I'll admit I was surprised with the manual. In my experience english translated manuals often have typos or other less than clear descriptions due to the language conversion but the Vimage manual was a refreshing change. The 23 page manual manual was well written and illustrated with photos of the installation steps required to install the card in 73/75/7600, 8500, 9500, and 86/9600. The manual also lists precautions and has illustrated guides to the software install (and removal). The specifications of the card are also listed. Overall the manual was very well written, clear and consise.

A disposable, adjustable anti-static wrist strap is also provided to protect the card during installation.

The manual stated that you should remove the stock L2 cache (if possible - it's not removable on 9500's and 9600/200 and 233's). The procedure for this is not listed in the manual but you can check your Mac manual for how to do this. In many cases the L2 cache is on a Dimm that is easily removed, but in the 8500 it's quite a chore requiring removal of the motherboard. I suggest only qualified personel attempt it on the 8500 due to the steps involved. An illustrated list of steps is shown in my 8500 cache upgrade article.

The normal card installation routine would be to power off the Mac, remove the case cover, attach the wrist strap to yourself and the Macintosh, remove the existing CPU card, install the Vimage card (making sure it's fully seated), press the CUDA (cpu reset) button on the motherboard (hold for 30 seconds) and then power up the Mac and install the software. Total installation time was under 5 minutes and totally plug and play. Since there are no speed settings (hardware or software) installations are easier than with adjustable cards (in cases where owners experiment with faster speeds than the default at least). There was no separate troubleshooting section in the manual but from my experience it will not likely be needed. Vimage's support line (toll free, avail. Monday - Friday 8:30am to 5:30pm PST) and email address was listed in the "User support" section of the manual.

The Vimage card has no removable bracket to allow it to be used with low-profile systems like the Power Computing models. However those models are not listed as compatible with the card so it's a moot point. See the Specifications page for compatibility info on Mac models and OS versions.

Speed Settings: As noted earlier the Vimage card has no hardware or software speed settings to adjust, unlike most cards from Bottom Line, PowerLogix, XLR8 or Mactell or (to a lesser extent) Newer Tech. For users that don't want to risk overclocking the card this is a bonus. Speed freaks (most of you reading this ;-) may consider that a negative.

Documentation was complete and well done. I rated documentation an 9 overall.

The next page describes the hardware features and specifications of the card. Or you may use the links below to jump to a specific page.