Leadtek A400's failures?

[AMDCam]

Hey, I've been looking on ebay and see a lot of these A400's going for cheap (6800GT's), like under $200. Is there something wrong with them, like they're not overclockable or have low performance or don't flash to Ultra or just don't overclock well? I'm looking at one for $175 with less than an hour left, but I'm not getting it purely for this reason, I don't know what's wrong with it.

UPDATE: I just checked the site, Leadtek seems to be a pretty good company for power, and the A400 just looks like the name they give their high-grade heatsinks. Do you think the A400 heatsink would outdo an nvidia Silencer or Zalman VF700Cu? Also, is this card even compatible with aftermarket heatsinks, because I'm thinking it's a custom designed card built for that heatsink, according to a review on the 6800 Ultra

 

[AceFactor]

Were they brand new or used?

If they were new, i would suggest they were being sold of cheap, so people have bought them to sell on, if they were all pre-owned, then they are probably developing some sort of fault

-Adam

 

[ChAce]

Or Leadtek doesn't have a step up program like eVGA and they're all trying to get rid of their cards at once to buy 7800's. Big supply/lower demand = lower prices.

 

[AMDCam]

Okay, well does anyone know if the A400's are compatible with aftermarket heatsinks, and also if with the "stock" custom heatsink they're able to get to 6800 Ultra flash? I hear there's a "high success rate" of GT's being flashed to Ultra's, but is Leadtek's compatible? Also, which heatsink is better, that or a VF700Cu? Thank you

 

[ChAce]

You can most likely just swap the heatsinks, but you can simply call techsupport before buying it to find out about that. If it can OC to Ultra, you can flash it to Ultra, so that's pretty straight forward. I don't know for sure but I think the VF700 is a little better.

 

[AMDCam]

Thank you much. I've been looking, and supposedly with that heatsink people get average overclocks of 450/1200mhz from the stock 350/1000. Now in my opinion that's a nice overclock (and you can flash to ultra obviously). I haven't seen what the VF700Cu can do yet. Thanks again.

 

[ChAce]

If you can get those clocks, you can run Ultra Extreme dude, that's insane

 

[AMDCam]

Sweet man, but I've never found an Ultra Extreme for sale. I don't think Leadtek makes one, but do you think I could flash it to an Nvidia Ultra Extreme? If not, maybe I could just rename the BIOS?

 

[ChAce]

You can always reprogram the bios to make it run at 450/1200, or flash to UE and underclock it if you can't make it. But seriously, if those cards can reach those speeds I don't get the dudes that are selling them for less than 200 bux lol.

 

[AMDCam]

Yeah, I got mine for $245 new, and supposedly according to a few reviews on the A400 heatsink (obviously coupled with the Leadtek GT, Leadtek makes the A400), it hits UEE speeds. That's what I love about overclocking, save hundreds of dollars and get the same thing, lol. Would you happen to know a good site and program for flashing Nvidia BIOSes, along with renaming BIOSes too (in case I can't find an UEE BIOS)? Thanks again

 

[AMDCam]

Hey, just wondering if anyone has any idea about the stock A400 compared to a Zalman VF700Cu. I know I keep asking, but I want to get every bit of power I can out of my card. UEE speeds just won't cut it, lol. So do you think the A400's "3 duct" pure-copper design that covers the GPU and RAM, will do as well as a VF700Cu with copper RAMsinks? Plus, do you think I should apply Arctic Silver 5 on the A400, but keep the heatsink? I would assume it might down the card at least 1 degree. Sorry, just trying to figure this out.

I still have questions on the last page too (the post right before this one), thank you.