[section_title title=Packaging]
Packaging
The packaging is typical of HIS and features a wealth of information about both the company and the product itself. It comes in the typical icy sort of style with a blue background which is tied into the name of the cooler that is utilised on this card – IceQ X². Along the top and top right hand side of the box are the HIS brand, the iPower feature which basically “allows the card to carry more voltage, expanding overclocking capability to a new level” as well as the cooler, quieter and turbo imageries. In the centre of the box lays the big IceQ X² brand. Moving on toward the bottom of the box where the rest of the details lay, it describes iTurbo and it shows that this is the “Boost Clock” edition of the 280X that HIS produce. Furthermore, there lays its name and it states that it is PCIE 3.0 based, features 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM, it’s 4K x 2K Ultra HD ready and that it also has HDMI too.
Flipping over the box reveals more information than what most people will ever bother to read on the box of their product. However, it does show that HIS are proud to show off their features and they want to make it known too. I won’t go into too much depth as they speak for themselves but they consist of the cooler and quieter monikers that were also displayed on the front of the packaging as well as a host of others such as its five heatpipe design, high quality components with 6x Dynamic Phase Control PWM ICs, full solid state capacitors and solid state chokes to top it all off too. Below that lays a brief overview of the key features on this card.
The HIS 280X features HDMI, OpenGL 4.3, SM (Shader Model) 5, PCI-E 3.0 connectivity, 7.1 audio via HDMI, HDMI, DVI-I and also two mini DisplayPorts. Finally, to conclude this side of the box, there are a few of HIS’s recent awards which they’ve claimed throughout the years of operation and the total stands at over 1600 now which is definitely something worth showing off.
Inside the outer shell lays another box which is typical of HIS. The black box is made of sturdy cardboard and the insides are padded with hard foam to protect your new GPU. The box may appear humongous at first, but the size is actually very much perfect as you will see in the few images that are below.
The box is plain black and has the HIS branding over it as well as its ‘Faster. Cooler. Quieter’ moniker. However, you’re more than likely not too interested in the box itself so here’s a quick glimpse of the goodies that lay within. There’s obviously the GPU itself, a CrossFire bridge as well as a DVI > VGA adapter which is unlikely to be used as someone who is purchasing this card will no longer be using VGA. To finish off, we have a little booklet style container which houses an installation DVD and we also have a piece of paper that states the correct method of installation.
