Sapphire 2600 Pro AGP 512MB Get our reviews RSS feed here  |
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Author: Whoopty | ||
| Posted: 16:47, December 14th 2007 | |||
| Link: http://www.sapphiretech.com | |||
| Score: 5 out of 10 [?] | |||
| Price: £60 | |||
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The 2600 Pro AGP
Cooler
The HD 2600 AGP doesn't differ much from it's PCI-e counterpart. It has a similar style cooler, which takes air from "underneath" the card, and blows it across a heatsink hidden by a large blue shroud before "exiting" towards the front of the case.
 "Sapphire 2600 Pro AGP Bundle")
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Like most coolers, the fan features a Sapphire sticker, and the shroud some Sapphire styling.
 "Sapphire 2600 Pro AGP Fan")
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You can see in the picture below that the heatsink is aluminium based and is a simple block-with-fins style.
 "Sapphire 2600 Pro AGP Heatsink")
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There is no cooling for the RAM chips which makes it easy for us to see that they are made by Hynix.
 "RAM Chips")
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Other Features
One noticeable difference between the two versions of this card, is the AGP to PCI-e bridge chip code named RIALTO. This allows for what is essentially a PCI-e chip - the RV630 - to be used on an AGP board.
 "2600 Pro AGP Back")
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Based on past experience, we know that the bridge chip gets insanely hot and strangely, it looks as if it should have a heatsink attached due to the pink heat pad surrounding it. This does make it simple to attach one, but it seems odd that it doesn't come with one.
 "AGP to PCI-e Chip")
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The 2600 also features wet electrolytic "across the board" - thanks to JC for this one. These not only look better than their traditional counterparts, but have a longer life span too.
 "Solid Capacitors")
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Connectors
At the rear there are DVI, VGA and SVideo connectors. This allows for the usage of the card without a DVI to VGA converter; should you still be using a VGA cable.
 "DVI and VGA")
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At the front of the card is the power connector. Some of you may be surprised to see that infarct it's a floppy drive 4 pin. This may seem like an odd choice considering some PSU manufacturers have stopped including this connector with their units, but most AGP users will be using old PCs so it should be fine. Still, seems odd when they could have just used a molex or two...
 "Power Connector")
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The fan is powered by a small 2pin connector located on the PCB; conveniently.
 "Fan Power")
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Buy now
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