Re: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

David V. Loewe, Jr <daveloewe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:15:29 -0700, archmage@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Nate Edel)
> wrote:
> >David V. Loewe, Jr <daveloewe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> >Interesting little things, the tuners.  Two would fit in a
> >> >cigarette pack by 1995.  I imagine they are much smaller by now.
> >>
> >> They fit on video cards (I have an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro).
> >
> >Although, at least as of a few years ago (a 2002-vintage AIW 8500),
they
> >were rather chunky looking things to for on a card.  
>
> <looks at the AIW 8500 the AIW 9800 replaced>
> No more so than the GPU/heat sink & fan assembly on that card.

Active cooling on video cards *is* chunky, and has been getting worse on
generations since at least on comparably high-end cards. But the RF area
is
definitely worse, by my eyeball, and that seems to be the case even with
some quick measurements.

RF section: about 2 3/4" by 1 1/2" by about 5/8" high off the board, and
minus a couple of holes in the top, a straight metal box around whatever's
inside.

Heatsink/fan: square, almost an exact 1 3/4" on a side, and just a hair
under 1/2" high off the board (a little of that is the chip height.) Also,
the fan in the center is a bit lower, and the sides are broken up by the
heat sink vanes rather than being solid.  

So the visual effect is much more solid on the RF part of the card.  This
is
even more so on the cheapie (V-stream) RF card I replaced the 8500 with,
which has a longer RF section (otherwise similarly sized) with a large
white
sticker with black printing covering the entire top.

-- 
Nate Edel                               http://www.cubiclehermit.com/
 preferred email  | 
 is "nate" at the | "I do have a cause, though. It is obscenity.
 posting domain   |  I'm for it." - prologue to "Smut" by Tom Lehrer