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Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra Motherboard Review
Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
There's little doubt that if you're thinking about buying a new system or parts right now, Socket 939 Athlon64 + PCI Express is the way to go.
 79% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Chaintech Apr 20 2005   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra

You can't beat its value!

The only real drawback to upgrading into a Socket 939 + PCI Express system is cost. You not only have to replace the motherboard and processor, but also the videocard and in many cases you need to buy a new power supply as well.

Add up the prices and you've got yourself one expensive upgrade! I'm not sure if there's a conspiracy but it seems like the motherboard manufacturers are doing their best to keep Athlon64 technology on the higher end of the scale.

The Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra is one of the only real entry-level Athlon64 motherboards on the market, but despite its low price it performs very well. For about a hundred dollars, you get a very basic motherboard without a lot of goodies. Onboard there is a Gigabit NIC and 7.1-channel audio controller as well as three traditional PCI slots and two PCI Express x1 slots for expansion.

Physically, the motherboard has been designed very well and everything is placed at or near its optimal location. The motherboard itself is pretty user friendly; we've seen better but not for $100. The user manual is also very good at explaining where things go and what things do. Chaintech includes a bunch of useful system utilities, not just 'filler' software to make the package look good.

Despite having an entry-level price tag, the Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra performed like a champ in pretty much every benchmark we threw at it. In the 2D/workstation-style benchmarks, you could not tell the difference between this board and one twice as expensive.

In the 3D world, the Zenith VNF4 Ultra was awesome as well and was able to best motherboards like the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR, MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI and Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI on many occasions! It even set new high scores in Doom 3 and 3DMark 05 for socket 939 Athlon64 motherboards.

With a $114 CDN ($92 US) sticker price, the Socket 939-based Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra offers more bang for the buck than any of its competitors.

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Contents of Article: Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra
 Pg 1.  Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  Overclocking the Chaintech value board
 Pg 3.  Benchmarks: SYSMark 2004
 Pg 4.  Benchmarks: Winstone 2004, Winbench 99
 Pg 5.  Benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra 2005, Super Pi
 Pg 6.  Benchmarks: PCMark04, 3DMark2001
 Pg 7.  Benchmarks: 3DMark05, AquaMark3
 Pg 8.  Benchmarks: Comanche 4, X2: The Threat, UT2003
 Pg 9.  Benchmarks: UT2004, Doom 3
 Pg 10.  — You can't beat its value!

 
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