ECS packaging and bundle
The card's packaging is somewhat lacking, making no reference to the clock speeds - which, considering the card is pre-overclocked, is a case of ECS shooting itself in the foot – and, unbelievably, ECS’ website also makes no mention of the increased speeds.
The card is heavily advertised as being of a passive design, yet no mention is made of the turbo-cool fans. As such, if you were buying literally ‘off-the-shelf’ you wouldn’t know about two important features.
Things aren’t much better in the box, really. The turbo-cool fans' installation instructions aren’t fully clear; there is no indication of under which circumstances they are recommended to be installed. The user is left to assume that the cooler is optional; confirmation either way would have been greatly appreciated. Given that the cooler is advertised as passive we have no concerns testing the card sans fans in our test setup, but in a chassis with low airflow, which is common, we could foresee occasions where the turbo-cool modules would be mandatory rather than optional.
Unfortunately, a somewhat fragile solder-joint on our sample's turbo-cool fan's wire managed to detach itself during installation, and, as such, we will only be testing the card in its passive mode. We would urge Arctic Cooling to make the fan module more robust and the mounting more intuitive, but with the current revision we cannot emphasis enough the need for utmost care during installation.
| Items | Driver CD DVI-to-VGA adapter Composite/Component-out adaptor Dual Molex to 6 pin PCIe power cable Multi language user manual Turbo-cool fans |
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The card's bundle can be described as perfunctory at best. The instruction manual is a generic multi-language version that is not specific to the card - indeed, featuring a 6800 in its pictures - and again leaving the card's specifications shrouded in mystery.
There is what appears to be an internal two-pin S/PDIF-header to allow HDMI audio, but no HDMI adapter or S/PDIF-header cable are bundled, making enabling the card's capability to output HDMI with audio something of a pain. These simple additions would have been greatly appreciated, and helped position the card as a solution for a high-performance yet quiet HTPC.
Likewise, the lack of bundled games is unlikely to bother many, but the lack of any DVD/Blu-ray/HD DVD-playback software is disappointing and leaves a lot of the card's features inaccessible without the purchase of additional software. Overall, then, the bundle is clearly focussed on targetting the pure gamers whilst largely ignoring the multimedia capabilities of the card.
Warranty
ECS's graphics cards are backed up by a two-year warranty that begins on the date of purchase.
We like the fact that the warranty is transferable should the card be sold on during the time it's covered. Warranty claims are taken care of by the retailer that the card was originally purchased from, so, as always, buy from reputable sources whose customer service extends past taking your money and delivering the card. Inevitably, it will be up to them how the warranty claim is handled; you could receive a new card from their stock or it could be sent back to ECS for repair. Wait times will vary accordingly.
During the second year of the warranty, ECS will attempt to repair all faulty boards. Should that not be possible, it will be replaced by a SKU that is at least equal to the purchased product's specification.
