Joined on 07/28/06
Great little card
Pros: NOISE! Dual slot cooling - allows the card to exhaust the hot air out of the case while also using a large LOW-RPM cooling fan. I specifically bought this card because I've added such a cooler on my old ATI 9800Pro. Then I went to fanless cards since I want the quietest PC I can build. Problem with FANLESS cards is that in many designs, the heat radiates inside the case. I borrowed an 8600GT(fanless) until I decided on a card I wanted. UT3 = 20fps iwth 8600GT and now 50fps with this 4670card (Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz / 1920x1200res MAX details). I can't tell the difference in noies between this HIS card and my previous GF7600 or 8600 fanless cards. My current temp is 39c (desktop) with a single 120mm cooling fan in the case. While gaming, about 50c. Much cooler than some other GPUs.
Cons: Drivers. The 4670 card is very new. So new that for 3 weeks I *HAD* to use the included custom drivers for this card until ATI-AMD released offical drivers supporting the 4600 series of cards. UT3 was getting 25fps and crashing on some games. Sine installing the 8.10 drivers (OCT 2008) - the performance doubled! 3DMark scores improved slightly.
Overall Review: I've seen posts on such dual slot cards as it being a "BAD THING"? There are choices to buy single or dual cooling slot designs. I wanted only a dual-slot cooler for noise and heat management. I can't stress the advantage of such a card. I really wanted the ATI 4850 card, but besides $160~180, I would have need to replace my 450watt PSU for 550~650watt model. With the reviews showing the 4670 being slightly slower than the ATI 3870 card, yet cheaper and cooler... I had to get this card. You can play Crysis on this card (not max of course) and most other modern games are in the 40~80fps performance range. Single slot cards, in genreal... are NOISY! I use both Nvidia and ATI in my own computers and those I build for others. With the round, I'm very happy with ATI. The $80 9500GT cards don't compare in performance.
The LAST CRT on newegg!
Pros: The END is NEAR! For the "PRO" who said LCDs aren't there - he needs to NOT look at the consumer $200~400 displays which are fine. I used to own a PRO level 19" Samsung, loved it. I replaced it with a 24" $350 Samsung LCD and never looked back. Far sharper and crisp color. Also, PRO level LCDs ARE on the market, they cost about $1200~2000 @ 24" size. Eye strain is far less. The blacks aren't perfect thou. Easier to carry. The gamer: My $70 ATI 4670 allows me to play games in 1920x1200 such as UT3 (max detail) SuCom, H.A.W.X and of course older games like Doom3 etc. Crysis, 1280x720... but it still looks good. LCD Scaling is much better than those made 5 years ago.
Cons: No cons, what is being sold is all the inventory that is left. 19" LCDs go for $100 nowadays.
Overall Review: Next step, LED monitors. Newer LCDs are even lighter than mine. Those without actual buttons kind of suck, but look better... but if you need to use the OSD a lot, they are horrible.
Work FF game ever
Pros: Great Visuals, especially on the PS3 version because of Blu-Ray storage which is more than 3-DVDs for the Xbox360. 38GB (PS3) vs 18GB (XBox) is a huge difference. Game play is not so different, but during the full-motion video parts - its big time horrible for the 360. Lots of movies and character designs. Cute, sexy and attractive as always.
Cons: This game is very liner. There are very few options and no alternate paths in the game. FF XIII has been out in japan for around a month and they can't even give it away. Its already in the $20 bin and Game-Stop type stores are not buying them... or if they do, dirt cheap.
Overall Review: When a game such as this, especially in Japan bombs... its not good. There may never be another FF game after this.
One of the TOP Core2 Coolers - Can't keep it in stock!
