Leadtek currently offers the PxVC1100 with three different software bundles. Along with Pegasys's TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress software, the card is available with either Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5.0 or the CRI Dual-CS Coder plug-in for Adobe Premier Pro. Obviously, for this review, Pegasys sent us the version bundled with TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress and the SpursEngine plug-in.
The PxVC1100 comes in a small, black and blue box with a picture of the card on the front and back. The box is also covered with information on Toshiba's SpursEngine technology as well as the capabilities of the card and bundled TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress software. Inside the box, you'll find the PxVC1100 as a well as a quick installation guide, low profile bracket, 4 pin power cable and a CD containing the bundled software and drivers.
Physical Features:
If it weren't for the lack of video outputs, the PxVC1100 could easily be mistaken for a standard video card. This low profile, half-length PCIe x1 card sports a heatsink and fan as well as a floppy power connector on the end. If you look closely, you can see the 128MB of XDR SDRAM behind the heatsink's fins.
This fan on the heatsink is temperature controlled and only spins as fast as needed to keep the SpursEngine processor cool. According to Leadtek the fan spins at 40% when the system is first powered on and will jump to 80% if the main chip reaches a temp of 85 C. The fan doesn't spin at its maximum speed unless the processor reaches a temp of 90 C. If the chip continues to heat up, the card will shut itself down once it reaches 96 C.
