EN5900 bundle and presentation
ASUS' philosophy is that a card only accounts for a portion of the overall bundle. Impressive software, ASUS reckons, is almost as important.
You'd think that ASUS would make more of the card's PCI Express form factor. A couple of little stickers suffice. Again, ASUS is a leading proponent of oversized boxes and full packages. Considerable buying power, arisen from various economies of scale, ensures that ASUS can bargain with software developers and include titles that smaller companies cannot. ASUS also offers a limited 3-year warranty on its cards. Something to bear in mind when comparing prices for equivalent models.
The funky ASUS CD holder is in evidence again. A total of 10 CDs make up the N5900's bundle. ASUS is now content to add the main instruction manual, well-written as always, via a CD. The first appearance of cost-cutting measures, perhaps?. Deus Ex: Invisible War, Gunmetal, and Battle Engine Aquila is the standard ASUS 3-game lineup.
The inclusion of VIVO has necessitated an external box with both composite and S-Video inputs and outputs. ASUS, however, has been a touch miserly by not including S-Video and composite extension cables as standard. There's also a copy of the easy-to-use, VIVO-orientated Power Director 3DE, branded ASUS but produced by CyberLink, much like the accompanying DVD software player.
Utilities-wise, the excellent SmartDoctor makes a welcome appearance. It provides a wealth of monitoring information, right from a range of voltages down to fan speed. The coup de gras is the ability to adjust GPU fan speed to levels either set by pre-defined parameters or by the user. There's also what ASUS terms as HyperDrive, which boosts the GPU's speed with respect to 3D work, CPU usage, or temperature. SmartDoctor also serves as an overclocking tool, allowing the user to adjust GPU and memory clocks.
Just what a graphics card bundle should be. It contains the right mixture of games and utilities.
