ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer

Looking back at what we saw throughout our testing and evaluation, we think the ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer is a good performer with a decent bundle. This card is not for everyone though. Even with the innovative heat sink, the core still gets very hot while running any kind of stressful test or game. Those of you who are not seeking a silent system might want to look for a more conventional 6600GT; one with active cooling. However, those of you who are on a quest for a quiet system should give this card some consideration.

ASUS has obviously worked hard on creating a silent, but relatively cool running card. This is a somewhat daunting task though. Those who would be most interested in this card, are the ones looking to remove all possible noise from their system. However, we don't recommend installing this card in a system with minimal airflow. There absolutely must be something to remove the heat from case that this card is installed in.  And the fan in your power supply might not be enough on its own, depending on the other hardware installed in your system and the temperature of your computer room.

Another potential problem has to do with the card's massive heat sink.  We're fairly certain it won't fit in some enclosures, although we did not have any problems fitting it into our case. We assume that ASUS has done some research into how well the Extreme N6600GT Silencer will fit into various computer cases, but we imagine there's more than a few that could have trouble with this card. If you have a large heat sink on your CPU, there could also be some problems when rotating the large heat sink.

Aside from the issues mentioned above, there's a lot to like about the Extreme N6600GT Silencer. ASUS has included some good software in its bundle, including PowerDirector and a few games. While Join Operations: Typhoon Rising might not be the most popular game, it's still a good showcase for the card's performance. During our overclocking adventures, we were a bit disappointed at the 40MHz overclock on the core. But the memory overclocked much better, reaching a lofty 1.12GHz. The increase in memory bandwidth helped smooth out frame rates at higher resolutions, and with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering enabled.

This card retails for around $220, and while it is a bit more expensive than a standard 6600GT, the extra 128MB of RAM, silent cooling solution, and ample software package nets the ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer an 8 out of 10 on our Heat Meter.

	•_Good software bundle •_Innovative Cooling •_Decent overclocker	•_Still requires some sort of active airflow •_May not be compatible with all cases

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