The Zalman Reserator stands around 2 feet tall and houses the pump, cylindrical reservoir and cooling fins around its circumference. The inlet and outlet connections as well as the power cord for the pump are all located at the bottom of the unit. The top of the cylinder has a cap that unscrews to check/add coolant.



The ZM-RF1 simply slides down over the top of the Reserator and has attachment points molded into the housing that fit over the cooling fins. The power cord for the fan can be slipped between two of the fins.



The provided clips hold the power wire between the fins to keep things looking neat.



The power wire is appx. 30 inches long, which only leaves a short amount hanging out the bottom. The fan controller extension connects to this power connector.



At the other end of the cable is the fan controller, but the 3-pin pass-through power connector is split off the same end. Since the fan wire is too short to reach inside the case, the cable must be separated into a large "Y" in order to reach an available fan header on the motherboard. Alternately you could purchase a longer length of wire and/or adapter cable.



Once the fan is connected the speed can be set by the controller, however there is no on/off. The ZM-RF1 does use an LED fan.



Even with the fan controller set to the highest setting, the light output is not very bright. Although it can be clearly seen with the lights off, when the fan speed is adjusted down or the lights are turned on, the effect is diminished.



Now let's see what performance effect the ZM-RF1 has on cooling.