Chaintech ZNF3-250 Motherboard Review
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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
- 9x2 pin front panel connector
- 5x2 pin front side audio connector
- 20 pin ATX Power connector
- 4 pin ATX 12V Power connector
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