As far as volume is concerned, the A300 failed to impress us. Although its fans only spin at a relatively moderate speed and therefore thankfully don't make a loud whirring noise, we noticed a very unpleasant undertone, which sounds something like a hard drive. Our measuring devices showed a noise level of 60 dB! Also, the card creates a lot of heat. Even with the computer case open, the passive heatsink on the back of the card would still easily reach 60° Celsius!
In addition to the TV-out, the card also offers Video-in via composite and S-VHS connections. The included adapter cable for these connectors is 90-cm long and seems to be of very high quality. The card uses the Philips SAA7114H encoder chip. Again, although Leadtek bundles cables with the card, they are too short to be useful (1.00 m composite; 1.10 m S-VHS).
The card's driver CD also includes Coloreal, a set of color calibration tools for monitors (Coloreal Visual, Coloreal Embedded, and Coloreal Bright). These are especially helpful in multi-monitor environments. Other software on the CD includes Colorific/ True Internet, Cult3D and the software DVD player WinFast DVD 3.1.
The games bundle consists of the very recently released games "Big Mutha Truckers" (03/2003) and "Gunmetal" (03/2003). While neither is a top game, both are quite entertaining.
The WinFast 2.0 tool suite offers system information and software overclocking options for the card.
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