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- Date:
- Sunday , November 23, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Chaintech ZNF3-150
A feature packed solution based on the nForce3 chipset, the ZNF3-150 puts the power of an Athlon64 754-pin CPU in your box. See how this Chaintech mainboard stacks up when it comes to stability and speed.
Introduction
Chaintech has traditionally catered to the OEM and system builder crowd. Of late, they began producing highly acclaimed enthusiast friendly boards with a solid mix of features and overclocking ability. With their latest endeavor, they’re looking to capture a portion of the Athlon64 market.
The ZNF3-150 is Chaintech’s latest motherboard creation, tooled for the Athlon64 CPU featuring their RadEX power cooling system. RadEX is Chaintech’s heatpipe based solution for cooling the onboard power MOSFETs. The board itself is designed around the NVIDIA nForce3-150 chipset. The chipset offers full support for the AMD Athlon64 line of processors, as well as DDR400 RAM operating in Single Channel mode. Note that the nForce3-150 chipset lacks support for the SoundStorm technology, forcing the onboard audio choice up to the motherboard manufacturer, if one is supplied. Like most current motherboards on the market, the ZNF3-150 is a feature-complete solution, boasting the following on board components: 3 ATA-133 ports; 4 SATA-150 ports with built-in RAID0, RAID1, and RAID0+1 support through the Silicon Image RAID controller; 6 USB 2.0 capable ports (2 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 3 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 onboard header supporting 1 port, 2 built in to audio riser card); Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet; VIA Envy24PT 7.1 channel audio featuring S/PDIF optical output port; CBOX3 device supporting diagnostic LED, 1 IEEE 1394 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, audio out and MIC-IN ports, and a 6-in-1 memory card reader; and serial, parallel, and PS/2 port support.
Main Specifications Overview:
CPU | AMD Athlon64 (754-pin) |
Chipset | NVIDIA nForce3-150 |
FSB | 200 |
BIOS | Phoenix AwardBIOS |
Memory | 3 DDR DIMMS, up to 2 GB |
Expansion slots | 1 x AGP, 5 x PCI, 1 x CMR |
Onboard IDE | 3 x ATA 133 ports; Silicon Image controller supporting 4 x SATA 150 RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1 capable ports |
USB 2.0 | 2 rear panel / 2 headers supporting 2 ports each (6 ports total) |
AGP | AGP 4x/8x |
Audio | 7.1-Channel VIA Envy24PT solution with S/PDIF optical output port |
NIC | 1 x Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet controller in rear panel |
Detailed Mainboard Specification List:
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Packaging
The ZNF3-150 comes in a very shiny box, prominently displaying the Zenith series emblem with the nForce3 and Athlon64 logos clearly showing in the lower left corner. Contained within the package, you find a treasure chest of items: ATA 133 and floppy rounded cables, 4 SATA 150 cables, 2 dual ended SATA power plugs, the rear panel shield, the CMR audio riser card, an optical audio cable, a screw driver, a tube of thermal paste, the CBOX3 device, and the normal complement of driver CDs and manuals. CBOX3 is a device that mounts in to one of the existing 5 1/4” drive bays in the front of your case. It offers a 2 digit LED BIOS driven diagnostic display (which is also capable of outputting the current CPU temperature), an IEEE 1394 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a 6-in-1 memory card reader, and speaker out and MIC_IN ports.
Board Layout
Chaintech obviously took their time in designing this motherboard, since no areas on the board could really be considered problematic. There were some questionable jumper placements and a questionable chipset heatsink, but that’s it. As far as I could tell, there were no markings on the board depicting the board revision number or serial number. In constructing the board, Chaintech chose to use capacitors manufactured by the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer Luxon Electronics.
The CPU socket area is fully clear of obstructions on all sides, making for easy installation of even the largest HSF. The socket itself is surrounded by a total of 6 mounting holes – 2 that conform to the AMD Athlon64 specification, and 4 that look to conform with the AMD AthlonXP mounting specification. Perhaps, Chaintech included the 4 extra holes around the socket for use with your old AthlonXP HSF or waterblock. The RadEX unit itself is located just above the CPU socket, between it and the rear panel. The RadEX intake fan is just above an to the right of the CPU, allowing it vent off some of the CPU excess heat easily. The other RadEX opening is located parallel to the CPU socket, just above the ATX12V connector. While not excessively loud, the RadEX intake fan could be heard over quieter system fans but it does move a good amount of air through the duct.
