HEXUS.winners win4FREE competitions :: Inno3D GeForce 9600 GT and 9800 GX2

[moogle]

Its nice that you registered just to enter the competition
But unfortunately it is UK only...

Good that it's UK only. America have their own lot of USA only stuff so I think it's fair. Plus a majority of the users on this forum are from the UK anyway, and thats why I love it.

[NightshadowUK]

Q1: Name three unique features belonging to Inno3D's iChiLL range of products?

- "Gold plated TV out and DVI connector that allows better signal quality and less oxidization."
- "Custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction."
- "Superb solid capacitor for stable power voltage and advance durability."

And one more for good luck...

- "3 YEARS WARRANTY to the exclusive “i-Chill” product range."

Q2: Write in 100 words or more what features you consider most when you buy a graphics card, and why?

First and foremost it's got to be performance. Will the card run my current and future games smoothly at my display's native resolution, preferably with the settings turned up nice and high?

Next up is noise at both idle and under load. My computer currently resides in the bedroom, and the last thing I want is a noisy fan annoying the pants off me while I'm trying to game / work / sleep. Going for a passively cooled card isn't really an option as temperatures tend to be too high for my liking and while I recognise that dropped core / memory frequencies will prevent overheating, this tends to make a dent in my first preference of sweet, sexy speed. Cards with large-ish fans are what I tend to look for as they provide a happy medium between noise and temperature.

Bang for buck also plays a large part when I come to choose a graphics card. I'm not willing to spend £20 on that extra 5FPS or an overclock I can achieve at home - the price has to make sense when I compare the card to what the competition has to offer. The package helps too as I'm certainly not opposed to receiving a free game.

Finally, a manufacturer's reputation can make a huge difference. Knowing that, should the worse come to worst, the RMA process will be quick and efficient is enough to sway my decision by giving me that extra piece of mind.

----------

P.S. Thanks for another great comp Hexus!

[crazy]

Q1:
1. 3 Years warranty
2. Low noise cooling
3. Gold plated connectors

Q2
As a gamer it has to be performance, and so for a gaming rig I usually only consider GFX cards which perform best in its class and play the games I want at the monitors native resolution, with decent frame rates.

Next feature would be price, if it doesn't offer enough bang for buck then it would put me off buying the card or waiting for a price drop (winning one is a different matter )

The last feature would have to be the quality of the RMA process, just incase anything goes wrong I wouldn't want to wait months to get it back

[Oobie-]

Question 1
Name 3 unique features belonging to Inno3D's i-Chill range of products?

- Impressively silent coolers with large airflow, coupled with high efficiency heat transfer through heat pipes from the copper base to aluminium fans, to dissipate heat quickly.
- Patented Vibration Absorption, absorbs the vibration of the running fan, to further reduce noise.
- 3 Years warranty exclusive to their i-Chill range.

Question 2
Write in 100 words or more what features you consider most when you buy a graphics card, and why?

When looking at a GFX card, performance vs price (bang for buck) takes priority. Does this card justify spending £xxx on it, for its performance? Spending £350 on a card that will be obsolete in 6 months time (or less), doesn't seem logical to me.
A card which is say £150, performs almost as well as a card for £180 and is quieter, will bode well with me. I'm willing to sacrifice a few fps for a quieter card, especially when you can overclock the £150 card to the same speed as a £180 card. I'm going to want to have a card that will play my games smoothly so I can enjoy it.
I don't necessarily have to play my games in full res, so a resolution of 1152 is acceptable. If I want to be playing a game maxed out I know I'm going to have to burn a hole in one of my legs, and deal with an fps that may not be above 60. So by logical assumption, when looking at reviews I can see if it will run my games acceptably.

Up next is noise. When playing games its not going to be too much of a problem, but what about on desktop? Does the card idle silently? Having the PC about 2 metres away from my bed means that I'm going to want it to be pretty close to silent so it doesn't bother me when trying to sleep!

Closely followed is future-proofing; how many years can I get out of this card? I want a card that can play my current games fantastically and the future games smoothly.

Finally its cooling, I don't want something that will need replacing 6 months down the line, or is going to cause instability in the whole system cause its getting too hot.

That is all

[fraps]

Question 1- Name 3 unique features belonging to Inno3D's i-Chill range of products?

1) Gold plated TV out and DVI connector that allow better signal quality and less oxidization.

2) Stylish Ramsinks that assists with heat penetration

3) Custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction.

Question 2- Write in 100 words or more what features you consider most when you buy a graphics card, and why?

I like to do a bit of overclocking so ideally I want the card to be cool and quiet. Bang for buck is crucial, a decent price (about £100) combined with good frame rates at high settings would be ideal for me. Also it would be nice for the card to last longer then 6 months, in the sense that it will be able to play future games reasonably smoothly. Next on the list is looks. I have a see through side panel, so it’s important that the card is aesthetically pleasing. And finally warranty, preferably 3 years which the i-chill range has

[Azza]

Question 1

Name 3 unique features belonging to Inno3D's i-Chill range of products?

1. Custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction
   
2. Exceeds normal overclocking speeds with up to 10%
   
3. Superb solid capacitor for stable power voltage and advance durability

Question 2

Write in 100 words or more what features you consider most when you buy a graphics card, and why?


I look at 3 features when I buy a graphics card.


1.


/ Clarkson


POWER!!!!


/ Clarkson



I now game at 1600 x 1200 and obviously I want all the textures nice a pretty and all the jaggies gone so I look for the most powerfull graphics card. But with power comes a price, and usually a very very high price. Which is my second point.


2. Price


Anything over £300 and I will not buy. Say you have one card £320 and another exaclty the same but lower clocked by 80mhz on the core for £299.99, I would buy the £299.99 card. Wack my waterblock on it and overclock it to the max. Why would you pay for something that you can do for free yourself? If the card is super amazing and it will play Crysis at Very High in DX10 at 1600 x 1200 at a constant 60fps and it costs £300.01 then I will buy it, but until that happens (which is going to be a while) then anything over £300 for me now is a no thank you.


3. Warranty / Manufacturer


I always buy a card that if backed by a manufacturer that has the reputation of having a very good warranty service, online support, telephone support etc (unless I can get the card at a bargin price ) A warranty that has good terms aswell e.g. 3+ years guarante, return to a UK base, like for like replacement or replacement of equal value to when the card was originally purchased.

[merple]

Question 1- Name 3 unique features belonging to Inno3D's i-Chill range of products?

1) 3rd party cooling solutions to aid better cooling and silence
2) Quality components, solid state caps and gold plated connections
3) An extra year of warranty on iChill products

Question 2- Write in 100 words or more what features you consider most when you buy a graphics card, and why?

As I usually don't have tons of cash to splash out on when buying parts I usually go with mid-range products. Keeping within a set budget is a high priority so this usually eliminates quite a few cards from the list.
Next the card must be powerful enough to run my games smoothly at full resolution. This rules out the low end cards leaving me with a few mid range cards to choose from.
From this short list of cards I then look to see which one of them will provide the most bang for buck. This step also takes into account overclock-ability and the cooling solution/noise factor.
Lastly once I have selected a card, I then look at which company provides the best warranty and support.

[chrestomanci]

Question 1- Name 3 unique features belonging to Inno3D's i-Chill range of products?*

1. High quality low noise cooling
2. Three year warranty
3. Gold plated connectors.

Question 2- Write in 100 words or more what features you consider most when you buy a graphics card, and why?*

Firstly, I want any graphics card to be stable and have a long life, as I tend to keep components for 3-4 years migrating them between systems before retiring them. That means a good warranty, good cooler and low heat output.

As I run Linux as well as windows I want a card with good drivers for both operating systems, as even a high end card for windows games will eventually end up in my Linux box when I upgrade my windows card. At present this rules out ATI based cards.

I tend to favor medium sized SFF systems, so I won’t consider anything overly large. If the card is longer than the depth of a standard ATX motherboard, or a 7800 GTX (a design classic IMHO), then I will have trouble fitting it. 2 foot long dustbusters sporting more copper than my local electricity substation need not apply (I am looking at you ATI).

I am not a fan of the regime in China (PRC), so if I have a choice, I will go for manufacturer who is based somewhere else such as Taiwan or Korea. I will pay a bit more for such a card over a bargain basement, made in China one.

Finally I am interested in general purpose programming on GPUs, so I want a card that supports it. Most do these days, but 6 months ago when I brought my last card I chose a lower performing 8600GT, over a faster 7800 GTX I was offered for that reason.

[mooreslaw]

Q1
1. i-Chill exceeds normal overclocking speeds by up to 10%

2. i-Chill includes custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction

3. i-Chill uses stylish Ramsinks that assist with heat penetration

Q2
I consider a broad range of features. Firstly, the card must be recommended and highly-rated by other buyers. The ability to handle contemporary games is vital in keeping up with the technology curve for as long as possible. Quality of DVD playback and media decoding is important as I also use my PC as a media centre. The graphics card must run fairly silently as I often leave my PC on overnight, and it must run cool to prevent my room from getting too hot in the summer. Finally, the card must be competitively priced and offer something in addition to the competition at the same price point, i.e. an overclocked spec, gold-plated connectors or a free game etc.

[k2ray]

Q1
1. Custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction.
2. Gold plated TV out and DVI connector that allows better signal quality and less oxidization.
3. Goes way over the normal overclocking speeds by up to 10%
Q2
Quite simply as the great Leslie Crowther once said If the Price is right....

