The water cooled graphics card isn't something that's exactly new, we've seen a lot of companies offer it over the past few years. BFG tends to go the more hard core route which involves people needing an existing water cooled setup within their case. Other companies go for the all-in-one solution. MSI did it not too long ago with the GeForce 9 series and we've also seen ECS release a dual pack which comes with two GeForce 9800 GTX+ cards. We have even seen some companies do it to AMD cards, but not for a while now, it seems. Today we're looking at one that comes from Zotac. It's an all-in-one system that's strapped to one of NVIDIA's highend cards, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ board. - TweakTown

Zotac GeForce 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition Card Review

While a bit of a pointless model and designed just to cause a bit of trouble for AMD, plenty of companies are offering some pretty good variations of the card. It comes as no surprise that the box is quite large with a water cooling unit sitting inside. Extra room was always going to be needed. Across the top of the box we have the brand along with a number of NVIDIA logos. Across the bottom we have the model along with mention of the card being a ZONE edition. In the middle of the box we can see a bit of the cooler. We also have a sticker on the front of the box that lets us know a full version game is included in the package.

To the right of the box we have some of the main features of the card like 512MB of GDDR3 memory, 256-bit interface, two dual link DVI connectors, the fact the card is water cooled and more. Turning the box over, we again have the brand and model mentioned. Below that we have a bit of a blurb on the card and below that Zotac go into some detail on the technology the card has. To the right we have some information on the cooler, the benefits and the fact that you will need some extra room in your case to install the radiator. Which is a bit normal as the radiator will need to reduce the heat of the water flowing through.

Pulling the card out of the box, you have quite a handful thanks to a bit of tubing and a 120mm radiator and fan all connected to each other. Looking straight on at the card, there isn't a whole lot to see thanks to Zotac putting a big plate across the front that incorporates itself into the heatsink. We can see there's a picture on the card along with the brand and the model. If you take a peek underneath you can see a heatsink that covers some of the hotter components along with the block that has an integrated pump in it to help push the water around. The radiator comes in at 120mm and has a 120mm fan attached to it.

Running off the fan is a single molex connector that is needed for the fan to spin. You need to make sure you have room in your case to mount the radiator or you're going to quickly find yourself annoyed with the purchase. Looking around the card, we see the standard connectors that we're used to seeing on a GeForce 9800 GTX. Towards the back of the card, hidden underneath the heatsink you will find two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors while the front of the card has two SLI connectors in the event you want to run three of these cards and enjoy some real fast gaming power and experience.

What's interesting is that Zotac have taken the time to water cool the card but they have decided to leave the core at the stock 738MHz while also leaving the memory at the stock 2200MHz. The first thing we have to say is that it was disappointing to find the card came in with the stock clocks. It just seemed like such a waste to go down the water cooling route and then turn around and offer the default clocks. What you end up doing is testing the performance of the card and feeling a bit empty. The thing is though, when you finally come to the point to check the temperatures out, you see the true benefit behind the ZONE series.

The other thing is with the new Nitro overclocking tool coming out soon from Zotac, you will be able to turn around and overclock all those important bits on the fly, which is great. It's easier to turn around and overclock a card then it is to setup water cooling. Sure it would have been nice if both were offered out of the box, but it's not the end of the world. The other thing is that the kind of user who buys a water cooled card is probably going to be a bit more computer savvy and will be able to overclock the card themselves. So in the end it isn't all that bad to just have the reference clocks, though having the advantage to overclock.

We've seen some pretty ordinary water cooling solutions, but the kit that Zotac uses is not only quiet, but also very efficient. This is a good stepping stone for Zotac when it comes to entering the water cooling market. Let's hope that they choose to strap the cooler onto something faster like the GeForce GTX 280 while taking the time to increase the clocks as well.