Leadtek Winfast PX 7800 GTX Extreme

First, over at Fuwell, we found one really beefy looking 7800 GTX. The Leadtek Winfast PX 7800 GTX Extreme is one of the first cards to arrive on the shelves of Singapore, that comes with a totally different cooling solution. While most other cards found here are based on the reference cooling, and the reference clockspeeds, the Leadtek card has a stark difference over these areas. With an operational clockspeed of 490Mhz for core, and 1250Mhz for memory, it's much higher then the reference 430Mhz/1100Mhz. Also, spotting a similar heatsink design as Leadtek's Quadro FX 4500, this 7800 GTX Extreme comes with a massive dual slot cooler. This cooler spots a large 80mm fan, and a massive finned area, connected to the base via 4 heatpipes. Priced at $ 1059, there's a promotion running now, that includes a FREE Coolermaster 540 case with every purchase!

 

The packaging of the 7800 GTX Extreme from Leadtek. Bright yellow, similar to their 7800 GT and GTX packaging.

 

This is the card in question. With such a massive dual slot cooling solution, it is no wonder this card comes pre-overclocked at such a high level.

 

A close up look at the heat pipes. 4 heat pipes are deployed to move heat away from the center to the sides, where the fine aluminum fins are.

 

A large 80mm fan is used on this card. With such size, it is said to be silent, yet efficient.

 

Large and fine fins are placed on the sides of the heatsink, where the heat pipes are connected onto.

 

This is how the back of the card looks like. Just like any other Nvidia Reference PCB, this Leadtek 7800 GTX Extreme spots a similar PCB as the Reference design. However, instead of black heatspreaders for memory, Leadtek used Silver colored ones.

 

This 7800 GTX Extreme comes with Dual DVI, and a S-Video TV Out like most other 7800 GTX cards. However, this card comes with VIVO capabilities, via the S-Video ports, using the provided cables.

Powercolor Radeon X550 Bravo

To those who are looking for a cheap, entry level PCIe graphics card, here's something for you. The Powercolor Radeon X550 Bravo is a card based on ATi Radeon X550 chipset, and yet comes with 256MB Infineon DDR2 memory configuration. This cards comes with a rather elaborate fanless heatsink design. The design of this fanless heatsink, looks similar to the Powercolor X700 Bravo we reviewed sometime ago, except that it's smaller in size, and had only 1 heat pipe instead of 2. Priced at $ 169, and found at Fuwell, it's a reasonable price to pay for such a card.

 

This is the packaging of the Powercolor Radeon X550 Bravo.

 

The card itself. While other makers include smaller heatsink/fan configuration, Powercolor is generous in having a large piece of fanless heatsink. Heat pipes will channel heat from the front to the back where another large heatsink resides.

 

This is how the back of the card looks like. As said, the back of the card has a large piece of heatsink.

 

This is rams that are available on the card. The Infineon DDR2 2.8ns modules are capable of 714Mhz operation.

 

These are the available I/O ports on this card. A DVI, VGA and a Video Out port here.

 

 

Gigabyte Fanless 6600GT 256MB

Over at The Hardware Place, we spotted a fanless 6600GT. Going fanless had been the trend these days, Gigabyte had just jumped into the bandwagon as well. The Gigabyte NX66T256D comes with a rather large fanless heatsink, on both the front and the back of the card. By deploying heat pipes, heat can be channeled to the back, effectively cooling the card via the extra surface area. As stated on the box, this card's cooling solution is designed by Zalman, a name very familiar to the computer cooling department. Also, unlike the other 6600GT in the market, this card comes with 256MB of RAM. Priced at $ 339, it's a little more then the average 6600GT.

 

This is how the packaging looks like.

 

On the box, it states that the cooling solution for this card is made by Zalman.

 

This is how the card looks like. A large slab of aluminum heatsink provides for the fanless cooling needs on this card.

 

This is how the back of the card looks like. In order to have better contact on the back, the green piece would close the gap between the card and the yellow main heatsink.

 

A close up on the heat pipe. This heat pipe would move heat away from the front to the back, where the other heatsink is.

 

The RAMs found on the card. 2.0ns GDDR3 Samsung modules are spotted on the card.

 

 

 

DFI Infinity nF4 Ultra & Infinity nF4 SLi

At DAT Computers, we spotted 2 new DFI AMD 64 based motherboards. Being a cheaper alternative to the award winning Lanparty series, the new DFI Infinity nF4 Ultra and the DFI Infinity nF4 SLi comes with less fanciful options. Straight from the box, the packaging is less extravagant. The board itself does not come with UV reactive slots and connectors. But instead, it comes with a very simple design, in both the board color, and the feature set. It will be interesting to see how these 2 boards fare against their better looking (and more expensive) Lanparty brothers. Priced at $ 185 for the Ultra version, and $ 245 for the SLi version, it's one of the cheaper boards available in Sim Lim Square.

 

This is the packaging of the NF4 Ultra Infinity. Simplicity is the keyword here.

 

A label on the motherboard, listing the available feature set found on this board.

 

 

This is how the nF4 Ultra board looks like from top down.

 

The I/O connectors available on this board. Both the SLi and the Ultra shares similar I/O ports. With just standard 5.1 sound for these boards, as compared to the 7.1 found on the Lanparty series.

 

This is how the Infinity SLi board looks like from top down.

 

Unlike the brown SLi bridge with the Lanparty emblem found on the Lanparty SLi-D or the SLi-DR, these boards comes with such generic green bridges.

 

 

This Vitesse VSC8201RX provides the Physical Hardware Layer to the onboard Gigabit LAN found on the Nforce 4 chipsets on both boards.

 

The Firewire capabilities on both boards, are powered by this VIA VT6307 Firewire "A" controller.

 

 

 

That's all for this week folks, catch us next week :)