What you get

Opening up the HIS package we were greeted with a fair bundle.  Bundles are a subjective issue because what is indispensable to one person is trash can fodder to another.  HIS has paired things back with the X1650XT to keep in line with their $150 price point.  Included with the card is a S-Video cable, S-Video to composite adapter, HDTV out component cable, DVI to VGA adapter, Crossfire bridge, installation manual, cooler exhaust rear expansion cover, driver/utility CD as well as HIS's software Platinum Pack.  The Platinum Pack is rapidly becoming dated but it includes a full copy of Microsoft's Dungeon Siege, CyberLink PowerDirector 5 SE Plus, CyberLink Power2Go 5, CyberLink Media@show 3; demo versions of Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, Half Life 2, Act of War, Tribes and Axis and Allies. 

Here's a quick shot of the new ATi Crossfire cable if you haven't seen one before.  Crossfire ready cards now come with one even though you need two bridges with the new Crossfire products.  So for each card you get, you get a bridge cable.  If you happen to lose it, ATi sells these for like $10 off their site.

The Card

The HIS Radeon X1650XT is a dual slot VGA solution that is equipped with a reasonably robust cooler.  This cooler remains true to HIS's IceQ unit's heritage but strays a bit from the newer IceQ3 design.  Part of the reason for this is the X1650XT card not requiring as large a PCB card as its bigger siblings.

This will give you a better idea.  As you can see, the HIS X1650XT card is sized significantly smaller than other IceQ cooler equipped cards we've seen from them in the past.  Measuring 190mm in length, this card is significantly smaller than the normally seen 230mm long cards as shown below.

We mentioned the Crossfire bridge cable earlier, well here's where it goes.  Notice the twin connection posts.  ATi cites that this design gives them more versatility as the technology progresses further to handle not only shared VGA applications now but also helping to future proof the card for later.