What you get

HIS has developed a habit of including a practical bundle.  Practical is of course, in the eye of the beholder but what I’m referring to are the variety of output cables included.  Sure, you can say “it’s only a few extra cables for composite, S-Video and such I don't even think I need.”  However, when you need that particular cable and find that it’s $20 or more at Radio Shack, you’ll think differently.  Aside from the Radeon X1800 GTO IceQ3 Turbo, you get a full copy of the game Flatout (very cool), Cyberlink’s PowerDVD 6, HIS’s Platinum Pack (Dungeon Siege, 3D Album PicturePro, PowerDirector 3 SE Plus, Power2Go 4), a driver/utility CD, finger guard for the IceQ3’s expansion slot exhaust, S-Video cable, Composite cable, VIVO adapter, HDTV Component adapter, two VGA to DVI adapters and a 6-pin PCI-E to 4-pin Molex power adapter.  See what I mean about the cables?

The GTO

The HIS X1800 GTO IceQ3 immediately grabs your attention right out of the box because of its size.  Size as in it is a long, thick, dual slot component (226mm long by 37mm thick.)  The second slot that it takes up is for the IceQ3’s exhaust.  The clear acrylic of the cooler show’s a very shiny copper cooling assembly underneath not to mention the heatpipe which we’ll get to in just a second.

Below are a couple of shots of the under belly and connector end of the card.  On the business end, we see dual DVI connectors with an S-Video port wedged in between.  The area just above this is the exhaust for the IceQ3 cooler and where the expansion slot finger guard will cover after installation.  The other end of the card has the secondary power connector which is the standard 6-pin number we're used to seeing on PCI-E cards now.  Be aware that with a card measuring 226mm long to begin with and then needing a power plug connected to the end, the end user should be very conscious if their case can take this length.

The clear outer acrylic cover is UV reactive, so windowed case owners can rejoice with more hardware eye candy.  Focusing on the fan, we see that the design allows for air to be pulled in from the blue 70mm fan on one end of the card.  HIS calls the feed “bi-directional” meaning air is pulled from both the top and bottom of the fan.  Look closely at the fan and notice how the fan blades are not cambered.  This design pulls air in from the top and bottom of the fan then ‘pushes’ it into the acrylic covering that channels it over the copper cooler within.  Also notice that on the lower end of the fan how air is pulled in from off the copper heatsinks mounted onto part of the rear power assembly.  While I like seeing the attention to cooling here, I’m surprised that the MOSFETS didn’t rate small heatsinks also.