The Basics:
The front of the Sapphire Ultimate Radeon HD4670 graphics card is shown in the below left image. You have a rather large surface area of aluminum thanks to the heatsink covering close to half of the card's blue PCB. Two heatpipes are used to draw heat away to more cooling fins found on the back side of the card, and a bracket featuring the Sapphire logo holds the pieces together.
 
The card is rather short, so it should fit into most cases just fine in that direction, but it is a bit taller than some cards thanks to the heatpipes being located on the edge of the card.... Note how the cooler is about 3/4" taller than the expansion slot bracket.
The card's cooler is rather compact on the front of the card, and would definitely keep it to one slot in that direction, but the fins on the backside of the card add some thickness to the assembly. You'd have to call it a two slot solution, even though it isn't configured like your typical two slot cooler. While it shouldn't interfere with any other cards (if the graphics card is installed in the first slot), there is potential for it to interfere with big CPU coolers, chipset coolers, or system memory.
The images below show the connections on the rear panel, where we find a VGA, HDMI, and DVI connection. The only thing missing might be some sort of older TV-out connection (like Component or S-video).
 
While it won't work in some slim HTPC cases, the physical design of this card is definitely appealing for an HTPC. While many cards come with adapters to allow HDMI, it is a welcome convenience to have it built right in. The passive cooler will also be welcome in a home theater setup, as the drone of fans can really detract from your multimedia ejoyment. Despite not featuring any fans of its own, this graphics card does rely on the system having decent cooling to keep the air moving. The card could overheat if not provide some air, but a low flow exhaust fan and CPU fan might do the job just fine.
|
|