Pros: At about 3,200 reviews, THIS is the MOST reviewed HSF cooler on Newegg. #2? The AMD version of this cooler at 1,700+ I've installed this in my own Intel Quad as well as others. Its silent as far as I'm concered. My almost silent PC only noise is the 120mm fan which still makes "wind" noise. Cooler quality is not the TOP, but its almost as good as HSF Coolers costing $50~100. At $27~32 (I bought it from newegg at $28 - it varies here) and nothing else touches the Artic Cooling Freezer with noise & performance. Those other coolers are loud... or some that are as quiet (few), they don't keep things as cool. I haven't even bothered to use my Artic Silver yet as I wanted to see how well it does with its stock thermal-pad. As big as this cooler is, the weight is actually quite light. Come'on Newegg - You guys need to order more of these.
Cons: Like many coolers of this design & size, you NEED to make sure it fits your motherboard... in that those with fancy coolers on the NorthBridge may have a problem. I usually buy memory that has Cooling fins that ads quite a bit of HEIGHT may have a problem with this HSF such as the case of my Gigabyte P35 board (same with their P45s) in which that DIMM slot 1 will hit the fan. Solutions: use DIM slots 2/4 (rather than 1/3) or stagger your memory but use the same types. G.Skill does this. So when I installed 8GB in of RAM, 2 where standard DIMMS, the other 2 had special cooling "fins".
Overall Review: I think stores (and perhaps Newegg wink wink) don't like to sell this product because... WHY buy anything else? Why spend 2-3x the price for perhaps another 100~200mhz of overclocking at the expense of much higher noise. This cooler is better (like most) than the Intel stock. If this is IN STOCK and you need a cooler, CLICK BUY now while you can. There is nothing else on the market that is an equal to this Artic Cooling. Thanks to this product, the overall pricing for high-end coolers have dropped IMHO.
Excellent 4670, silent
Pros: I bought this card when it first came out, specificly because of its dual-slot cooler "IceQ", which I had installed myself as an aftermarket product on my ATI9800Pro 2-3 years earlier. The card itself is not special, but it comes with as silent of a cooler as possible. I've used fan-less designs, but they create the problem of generating HEAT inside the case. Single-slot coolers make more noise (faster RPM) and don't cool as well as this. I can't tell the difference between this 4670 and the fanless 7600GT it replaced. Packaging is nice. I play ALL games in 1920x1200 (except Crysis) with quality at MAX or near-max. Typical is 40~85fps with UE3 Games (GOW / UT3). UT3 randomly crashes on me, but appears to be a UT3 problem - everything else is rock solid. It's not 4850, but its a $65~85 (512mb/1GB)
Cons: Stupid CON: I've seen people vote cons on cards like this "It takes up two slots"?! What...? Then buy a single slot-cooling video card! DUH! It bugs me when people give a CON where its not warranted. - The included drivers (at least Original - were beta) are always out-dated. Even for Nvidia - download the LATEST drivers. A new game comes out, update the driver. - HIS support is limited, they seem "new" to the US.
Overall Review: I'd recommend ANY dual-slot cooler for the noise and heat factor (It pushes the HEAT out the back of the case). I didn't want a louder 4850/70 card or single-cooling typical Nvidia card. For a $60~70 card, you can't go wrong. The next one up with simular cooling is the HIS 4830 for $125
Great low cost Cooler
Pros: - Low cost - Very good cooling (not the best, but top 10) - Quiet... one the most quiet coolers on the market! About 2500 votes for this awesome cooler. I spent hours looking at reviews (on another site) for a balance cooler than is quiet that gets the job done. Easily better than the standard intel cooler, and better than some coolers that costs $50~80! For a $30 or so cooler, you can't do better.
Cons: Size. Because of its side-mounted fan, on some motherboards, that fan can collide with the DIMM memory modules, especially those with extra tall cooling fins like those from Corsair, G-Skill and others. On mine, I used the other bank of memory slots so is a non-issue. For a friend, we installed 2 high-finned DIMMs and 2 normal size DIMMS - in which the fan blades had about 3-4mm clearence... no problem!
Overall Review: The avg price is about $32, but I think that when stocks are low - it goes up to $37 here, I bought mine for $28 on newegg a few months ago.