Strangely enough no GTX560 nor 570 are mentioned…