One thing that becomes instantly obvious is the lack of a Northbridge chipset. The nForce3-150 chipset is a single chipset solution, and Chaintech wisely decided to place the chipset in a less crowded area. The ATX12V connector is located to the left and above the CPU socket. This location allows for optimal power routing to the CPU, but can lead to cable routing issues. To the left of the ATX12V connector is the BIOS monitored FAN2 header. Just below the ATX12V connector is one of the board’s USB 2.0 headers with it associated system wakeup jumper, JPD6. Between the RadEX unit and the rear panel are the unmonitored RadEX fan header, and the system wakeup jumper for the rear panel USB ports. The placement of this jumper is rather poor, since it is very well hidden by the RadEX unit and easily overlooked. To the right of the RadEX unit is the system wakeup jumper for the two PS/2 ports in the rear panel. This jumper is also a very well hidden secret. The CPU BIOS monitored fan header, FAN1, is located to the lower right of the CPU socket along the edge of the board.
The ZNF3-150 comes standard with a total of 3 DIMM slots, with support for PC3200 type RAM population in all slots concurrently. While it may appear that the DIMM slots are a bit close to the AGP slot, I found no issues with DIMM insertion/removal with a Radeon 9700Pro card installed in to the system. Just below the DIMM slots are the primary and secondary ATA-133 IDE ports, with the ATX connector just to the right of the lower port.
The NVIDIA nForce3-150 chipset is located just below PCI slot 2. Notice that the chipset is passively cooled with a good sized aluminum heatsink held on with two push pins that affix to the motherboard through mounting holes on opposite side of the chipset. In practice, the heatsink was fine during stock speed operations, but did not cut it when overclocking. An active cooling solution or a water based cooling solution is a highly recommended replacement here. Just below the chipset is the tertiary ATA-133 IDE port and the floppy port. The BIOS monitored FAN3 header is just to the left of the floppy port along the board’s edge, while the BIOS monitored FAN4 header is located to the right of the IDE3 port. Just above the IDE3 port is the CMOS battery and CMOS reset jumper. This location could have been better selected, since the reset jumper is very hard to access with cables seated in the IDE3 and floppy ports. To the left of the FAN3 header is the CBOX3 diagnostic LED header. This header is used to output diagnostic codes and CPU temperature to the CBOX3 LED display. To the left of the CBOX3 diagnostic header are status LED headers, used to connect additional status type LED’s to the system. The front panel header is located in the lower left corner of the board. The ROM table select jumper is located just above the front panel header. This jumper enables/disables user configuration of the ROM BIOS.
The Silicon Image RAID controller is located below PCI slot 5. Its 4 associated SATA 150 ports are located along the edge of the board, with the SATA4 port located just to the right of the SATA3 port. This location is ideal, since it keeps the SATA cables from getting in the way of the IDE cables. The onboard speaker is just below the SATA4 port. The CBOX3 IEEE 1394 header is the white colored connector sandwiched between the CMR slot and the SATA1 port. There is also a USB 2.0 header located between PCI slots 3 and 4, with its associated system wakeup jumper located to its right between PCI slots 2 and 3.
The ZNF3-150 comes standard with a single AGP slot, 5 PCI slots, and a CMR slot. The CMR slot is used in conjunction with the included Chaintech audio riser card. Between the CMR slot and PCI slot 5 are the wake-on-modem and wake-on-lan ports. The front panel audio header is located just above the CMR slot. Note that the rear panel audio ports will not function unless pins 5/6 and 9/10 on the front panel audio header are jumpered. If you are wondering where the CD_IN and AUX_IN audio ports are, they are located on the back end of the included audio riser card, along with 2 additional IEEE 1394 ports, 3 speaker ports, and the optical output port.
The ZNF3-150’s rear panel contains the following integrated items: the RadEX passive air outtake port; PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; 1 parallel port; 2 serial ports; 2 USB 2.0 ports; a Gigabit LAN Ethernet port; and 3 audio ports.