[nikhil94]

Question 1
[*]Inno3d use a gold plated TV out and DVI connector that increases the signal quality and there is less oxidization
[*]The amount of noise made by the card is reduced by the custom cooling solutions used by I-Chill
[*] 3rd party cooling solutions are used (from companies like Zalman) so the cooling achieved is much better and this leads to better overclocking capabilities

Question 2
The features I consider most when buying a graphics card are a variety of things.
Although this may seem to be a bit strange I enjoy the look of the graphics card, something that doesn’t look right to me is out of the window (In my opinion Inno3d, XFX and EVGA sell the best looking cards as they are sleek and stylish). It’s always good to have yours friends say wow when they look at your graphics card because they like the way it is styled

I also look at the price of the graphics card, something that is too expensive and only better than another cheaper graphics card is simply not worth it so price matters to me like the 9800 GTX vs the 8800 GT/S (the 9800 GX2 is obviously more powerful than these and offers great performance but because of the price it is the card that I have only dreamt about getting for a very long time).

The capabilities of the card are also very important to me. It’s always better to have a card that has a HD output and can work in tri SLI rather than two way SLI because you never know what you might need in the future.

The performance of the graphics card is very important to me as getting a card that can play games at a high frame per second rate is a great thing (especially in a game like Crysis, which is a true show of how good a graphics cad is). The graphics card should also be long lasting; it shouldn’t just last a year and then break down or last a year and then lose its performance in games due to technical difficulties

[taowu]

Question 1.

* INNO3D 3 YEARS WARRANTY
* Custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction
* Gold plated TV out and DVI connector that allows better signal quality and less oxidization

Question 2.

Performance, quality, features and price. These are the key things i look for in a graphics card.

Performance is a key factor in a graphics card for me, as I do like all my games to run smooth as possible but at the same time not have a card which will break the bank. Also the quality of the card is important, I would rather buy a card from a better known brand or a brand I have already used such as XFX, INNO3D, BFG or EVGA, as I know from experience these offer some quality cards.

If I am looking at two cards which offer the same performance and are priced pretty much the same, then features is normally helps make the final decision. Features like better/custom cooler, multiple outputs, add bundles (such as games, extra connectors and leads).

[nikhil94]

im just wondering, when does this competiton finish?

[shadowmaster]

im just wondering, when does this competiton finish?

'The competition winners will be picked at random from all eligible entries that arrive by midnight of the closing date June 7th 2008'

[muddyfox470]

Question 1 - Name 3 unique features belonging to Inno3D's i-Chill range of products?

1. Gold plated TV out and DVI connector to allow for better signal quality and less oxidization
2. Custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction
3. Stylish Ramsinks that assists with heat penetration (to help keep your overclocked RAM cool)

Question 2 - Write in 100 words or more (oops) what features you consider most when you buy a graphics card, and why?

First and foremost the graphics card has to be in budget, no point in lusting after a card that you'll never be able to afford, but we can all dream The rest of the system spec that the card is going into, i.e. what resolution are games going to be played at (and which games - although a good all-round performer like the 9600 is a good starter) and how is the rest of the system going to cope (and more crucially the PSU) - no point in having the best GPU if your Celeron processor can't use all its power.

Due to my small form factor case, and after spending a lot of time in reducing noise, single slot is ideal as it means I have more space inside the case for air movement, and of course NOISE! it's pointless having a quiet PC if the graphics card keeps you awake at night whilst you're applying your updates (but then I guess why should you be sleeping at night of all things!) - however most graphics card now have useful fan management, so during day to day tasks the fan is quiet, but when you're in the heat of the action and sound is booming from the speakers/headphones who cares if your graphics card is making so much noise if it is rewarding you with all these lush visuals and in-game sounds drown it out.
Price and availability and brand (warranty) - I don't want to spend all my money on a graphics card - I like a balanced system - and my power supply has to be able to cope, and I don't want to pay through the tooth because they are in short demand. Finally I connectivity is a big thing, so I can hook it up with my new LCD TV and impress my mates as well as myself! But if money were no object, things would be a little different...

[led-zeppalike]

1.

• Gold plated TV out and DVI connector that allows better signal quality and less oxidization
• Exceeds normal overclocking speeds with up to 10%
• Custom made cooling solutions with systematic noise reduction


2.

When buying, or considering buying a new graphics card, there are three main criteria that I look for in a product. First and foremost, like a lot of people before me have said, the ‘bang for buck’ factor is the overall most important factor. Take for example when the 8800gt cards were released, I personally could see no other viable card in the market that I would be willing to buy, unless perhaps there was a cheap second-hand one. Secondly, and again this is a very important factor, is the future proof quality of the card. With the imminent onset of displayport, and the already upon us HDMI and HDCP formats, it is important that a card be ready for any possible new technologies in the market. This then ties in with the software available for the card. Software is another very important factor for me, and has swayed my decision in the past. Specifically with regards to drivers, and some cards not having fully working ones under some operating systems (ala ATI and Linux), although I will also look at the control applications available such as ATI’s catalyst and the nVidia control panel, having open source or community created applications is also a bonus, but not vital.
If there were a number of cards that were close to what I wanted however, there would be two other factors that I would consider. Firstly, the power consumption, noise and heat, this is not a major factor for me, but with the ever present climate change threat I am always looking out to save power where possible. Secondly would be the size of the card, again this would not be a major deciding factor, but having large PCBs inside your computer case can limit airflow and therefore cooling which I and I’m sure most people would not want.