Asus "All- in-Wonder" (DELUXE VERSION)
Written: Jul 11 '01 (Updated Jul 13 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Speed, value, video options, and it's NOT manufactured/supported by ATI ;)
Cons: Lack of heat dissipation as designed, only the one video-in jack
The Bottom Line: Good overall value- better than most. Asus and nVidia- a match made in heaven for their stability and performance. Just needs another video-in jack and a little help from Thermaltake.
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| mobomofo's Full Review: Asus AGP-7700 |
I must say, first of all, that this review may not apply to all versions of this card- this was written based on the DELUXE version.
I wasn't really concerned when I bought this card about the performance. I knew it could put out. I had bought a Visiontek with the same chipset, so it had to perform the same. Then I was lured by the video capabilities of the ATI All in Wonder Radeon- big mistake!
Anyway, the deluxe version features a lot of the same video options that the ATI AIW Radeon had, minus the TV Tuner. This makes it a better alternative to the All in Wonder for it’s stability, performance, and speed- all of which the ATI AIW lacked.
The only flaws I found were that there is only one video-in jack. It can be switched between S-Video and RCA through the supplied S-video- to-RCA dongle, but you can’t connect both video types like you can on It’s pretty much a standard feature to have two inputs on most TV Tuner cards. So why not here on this card? It’s because there isn’t the room. Asus equipped it with two video-outs (one S-Video and one RCA). Why? I don’t know. Why would you have more than one output? I would think you might have more video components than video monitors, but that’s me.
The other flaw is the heat- woooo! Please keep in mind I do not overclock- that’s evil! : ) I seriously doubt the cooling apparatus (I say apparatus because I don’t think it’s a heatsink/fan combo) was doing anything for heat dissipation because the card was ridiculously hot and the apparatus was cool- it should be either somewhere in-between or the reverse of this. I’ve since bought a Thermaltake Blue Orb and Blue RAM ‘sinks. Not only does it now look very cool but it is also running very cool!
System Specs
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Asus A7A266 mobo
1200MHz AMD T-Bird
256MB PC2100 Crucial
30GB Quantum FireBall
SBLive mp3+
Kingston NIC
350w Sparkle PS
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 160
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Epinions.com ID: mobomofo
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Location: tha 'noth ; )
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me: Mobomofo has a great knowledge of electronic components. So great, he thought to share it!
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