Packaging & Contents

The ASUS ENGTX280 TOP comes in a big cardboard box. Typical of all ASUS graphics cards, the box was well-designed with excellent print quality. The ENGTX280 TOP is only available without HDMI support but ASUS has other GTX 280 models with HDMI support. The differences between HDMI and non-HDMI models are quite minor though, amounting only to the inclusion of a DVI-to-HDMI adaptor and an S/PDIF audio cable in the HDMI kit, so you can easily add HDMI support to a "non-HDMI" model.

Inside, you will find a very stylish black cardboard box containing the ENGTX280 TOP card and two smaller black boxes. The larger, flat box contains the documentation and CDs while the smaller, rectangular box is where all the cables and adaptors are stored.

Once you take everything out, you will find the following items :

• One ASUS ENGTX280 TOP graphics card
• One DVI-to-VGA adaptor
• One HDTV component-out cable
• One PCI Express power cable
• One 8-pin power cable adaptor
• One ASUS graphics card manual
• One ASUS driver and utilities CD
• One ASUS e-manual CD
• One faux leather CD wallet
• One faux leather mouse pad

Provided Accessories

The kit comes with virtually everything you need to hook up the ENGTX280 to all kinds of display options, from CRTs to LCDs and HDTVs. The left-most cable is the HDTV component cable, followed by the DVI-to-VGA adaptor for those still using the dinosaurs we fondly remember were called CRTs.

Then you have the PCI Express power cable, which is actually a Y-splitter that allows you to use a standard Molex power cable to power the ENGTX280 card. This is great for those with power supplies that only have a single PCI Express power cable. Finally, ASUS included an 8-pin cable adaptor that allows you to convert two 6-pin PCI Express power cables into a single 8-pin power cable.

The manual is the standard ASUS manual for NVIDIA graphics cards, which is useful if you are a newbie who do not know how to install the card or the driver. ASUS also provided a CD with a multi-lingual e-manual and a driver and utilities CD. Of course, the graphics driver was already old and outdated so it is only useful if you were not able to first download the latest version online. As a bonus, ASUS threw in a CD wallet and a mouse pad. They are made from faux leather (read : PVC) but are really quite nice.

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