Zen and the Art of Choosing Graphics Cards...

[Zad]

I have a theory that if you plan, investigate, and generally just work quite hard at a subject, then, somehow, luck happens. Oh yeah, and lots of Googling helps too.

I had originally specced an XFX or EVGA 7800GT CO with copper heatsink (say, £260inc) but decided I couldn't really justify the extra cash for a few fps extra here and there, and that spending the money on better memory and mobo was a better investment. So when the Scan weekend "daily" offer trundled around, I decided it was time to jump in and buy the ScanFX version. Free postage for being a regular contributor too - sorted!

Now, I had found that some people had ordered ScanFX cards, and received XFX cards. So that was a hope. It wouldn't matter if it wasn't branded, the ScanFX Exteme version was still cheaper than almost all the other 7800GT "standard" editions.

I ordered the beastie around midnight Sun/Mon, it arrived just after 9am today (Tues). Now that's not bad for 5 days before Christmas! Now, the parcel looked suspiciously large for an OEM card. Usually they are just in an antistatic bag, no driver CD or anything, but this was around a foot square and rather solid!

After much careful unwrapping, an XFX7800GT box appeared! Woo! Groovy! I was lucky and got an XFX one! Flipping the box over, staring at me was not just a plain blank heatsink, but a proper snazzy full retail one with glowy fan! Bonus! (I don't actually have a window in my case, but hey ho). After coaxing the box open (X is such a useful shape for a box isn't it) I realised that this wasn't in any way an OEM thing. It's the full premium retail caboodle: Driver CD, Call of Duty DVD, dual DVI-to-VGA adaptors, 2-to-1 Molex power adaptor (not the usual 6 pin PCIE) VIVI breakout cable and extensions!



Oh yeah. And it's a proper copper heatsink on this baby too! I'm really not used to nice surprises like this from the computer industry! I reckon that I have saved around £40 here!

Merry Christmas Scan!

Mike (with apologies for any over-use of exclaimation marks!)

[kempez]

Nice one mate! Glad to hear that you got a good one