Conclusion:
Silence is golden, except when it is a nickel plated combination of copper and aluminum, as in the case of the Thermalright V1 Ultra VGA Cooler. It was unfortunate the fan intended to be used on the V1 Ultra interfered with the system's CPU cooler, but the performance was still quite impressive. Head to head with a VGA cooler designed to be passive (the Thermaltake Schooner), the fanless V1 Ultra came out the winner in thermal testing.
The design of the V1 Ultra not only did a great job keeping the GPU cool, it made installation fairly easy, and the final installation looks pretty sharp, as well. The installation may be more involved than the typical two pins pushed through the graphics card's PCB, but compared to the Thermaltake Schooner installation, the V1 Ultra required about 1/3 the steps.
The interference with the CPU cooler was unfortunate, but is something for potential buyers to keep in mind. The Thermalright website provides a list of compatible video cards (which we showed to be incomplete), but it may also want to mention motherboard/CPU cooler compatibility issues. Oversized coolers, in this case a Thermalright SI-120, can prevent the fan on V1 Ultra from being installed. Although Thermalright said it was fine to use the cooler without the fan, it no doubt impacts the performance.
PriceGrabber only offers one listing, and that is for Xoxide.com where the Thermalright V1 Ultra will set you back $49.99. Searching the web elsewhere shows that this is about the going price, and the lowest I saw it was for around $44.99 at places like jab-tech.com and svc.com. This seems like quite a bit of money for a VGA cooler, but as with CPU coolers, the prices just seem to keep climbing as the designs are improved. Compared to other VGA coolers from the likes of Zalman, Thermaltake, and Arctic Cooling, the Thermalright V1 Ultra is anywhere from $10 to $30 more expensive.
Given the impressive performance, and potential for greater cooling on systems where the fan fits, I award the Thermalright V1 Ultra VGA Cooler a final score of 4.5 out of 5 stars, and a rating of "Highly Recommended".
Final Rating (4.5 out of 5 stars):  
Pros:
» Well designed (performance and appearance)
» Excellent thermal performance, even when passively cooled
» Capable of silent operation
» Includes self-adhesive RAM sinks
» Universal interface (even more so than the Thermalright site lists)
Cons:
» High price for a VGA cooler
» Instructions were decent, but could be improved
» Interference with CPU cooler prevented use of the included fan
Special thanks to Thermalright for providing the V1 Ultra VGA Cooler to Bigbruin.com for review!
Please drop by the Bigbruin.com Forum and feel free to post any comments or questions.
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