The Asus EN8600GT OC Gear
While most 8600GTs on the market are overclocked at the factory, ASUS actually left NVidia’s reference specifications alone to let gamers to do their own overclocking using the 5.25″ OC Gear LED display and associated software.
One unique aspect of the ASUS EN8600GT is the copper GPU cooler. ASUS claims this half moon, flower-shaped heatsink will give users a 14c degree drop in temps over NVidia’s standard reference cooler. These open-faced coolers are also typically much quieter than blowers or other coolers used on video cards.

The EN8600GT features dual DVI outputs and a single TV/HDTV output. One peculiar move by ASUS was keeping the GPU core clock at 540MHz and the memory clock at 700MHz, which matches NVidia’s reference specs. As we stated in the introduction, most vendors who have manufactured 8600GTs have overclocked both of these components for better all-around performance. We assume ASUS didn’t overclock them to allow more overhead for users to take advantage of the OC Gear overclocking utilities.

This graphics card does not require any external power for it to function because it gets all the juice it needs from the motherboard’s PCI-Express slot. This makes it a very tempting solution for multimedia and HTPC users with micro ATX and small form factor systems with lower-wattage power supplies.

The ASUS EN8600GT OC Gear video card comes packaged with a decent bundle of software and hardware for its $160 price tag. The retail package includes the video card, 5.25″ OC Gear LED display, DVI-to-VGA adapter, HDTV-out dongle, internal 4-pin USB connector, CD wallet, driver CDs, and other documentation.

We removed the copper heatsink to give our readers an extreme close-up view of the 8600GT’s GPU. The serial number on the chip labels this GPU as a G84, though the 8600 GT is supposed to have a G86 designation from NVIDIA. Since GPUs use the same chip with lower clocks, this is probably normal across the board.

The 5.25″ OC Gear LED Display has an 89mm x 31.6mm character display and a large silver knob for adjusting fan speeds and monitoring real-time frame rates. The display connects directly to the motherboard via a 4-pin USB connector. The device also only needs 4 watts to operate, which makes it a very power-efficient display.

Here’s one final shot of the OC Gear LED display displaying real-time frame rates during one of our gaming benchmarks. Notice the mirror finish on the display as well as the vibrant orange and red LED lights. This is definitely a very sexy addition to any gamer’s rig.