If you're in the market for an NVIDIA 9800 GTX+ but happen to enjoy a quiet computing environment, take a look at ZOTAC's ZONE edition:
The 512MB card is the first GeForce 9-series offering from ZOTAC to be given the ZONE treatment, and its self-contained water-cooling system promised to provide a virtually-silent experience.
Aside from the reduction in noise, however, there isn't any bump in speeds. Despite the custom water-cooling system, the ZOTAC 9800 GTX+ ZONE features a reference 738MHz GPU and an effective memory clock speed of 2,200MHz.
Carsten Berger, marketing director at ZOTAC International, said:
Many users seek to quiet their systems. Previously, our ZONE Edition models were limited to our ZOTAC GeForce 8-series, with the new ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition, we’re able to deliver NVIDIA GeForce 9 graphics technology to quiet computing users. And because the water-cooling unit is self-contained, customers can have the high performance and quiet operation of water-cooling without the hassles of regular maintenance or installation, which often voids the factory graphics card warranty.
There's no word on pricing just yet, but NVIDIA's 9800 GTX+ graphics cards are still only trickling into the market. Expect this one to show up eventually, but if you're after a water-cooled SLI solution, take a look at ECS' Hydra Pack.
In the meantime, ZOTAC lists the ZOTAC 9800 GTX+ ZONE edition's complete specification as follows:
Product Name: |
ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition |
|---|---|
GPU: |
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ |
Core Clock speed: |
738 MHz |
Stream processors |
128 |
Shader clock |
1836 MHz |
Memory Clock speed: |
2200 MHz |
Memory |
512MB GDDR3 |
Memory interface: |
256-bit |
Cooling: |
ZOTAC ZONE Water-cooling |
DirectX™ version |
DirectX™ 10, Shader Model 4.0 |
Other hardware features |
Dual Dual-link DVI, HDCP, |
HDCP: |
Yes |
Software Features: |
nView® Multi-Display |
Windows Vista capability |
Certified for Windows Vista with Aero user interface |
Related reading: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+: bangin' on AMD's door
Official press release: ZOTAC Unleashes Quiet GeForce 9800 GTX+
