ASUS 7600GS Silent Review

[slytherock]

My first small review in here, hope you'll enjoy.

I'll be doing this review in 3 parts:

Part 1 First impressions
Part 2 OC results
Part 3 Benchmarks

Today I'll start by the part 1 (really useful sentence...)

Card: ASUS EN7600GS SILENT/HTD Series PCI-E (http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=271&model=1090&modelmenu=1)

Star with the easy part: specs

Graphics Engine GeForce 7600GS
Video Memory 256M DDR2
Engine Clock 400MHz
Memory Clock 800MHz (400MHz)
RAMDAC 400MHz
Bus Standard PCI-Express
Memory Interface 128-bit
Max Resolution 2048x1536
VGA Output Yes
TV Output Yes, via HDTV-out cable
DVI Output DVI-I
2nd VGA Output Yes
Adaptor/Cable bundled HDTV out adaptor DVI-to-2nd VGA adaptor
Software Bundled ASUS Gamepack 2
ASUS Utilities & Driver

First impression out of the box

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1079.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1078.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1081.jpg
Nice looking card, the heatsink make it really sexy and shiny.
But when I look closer, and touch it a little bit, I can see that the heatsink did not stand very well in place. Only 2 clip retain it in place giving the heatsink alot of space to move, I'm not sure about it's intallation. Secondly, no external power source, I hope it wont give me too much problems to OC it...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1063.jpg
Turning it around show that the back face of the card is not cover by any heatsink, wich might not have any impact cause all the RamSink are on the other side. But we can also see the back of the heatsink, where it can get nice fresh air to cool down the card

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1082.jpg
Removing the heatsink was really easy, only the 2 littles clips I mentioned earlier. Now came my second deception: the heatsink dont touch any of the RAM. You'll see on the next pics how the heasink is made, it cool only the GPU, leaving the RAM totally without cooling in a restrain area without air (bad...)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1088.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1087.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1085.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1084.jpg
At least the card is SLI ready
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1077.jpg
And enough Outputs for my needs

First impressions results:

PRO: Silent

CONS: Bad heatsink construction
No External power connector

I could have add some Pro like Sli ready, the card is blue, or some **** like that but I dont think it's very constructive...
My result is 5/10 for this section, I hope the card will give me a better impression for the next sections.

Part 2 and 3 to follow as soon As I receive my new PSU (1 or 2 days)

[Zephik]

Sweet, cool review slytherock! +1rep ...see what you get people when you review your products? ;)

It's kind of lame that the heatsink don't touch any of the ram chips! ><

How much distance inbetween is there do you think? If its too precise to say, then it might be okay. ...well it will be okay, its just not a pro that they don't touch! ...you can always mod it ;) haha

Looking forward to the next installments! :)

[slytherock]

Thx all for the comments

@-GT40: no, ty, I really appreciate it. I just need to stand still (My cat was playing with my hands at that moment) I'll try to take new pics when I'll get back home



It's kind of lame that the heatsink don't touch any of the ram chips! ><

How much distance inbetween is there do you think? If its too precise to say, then it might be okay. ...well it will be okay, its just not a pro that they don't touch! ...you can always mod it ;) haha

Looking forward to the next installments! :)

I know it suck... The distance is about 3mm, so it dont give me alot of space to add some. But I'll try to think of something after the review and see if I can get more OC from it

[GT40_GearHead]

3mm..... you could cut a fin of it and use that, they look close to 3 mm, are they?

[Zephik]

Maybe you could cut around where the ram chips are and either use the cut outs from the heat sink as ram heat sinks or buy some ram heat sinks and set them down in there? Maybe more trouble that its worth...

[slytherock]

ok, the pics have almost all been updated due to poor quality (thx TG40)

And now for the space between the heatsink and the RAM I have a little pics for the pic whores

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/slytherock/102_1076a.jpg

[slytherock]

Sorry for the slow updates, the nice new girlfriend take alot of my time (nothing to complain about it ;) )
I'll try to continu this on saturday

[Zephik]

Sure sure ;)

haha, I'll be waiting for them!

[GT40_GearHead]

nice to hear that sly

i'l take queue behind snow

[slytherock]

Unfortunatly, I had to stop this review for a undefined time, due to a overheating card. I dont discouraged to write it, but it would be with another cooler. Anyway, for now,
I can give a big 1/10 for the silent cooler
1 cause it work well for day to day work, but as soon as I load a game....