Having built a solid foundation using an Asus P6T Deluxe V2 M/B, Intel Core i7 CPU and 12GB of Kingston DDR3 1333Mhz DRAM (all in a Thermaltake Element S Case), it was now time to complete the 'picture' so to speak....  I wanted reasonably good graphics in my new machine so after a bit of research and price checking, I decided I liked the look of the Asus ENGTS250 1GB GTS 250 "Dark Knight" card.

Some Specs:

Graphics Engine: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
Bus Standard: PCI Express 2.0
Video Memory: DDR3 1024MB
Engine Clock: 740 MHz
Memory Clock: 2000 MHz ( 1000 MHz DDR3 )
Memory Interface: 256-bit
CRT Max Resolution: 2048 x 1536
DVI Max Resolution: 2560 x 1600
D-Sub Output: Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1 )
DVI Output: Yes x 2 (DVI-I)
HDMI Output: Yes x 1 (via DVI to HDMI adaptor x 1 )
HDTV Output (YPbPr): Yes
HDCP Support: Yes
TV Output: Yes (YPbPr to S-Video and Composite)
Adaptor/Cable bundled:
» 1 x DVI to D-Sub adaptor
» 1 x DVI to HDMI adaptor
» 1 x HDTV-out cable
» 1 x Power cable
» 1 x S/PDIF cable
Software Bundled: ASUS Utilities & Driver

Now, the thing is, I wanted to run three screens (Asus 23" Wide) so just one card wasn't enough. (Each Card has 2 DVI outputs), so I ordered two cards.  The P6T M/B I am using can take up to three cards, so installing 2 "Dark Knights" wasn't going to present a problem.

In the review mentioned above, their conclusion states that the Dark Knight isn't one of the highest performing cards in it's class but it did win a "Whisper Quiet" award and they also noted that it runs cooler than most of the other cards tested.  For my purposes, "Cool & Quiet" is perfect, so no regrets on my end.

Dark Knights are also SLI capable, so that was also an available option, should I choose to go down that track. My main objective is to run multiple monitors, not high end games or graphics intensive applications, so SLI isn't really an issue.

At the end of the day, two "Dark Knights" in my system is just plain 'cool'....  

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