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Warranty:
The XLR8 card comes with a standard two year warranty. As stated previously, I'm amazed that a company provides a two year warranty on a card they encourage you to overclock. That's a first in the industry to my knowledge. According to XLR8, all their products carry a 30 day money back guarantee. MacZone and Cyberian Outpost were unaware of this policy however.

Tech Support:
XLR8 provides a toll free technical support phone number. During the testing I called several times with questions about overclocking and cache speeds and XLR8's personnel were always friendly, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. I'd like to particularly thank Mark Freeman, their lead tech support person for his prompt response in testing and shipping a replacement cache. I was never on hold for more than 2 minutes, and overall I'd rate their support as excellent.

Documentation:
The XLR8 manual provided clear, concise instructions and illustrations for installation in Apple PowerMac 7500/7600, 8500, and 9500. Step-by-step instructions and pictures walk you completely through the process on each of these machines. Tables of available switch settings for the four CPU/bus ratios and 26 bus speed settings are included. The manual shows settings CPU/bus ratios are: 3:1. 3.5:1, 4:1, 4.5:1 and 5:1 and illustrates switch settings for bus speeds of: 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46.2, 47.6, 50, 51.4, 51.6, 52.6, 52.8, 54.2, 55.4, 56.6, 57.2, 57.4, 58.0, 58.4, 58.8, 59.2 and 60 mhz. Supposedly there are more switch settings for even finer adjustment available from technical support. The back of the manual contains a troubleshooting section and XLR8's toll free tech support number in case you need assistance.

Quality/Construction:
The XLR8 card shows good quality of construction, with uniform contact of the heat sink to the cpu and drivers on the component side, and good solder joints on the solder side of the card. There were no visible trace cuts or jumper wires on the card ( I've seen these before on first run products - so I always check for them). My only complaints are the previously mentioned dip switch locations and the suggestion to lengthen the card to better engage the side card guides in the case. These are minor complaints, and overall quality is very good. The system has been rock solid at the 47.6 mhz bus speed/190.4 cpu speed setting. I'll be honest - I expected something to be compromised at the selling price of the XLR8 card ( $341.27 ), but evidently my fears were unfounded.

Packaging:
The unit arrived in a well designed, heavily padded and attractive box. As mentioned XLR8 provides a static wrist strap, manual, and registration card. I expected less at this price, like maybe a plain brown cardboard box? Wrong again. All aspects of this product look like it should cost hundreds more that its selling price.

OnLine Support:
The XLR8 web site ( www.xlr8.com ) contains company and product information, their toll free number, and product reviews. They appear to be expanding the site (April 1997), I've seen additions the last few times I've been there. One note - I could live without the 90k animated gif robot on the main page, which slows page display considerably. I would make that a static image conserve bandwidth and reduce download time. I liked the motif though.

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Copyright © 1997.
No part of this sites content is to be reproduced in any form without written permission.
All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies.
Users of this web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.


Warranty: The XLR8 card comes with a standard two year warranty. As stated previously, I'm amazed that a company provides a two year warranty on a card they encourage you to overclock. That's a first in the industry to my knowledge. According to XLR8, all their products carry a 30 day money back guarantee. MacZone and Cyberian Outpost were unaware of this policy however. Tech Support: XLR8 provides a toll free technical support phone number. During the testing I called several times with questions about overclocking and cache speeds and XLR8's personnel were always friendly, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. I'd like to particularly thank Mark Freeman, their lead tech support person for his prompt response in testing and shipping a replacement cache. I was never on hold for more than 2 minutes, and overall I'd rate their support as excellent. Documentation: The XLR8 manual provided clear, concise instructions and illustrations for installation in Apple PowerMac 7500/7600, 8500, and 9500. Step-by-step instructions and pictures walk you completely through the process on each of these machines. Tables of available switch settings for the four CPU/bus ratios and 26 bus speed settings are included. The manual shows settings CPU/bus ratios are: 3:1. 3.5:1, 4:1, 4.5:1 and 5:1 and illustrates switch settings for bus speeds of: 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46.2, 47.6, 50, 51.4, 51.6, 52.6, 52.8, 54.2, 55.4, 56.6, 57.2, 57.4, 58.0, 58.4, 58.8, 59.2 and 60 mhz. Supposedly there are more switch settings for even finer adjustment available from technical support. The back of the manual contains a troubleshooting section and XLR8's toll free tech support number in case you need assistance. Quality/Construction: The XLR8 card shows good quality of construction, with uniform contact of the heat sink to the cpu and drivers on the component side, and good solder joints on the solder side of the card. There were no visible trace cuts or jumper wires on the card ( I've seen these before on first run products - so I always check for them). My only complaints are the previously mentioned dip switch locations and the suggestion to lengthen the card to better engage the side card guides in the case. These are minor complaints, and overall quality is very good. The system has been rock solid at the 47.6 mhz bus speed/190.4 cpu speed setting. I'll be honest - I expected something to be compromised at the selling price of the XLR8 card ( $341.27 ), but evidently my fears were unfounded. Packaging: The unit arrived in a well designed, heavily padded and attractive box. As mentioned XLR8 provides a static wrist strap, manual, and registration card. I expected less at this price, like maybe a plain brown cardboard box? Wrong again. All aspects of this product look like it should cost hundreds more that its selling price. OnLine Support: The XLR8 web site ( www.xlr8.com ) contains company and product information, their toll free number, and product reviews. They appear to be expanding the site (April 1997), I've seen additions the last few times I've been there. One note - I could live without the 90k animated gif robot on the main page, which slows page display considerably. I would make that a static image conserve bandwidth and reduce download time. I liked the motif though.
= Back to the main XLR8 Review page = = Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM =
Copyright © 1997. No part of this sites content is to be reproduced in any form without written permission. All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies. Users of this web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.