ASUS Radeon EAH4350 512MB DDR2 PCI-Express Silent Graphics Card

Comment: I was looking for a video card which would work for Linux. The card EAH4350 SILENT is fully functional. The only problem is that the enormous heat sink covers up a regular PCI slot (in addition to the PCIexpress where the card is plugged in). Of course the card needs to be cooled somehow; it is unlikely that the CPU fan helps cooling, because the card's PC board pretty much prevents circulation to the heat sink. I happen to have a fan on the side of the computer case, which I need to turn on; thus the SILENT feature is pretty much useless.

Comment: System setup: AMD single core 2.19 GHZ 2 Gig of ram used for HTPC. Olivia 720P hdtv 37"

Originally, I had a 256 MB card with a traditional fan. Worked OK until I tried streaming Netflix and playing HD content off a camcorder. I thought a new video card would fix this.

After buying and installing this card, Netflix worked somewhat better (through Boxee), the audio sounds great through the HDMI connection to my home theater setup, but the video quality through Netflix was only marginally better (didn't get really choppy at the end) and the HD content from camcorder wasn't really any better. On the plus side, through VGA (not HDMI for some reason) the screen size matches up perfectly at 720p setting and it's obviously quieter. The aspect ratio off Netflix is correct through Firefox, so I don't have to use Boxee anymore and it seems to run better that way.

All that to say, if you're trying to eke some more life out of your PC, the video card may or may not be the answer, but for $35 it may be worth a try. Didn't quite do what I wanted, but did some things better than my last card.

BTW, did display 1 gig of ram, not sure what that's all about, and if anyone has suggestions on why my computer won't display HD content well I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Comment: This is a good video card except the drivers that come on the CD for it are complete junk. On Windows XP Media Center Edition (32 bit) the drivers that were on the CD caused the video card to freeze up and the computer became unusable. Throw away the CD and go to the ASUS website and download the latest drivers they work great.
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On another note the heat sink on the video card is a bit large compared to other video cards in this class. I don't care though because I would rather have a large heat sink to cool the card better than a smaller one.

Comment: I'm sure the card would have worked well as the other reviews indicate. Unfortunately for me it was a bad fit for my motherboard and case. Notice that since it's designed to be low-profile the heatsink is placed very close to where it will go into the PCI-E slot, and sticks out pretty far in the back. This meant that once inserted into my motherboard the card's heatsink sat flush right over my southbridge heatsink, so that they were actually touching. Also, since I have a small micro-ATX case with only one HDD-bay, the SATA cable from the hard drive, as well as the front USB/power/LED cables all needed to cross that exact spot where the two heatsinks were touching. I was not comfortable having that much heat build right where all those important cables had to go, so I'll have to stick with the on-board video for now.

Comment: My previous card stopped working. After a tiny bit of research on cards that would work in my computer, I selected this one. I'm not a gamer. I do basic computing. I chose this card because of the HDMI, AVI, & VGA outputs. Plus -- no whining fan on the video card. Two cards ago, in a different computer, I had a card with a fan that drove me nuts. I previously used a VGA output to go to my LCD monitor and an AVI to go to my older Sony 42" TV. Anyway, that's of little concern here as to how I'll hook up the TV and monitor. The real concern is how the card installed, etc.

I did not touch the CD's included with the card. I went to the AMD/ATI website and downloaded/saved the current drivers (catalyst software package/drivers). Took the old card out, uninstalled all video drivers/software, put the new card in, turned on the computer -- Windows XP Professional. Let it boot up and canceled out of the new hardward/controllers hardware messages. Went to the downloaded software/drivers package and ran it. Drivers/software installed with a reboot. Got a message that the HD audio drivers were not found. Let it search (recommended) for the HD audio drivers. Found them and installed. Rebooted. Worked -- no messages.

Have not gotten to the point of playing with the hookup to the TV as well as the computer monitor. Have done that before and expect no problems.

My point? If you're not a seriour gamer and require the greatest video card available, I just don't know how you can go wrong with this card. It's a bargain. I bought it off Amazon for $[...]+ with a $[...] rebate. Did read someboday else had a rebate problem, so I chose the ASUS $[...] rebate rather than the $[...] rebate to get expedited service. Thought that might alleviate an eventual "where is it" problem. So, for about $[...] I have a video card that's silent, and I can direct video either to my monitor or stream Netflix movies to my TV.

I'm guessing anybody who would have a problem with this card may just not have the system requirements matchup to run it. Go to AMD/ATI before purchase and you can see what systems it works in. Get rid of all your old video software/drivers first, install the new card, and then run the ATI software from their site.

Oh, yeah. Somebody else reported receiving a card with more memory than expected. Me too. The card is advertised as 512MB and the ASUS packaging indicates 512MB on the box. However, after installation, the system information reports it as 1024. Don't know how that's happening!