Viewing page 1 of 4 pages.
1 2 3 4 NextApril 19, 2006 by Devon
Cooke
|
Product
|
AOpen Aeolus PCX6600-DV128LP
Fanless GeForce 6600 for PCIe
|
ASUS EAX1600XT Silent/TVD/256M
Fanless Radeon X1600XT for PCIe
|
|
Manufacturer
|
AOpen |
ASUSTeK
Computer Inc. |
|
Market Price
|
US$140 |
US$190 |
Finding a good fanless graphics card can be a bit of a challenge. There are lots
of them around, but the majority are entry-level cards. Then there's the ever-present question of reliability.
It's one thing to slap a fanless heatsink on a powerful card; it's another thing
for that heatsink to perform well enough to cool it under stressful conditions in a real computer. Fanless cards must rely
on system airflow to move heat away from them, and it's no simple trick to design
a passive heatsink that works well under a wide range of airflow conditions.
The Gigabyte GV-N66256DP was the first fanless graphics card we tested. It's an AGP model. Two PCIe models are examined in this review: A low profile GeForce 6600 from AOpen, and a more recent Radeon X1600XT
from Asus:
The low profile AOpen Aeolus PCX6600-DV128LP card is targeted primarily at the home theater and SFF markets. Designing a video
card that is low profile and fanless is quite a challenge; the AOpen
needs to dissipate the same amount of heat with about half of the surface area
available to a more conventional card.
The ASUS EAX1600XT Silent/TVD/256M is a full size card with a mid/low performance GPU. However,
unlike the AOpen card, only the GPU is cooled; the RAM chips are open to the
air. If this cards shows any symptoms of overheating, it will be the RAM that
we suspect, not the GPU.
AOPEN AEOLUS PCX6600-DV128LP
Aside from its low profile design, the Aeolus distinguishes itself from NVidia's
reference 6600 by the speed and type of RAM that it uses: GDDR3 clocked 150
MHz faster than the DDR RAM used in NVidia's version.
Half-height video cards are unusual.
The cooling system wedges the card between two chunky blocks of aluminum that
are connected around the back of the card by a pair of thin heatpipes. All of
the major chips, including the GPU and all the RAM chips, are covered by the
heatsinks. As can be expected of a passively cooled card, the heatsinks take
up quite a bit of space. Most of the additional volume is on the back side of
the card, making the Aeolus a double-width card. Given the layout of most SFF
systems, this may mean that the second expansion slot will be unusable, or,
even worse, the card may not fit at all. Tall capacitors or heatsinks around
the PCI Express slot may also cause problems.
Chunky aluminum heatsinks on both sides of the card.
A pair of heatpipes connect the two heatsinks.
Because of the low profile backplate, there is not enough room to fit the three
output connectors supported by the GeForce 6600 on the back panel. Only the
DVI-I and the TV-out port made it on to the back; the D-Sub VGA connector is
must be installed in a separate slot. A 15-pin ribbon cable is used to connect
the physical port to the card itself. Most people should be able to do without
this extra connector; single monitor setups can always use the DVI-I to VGA
adapter to hook up the appropriate type of monitor.
The VGA plug is included on a separate backplate...
...but a full size backplate will fit all three connectors...
...or it can be removed entirely if not needed.
|
|
|
GPU
|
nVIDIA GeForce 6600
Core Clock : 300MHz
DirectX Generation : 9
|
|
Video Memory
|
-2ns
DDR3
128 MB |
| Bus Type |
PCI-E |
| Highest Resolution /
Colors / Refresh Rate |
2048 x 1536 / 32bit / 85Hz |
| RAMDAC Speed |
400 MHz |
| Connectors |
DVI connector x 1
TV-Out (Composite&S-Video) x 1
VGA Out (15 Pin D-Sub) x 1 |
| Form Factor |
Low Profile |
| Driver Support |
Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectVideo and
ActiveX for Windows 2000/XP
OS: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/NT4.0 and Linux
DirectX: 8 / 9 |
| Software Package |
Auto driver installation wizard
User-friendly interface to control VGA settings |
| Accessories |
DVI-CRT converter x 1
User's Guide : AOpen User's Guide x 1
VGA driver disc : AOpen VGA driver disc x 1 |
| Help support this site, buy the Asus Radeon X1600 XT Video Card from one of our affiliate retailers! |
|
