Installation

Installation is a breeze and you won’t have to even disable your onboard NIC in your BIOS. Simply slot the Killer into place and you’re ready to go. There are no ports at the rear to get in the way and everything will be done in a couple of seconds.

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I would advise against using the drivers on the CD that’s provided. This is mainly due to the fact that they are out of date, and the automatic update method isn’t the easiest. Skip the outdated driver install, and just grab the latest from the BigFoot site. I used the latest version available to me at the time of the review; the 3.1.2.6 drivers.

During installation the card has its memory flashed which is a little scary, especially as if the power were to go, you’ll be left with an expensive paperweight. You might be able to flash it again after a power failure, but I didn’t have the balls to test this.

The install process is longer than most, due to the flashing process. After this is done, InstallShield will ask you whether you want to install a couple of FNApps; Bitorrent and Firewall.

Once installed, you get a little icon by your clock in the Start by which allows you to start any installed FNApps, change the settings, or choose which mode you want the card to be in. The modes allow you to choose between LLR Game Mode, or LLR App Mode which changes the way that the card works. When in Game mode, you’ll be treated to all of the features that the card offers, including the GameFirst system, while App mode brings the Windows networking stack back into the picture and it functions as a standard NIC. This is useful when you do want throughput over latency (e.g. watching YouTube videos or network transfers).

Once installed and turned on, you’ll be able to see the flashing LED’s that are behind the large heatsink that the Killer has strapped to it. You can choose either steady, blinking or off. The LED’s are definitely an unnecessary expense and don’t look all that great; especially the blinking type.