Packaging & Contents
Diamond packages the Stealth Express X550 in a generic box with the normal eye candy. There's nothing fancy like open slots to view the video card or at least a picture of the X550. The back of the box contains card hype and a benchmark graph that shows the X550 128MB vs. a Geforce 6200 256 MB. With the sides posting features and specifications. But I can do without the bling on the box and find more interesting what's inside.
If the packaging was any indication of what to expect then there's no excitement here. I have to remember it's an entry level card and you're just not going to get the usual accessories. The card comes with what is required to get up and running, included is the driver CD and the S-video out cable.
The Driver CD did come with documentation, added software and to my surprise Diamond added Windows updates in the form of SP2 for XP, along with the dreaded .NET Framework.
Included in the Windows updates was DirectX9. The CD also contained Bonus Software:
- Acrobat Reader
- 3DMark03
- Final Reality
- VulpineGL
- VulpineGL Patch
- Free DVD codec
- DS Player
- Maximus DVD
- WCPUID
So Diamond does make an effort to pack the CD with everything you'd need to be able to get up and started including OS service packs. The software however isn't the latest and greatest but includes the software required to start a Multimedia system.