The 8800GTX

Taking the 8800 out of its protective anti static bag, it is obvious that the guys at Foxconn wanted to continue the colourful packaging idea onto the card itself. Some may not like this design, but personally I think it looks great. Love it or hate it though. one thing is for certain, this card really stands out.

This GPU is fitted with the standard exhaust cooler that comes with most of the 8800 range. This involves a fan sucking air in through the "Front" and passing it along the heatsink before exhausting the air out of the back of the case.

The heatsink that the air rushes across on its bid for freedom is pretty huge, and it encorporates several interesting design features that aide looks and cooling performance. The first and most obvious of these is the visible bottom heatpipe. This will allow heat to travel from the core of the "Sink" to the fins much more quickly as heatpipes are purely designed for quick heat transfer.

The second design feature this cooler has is an interesting grill in the coolers plastic shroud. I can only assume this is purely for aesthetic appeal only, as this would surely just mean that some of the air meant to be exhausted out of the case is simply fed back into the case.

At the back of the card you can see the exhaust area of the cooler; nicely grilled to stop any fingers getting stuck. There is also the usual two times DVI ports for all your digital goodness.

Moving around to the other end of the card you can see the now famous two times 6 pin power connectors. This was the first card of its kind to need not only the power from the PCIE socket and one PCIE 6 pin power connector, but two. If you don't have two PCIE 6 pin power cables you will be able to use the included molex to 6 pin cables included; arn't Foxconn helpful?

Also along this end of the card are the twin SLI bridge connectors; no doubt just itching for tri and quad SLI to become available so they can become more than just bragging material.

Taking a look at the back of the card it realy becomes apparent how big this thing is. The 8800GTX is a whopping 27cm long so if you have a small case or a large HDD cage near the front, you may need to rethink whether you want this card, or at least if you need to purchase a bigger case first.

Installation

Installation was not a problem this time. I say this time, as now being a veteran of 8800 installation I had allready relocated my hard drives to elsewhere in the case before attempting the install, giving the 800GTX plenty of room to breath.

Having had a look at the aesthetics and design of the card and managing to fit it without too much hassle, I think it's time to have a go at testing this puppy don't you?