Bundle and Presentation
ASUS usually use recycled air-raid shelters from World War II for their outer product packaging, and what you get with the EAX1800XT TOP is no different. The size of a small detached bungalow, the box for the graphics board and its bundle is roomy enough for ASUS to just about squeeze everything in there.
I wish I had his haircut. And his guns. The front of the box lets you know, in no uncertain terms, what's inside. If you happened to forget that the cash you were about to drop was buying you a pre-overclocked Radeon X1800 XT with 512MiB of memory, on a PCI Express bus, carrying dual DVI-I ports and bundled with plenty of free goodies, the box would remind you. Opening it up reveals even more info on the two most basic functions of the product: Video and Gaming.
At the risk of destroying your will to carry on reading this review with another size-related jibe at the packaging, opening the detail flap causes a full eclipse of the sun for everyone within a 2390 mile radius.
Bundle
The bundle for the 'TOP is massive, frankly, ASUS adding plenty to get excited about to make your graphics board purchase as happy as possible. Connectivity wise you get a pair of DVI-I-to-VGA adaptors, S-Video extender cables (2 of), RGB component output cable, PCI Express power adaptor, VIVO cable (S-Video and composite I/O), power cable for the external power supply (for a US plug in the review sample) and a composite video extender cable.
Along with a faux leather (we wouldn't want any animals to be harmed in the making of a graphics board product, really) CD wallet, you get a fearsome array of software and games, including the brand new King Kong game, developed by Ubisoft. If controlling giant primates isn't your thing, ASUS thoughtfully throw in copies of Cyberlink Media@Show SE 2.0 (for sharing and creating 'media'), Cyberlink PowerDirector3 SE (creating DVDs, although the latest version is v5), Joint Ops: Typhoon Reason (decent game), Xpand Rally (loads of fun) and Project Snowblind (frantic FPS).
If that's not enough (?!) you also get a driver and utility CD (although ASUS SmartDoctor, a tool we've praised highly in ASUS graphics product reviews in the past here at HEXUS.core, doesn't work with X1800 yet) and a copy of ASUS DVD 5.0 (passable DVD player software with a Cyberlink backend).
It doesn't stop there, either. A bonus gamepack CD (with fairly terrible games as far as this reviewer is concerned, though) partners a very decent dual-analogue gamepad. While it's no XBox 360 controller, it does hold nicely and it works perfectly fine with DirectX under Windows, connecting via a spare USB port.
The cable bundle would be somewhat impressive on its own since you don't always get component out, even with high-end boards, but the software bundle and gamepad do honestly add some value and desirability to the product. If you were looking to pick up a pad for your PC anyway, and the giant gorilla game gets you excited (it's awesome fun to play), the 'TOP bundle has you covered.
