The problem with most motherboards is that they come with the bare essentials: cables, screws, and not much else. Chaintech decided to play it a bit differently with their new ZNF3-250. This board might make you ask how much is too much. Highs: More accessories than any motherboard we've seen, excellent board layout, and great sound. Lows: High cost, an overworked PCI bus, and problems with large, fast DIMMs. Lowdown: This one's for the enthusiasts, all right. If you're looking for a bundle, this might be up your alley.
The R&D department at Chaintech has been busy lately, working hard to create a lineup of feature-rich motherboards, which has grown to include their Summit, Apogee, and Zenith lines, each with a larger feature-set than the last. Today, we take a look at their top-of-the-line offering, the ZNF3-250 Zenith, based on the nForce3 250 and Socket754 Althlon 64 combination. This board sports some notable features, including:
4-Channel SATA RAID,
A bay-based card reader/temperature gauge/post code display,
The RadEX heatsink/fan for the voltage control module, and
More connecting cables than you can shake a stick at.
For those looking to make an all-out board, this is a good example to follow. [Author’s note: I'm normally not a fan of such setups, but I have to give credit where credit is due.]
Specifications
Form Factor
- ATX(305mm x 244mm)
CPU
- Supports the new generation of AMD Socket754 Athlon 64 CPU - Processor interface via 6.4GB/s Hyper Transport bus
Chipset
- NVIDIA nForce3 250
Main Memory
- Three 184-pin DDR DIMMs up to 2GB - Supports DDR266/333/400 modules
Expansion Slots
- One AGP slot for both 4X/8X AGP - Five 32-Bit PCI slots (v2.2 compatible) - One CMR(Chaintech Mulmedia Riser) for Chaintech Multimedia Card (CMC7.1)
Audio Subsystem
- 24bit resolution audio format support - 7.1 Channel speaker audio supports - Sampling rates up to 96KHz - Multi-channel AC-link supported alternatively - Support S/PDIF out
Video Subsystem
4X/8X AGP
UltraDMA IDE Ports
Built-in nForce3 250 supports 2 ATA66/100/133 IDE ports
FDD
One FDD connector supports up to 2.88MB
Embedded USB Controller
Build-in nForce3 250 supports total 6 USB2.0 ports with High-Speed Device@480 Mb/s Transfer Rate
Embedded system monitoring
- 2 temperature sensing for CPU and system - 3 Fan speed monitoring (CPU, system and Chipset)
Boot-Block Flash ROM
Award system BIOS supports PnP, APM, DMI, ACPI, & Multi-device booting features
Software
- Driver CD - Value Pack 2004
Other Features
Rear panel I/O ports
One PS2 Mouse and Keyboard port
Two USB ports and one RJ45 connector
Two 9-pin D-Sub male Serial ports
One 25-pin D-Sub female Parallel port
Audio I/O jacks (Line-in, Line-out and Mic-in)
On-board Gigabit Ethernet
On-board Broadcom GbE Controller supports 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit LAN
On-board SATA RAID Controller
On-board Sli3114 SATA RAID Controller supports 4 Serial ATA devices for the highest data transfer rates (1.5Gbps burst) with RAID 0/1/0+1 solution
On-board VIA VT6306 IEEE1394 Host Controller
On-board VIA VT6306 IEEE1394 Host Controller supports 3 IEEE1394 ports with Serial bus data rates of 100, 200 and 400Mbps.
IEEE P1394a compliant and IEEE Std. 1394-1995
On board connector for external device
Four 3x1 pin fan connectors
2x1 pin fan connector with housing for Chaintech RadEX
Two 5x2 pin USB connectors for front 2 USB ports & 6 in 1 Card Reader on CBOX3
3x1 pin wake on LAN connector with housing
3x1 pin wake on Modem connector with housing
Two 4x1 pin CD-in connectors with housing on CMC7.1
4x1 pin Aux-in connector with housing on CMC7.1
5x2 pin Segment display connector for 2-digits Debug LED on CBOX3
8x1 pin IEEE1394 connector with housing for front IEEE1394 port on CBOX3
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