The Basics:

The Radeon HD7730 is shown below in all of its Sapphire blue glory. The specifications found earlier in the review detailed that the card measures 163(L) x 104(W) in millimeters, which is roughly 6-1/2" by 4" in customary US units. This is definitely a compact card in terms of length, but it is not a low profile card in terms of height. On the front of the card we find a blue cooling fan and black plastic shroud which will work together to cool a heatsink on the GPU. On the back of the card we find the GPU cooler's mounting bolts and a handful of informational stickers. All video memory modules are clearly installed on the front of the card, under the GPU cooler.



The images below show the expansion slot bracket for the card, where we see the three most common connection types are provided. From left to right there is a VGA, HDMI, and DVI port. The card actually occupies two slots, since the cooler is so tall, and Sapphire has used the second 'unused' portion of the expansion bracket to provide ventilation slots. The GPU cooler should direct a good deal of the hot air towards these slots so that it can be exhausted from your computer case.



The final image in this section provides an edge view of the card where we can see how the fan receives its power, and how the shroud/fan combo attaches to the Aluminum GPU cooler. If you look closely you can also see memory modules under the cooler, and while it may not be clear, the cooler does not come in to contact with the memory chips. This view also confirms that the there is no external power required to use this video card... It gets everything it needs from the PCI Express slot.



Installation:

The Sapphire Radeon HD 7730 1GB GDDR5 video card was installed a Mini-ITX system for testing. This system is primarily used as a Windows Media Center based HTPC, using an Intel Celeron G1610 processor, Biostar H61 motherboard, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a Bitfenix Prodigy case. Most of the time it uses the integrated Intel HD graphics, but we will try it with a handful of lower power, HTPC friendly cards in addition to the HD7730.



The card is so small there shouldn't be any fitment issues in any case that supports full height expansion cards. If your mini system only uses low profile cards, this one obviously isn't for you.