Electronics : XFX 8400GS 256MB nVidia PCI Express Graphics Card

Rating: - Great value and very easy
It was easy to get started. Just installed the card in the computer, turned on, and then windows detected it and asked for the drivers. So I put the disc in and away we went.

I can now get the definition that my screen recommends, and we seem to zip along a lot faster than when the graphics were on the motherboard.

I don't notice the fan particularly, but then my (much lower spec) old computer had a graphics card with a fan, so I guess I am used to it. It's not loud.
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Rating: - Graphics on a budget.
I bought this to replace the original graphics card installed in my HP Pavillion PC. The quality of the graphics and the controller software is very good and I noticed an instant improvement from the previous card.

I chose this card specifically because it came with a fan to cool the chip - I'm hoping that this will extend its lifespan compared to my last graphics card which started going fuzzy after 12 months of use. I can't hear any noise from this as the 2 fans on the PC case drown it out. If you do have a very quiet computer you may notice some noise though - bear this in mind.

The reasons for only 4 stars:
1. The instructions for installation aren't the best, I would advise you to ignore them and just install and then add the drivers.
2. The fan doesn't have the cool looking cover shown on the photo (although this doesn't really matter as you never see it).

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Rating: - Good item but fan noise is loud!
I haven't boiuight this for gaming, but more to improve general graphics performance within Vista and this does so well.

However, the fan is noisy. I read teh reviews here and noticed others have commented on it, but others said it wasn't and I took a gamble. I have it on my desktop and Icouldn't hear the main PC fan, but this is very audible, even from teh far side of the room. If you're going to put the PC on the floor and have a few other items around it such as boxes etc, I suspect you may not even notice the fan, but this noise is going to drive me crazy and I'm going to have to return it. I also suspect that if you're buying this for gaming, you wont notice the noise with your game sound going, but if you want a quiet fan, AVOID this one!

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Rating: - Excellent value for money
Works really well (which for me means it plays half life 2 well) and with the XFX Low Profile Kit it fits in my (slightly narrow) computer case. So I'm well chuffed with it.
The one drawback it has is that the small fan is a little bit noisy (hence the four stars).
But for the money it's really very good. Recommended.

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Rating: - Brilliant Value - A great upgrade on a tight budget
I recently bought a new PC after my old one died.

The new system I bought had on board graphics which, when running windows Vista Aero wasn't particularly impressive.

Having added some memory to the machine I then decided to upgrade the graphics. Having seen the reviews for this card I decided to buy it (admittedly not from Amazon) and I have to say, for the price this card is amazing!!

It improves my general system performance massively, and runs Aero extremely smoothly. Games are also vastly improved and given the size of the card this is a big achievement.

The card itself is very small, runs extremely quiet and also has very low power consumption. In addition to this unlike a lot of graphics cards this one doesn't require a connection to your psu - just plug it into your PCI-E slot, install the drivers and you're away! Incidentally, it says on the box that it requires a 350 watt power supply unit or higher but my PC (Dell Inspiron 531. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.3ghz dual core processor, 250gb hard drive, 3gb RAM, on board HD sound and this graphics card running Windows Vista Home Premium) has a 300 watt power supply unit and handles it all perfectly even when running games. My system never gets hot and always stays whisper quiet.

In all this is a fantastic card. If you're upgrading from an on board system or do not have much money available I highly recommend it. At this price you can't go wrong :)