Chaintech VNF4 Ultra: Tremendous Value in a Performance Motherboard- Page 2/5
September 14, 2005
By
Thomas Soderstrom
Layout and Features
Maybe it's not colorful and won't glow under a florescent tube, but Chaintech's black PCB really stands out against the sea of colors offered in competing products. Tired of pink and purple components, we appreciate the professional appearance of such simple color schemes.
Chaintech chose black and white as the VNF4 Ultra's color theme.
Chaintech equips the VNF4 Ultra with all the bells and whistles of the nForce4 Ultra chipset upon which it is based -- and not much else. Gigabit networking, ten USB 2.0 ports (six internal), four SATA and two PATA headers are par for the course with the entire nForce4 series. Any combination of SATA and PATA hard drives can be used in RAID mode, and the Ultra chipset adds 300MB/s SATA transfers plus its Active Armor secure networking engine. A Realtek ALC850 codec supplies audio.
We had a few issues with the layout of the motherboard, most notably the location of the power connectors, which are both located between the ports and processor. Such arrangement pulls these cables either over or around the CPU cooler, and on this board, the DIMM slots as well. The floppy header is also located at the bottom, so this cable will likely be routed clumsily around all hard drive cables. Also, some users with sinks on the back of their video cards may have clearance issues with the chipset cooler.
Three PCI Express and three PCI slots use six of a possible seven slot positions. We'd like to see a fourth PCI Express slot in the empty position, now occupied by one end of the 24-pin ATX connector. Having said that, six slots has become routine, with manufacturers looking to diversify on-board features and get the most out of every square inch of board space.
Six sound ports round out an otherwise commonplace selection
External connections include such legacy items as PS/2 keyboard/mouse, one Parallel and two Serial ports. Four USB and one Gigabit-capable network port add connectivity, but the PCB has no room for an IEE1394 FireWire controller.
What's really interesting is the sound port selection: six jacks support eight analog channels, plus Microphone and Line-In simultaneously, and the Line-In jack also contains a Digital Optical Out sender.
Digital Optical Output adaptor and adaptor cable as shown in the manual -- but missing from the actual packaging!
Why Chaintech decided to sacrifice the Line-In jack for use as a Digital Optical Output, rather than another output port such as Rear Out or Center/Sub, we'll never know. What bothers us most is the lack of an appropriate Digital Optical Out adapter, which should have been included in the retail box.
Construction and Quality
Exemplary! A standard 40mm fan sits atop a standard cooler.
Already pleased to see the chipset cooler with standard corner pin locations, we were overjoyed to see it using a standard 40mm fan as well. This type of fan tends to have a longer service life than typical low-profile versions, and if it does wear out, replacements can be found nearly anywhere, even Radio Shack. So while the entire cooler could be easily replaced, the standard fan makes this unnecessary.
Little things like the double-thickness backplate add to the quality appearance
Frighteningly obvious but often overlooked, small details like the decorative metal cover over the center of the backplate give the appearance of a professionally assembled system, rather than something put together in your cousin's basement. It's a shame that so many "premium" brands have omitted this to use a simple "tin plate."
A mix of both good and ordinary capacitors
Capacitor issues have become a major concern with many purchasers, yet only one of the many boards we've tested recently has used a top brand. The Chaintech VNF4 Ultra uses a mix of Sanyo and G-Luxon capacitors, which we'd rate as "good" and "ordinary," in that order. Our experience with these brands has been mostly satisfactory, so providing your system with clean power and good ventilation will help to insure a long life. (The capacitor choice isn't surprising, as most manufacturers fail to use the preferred Rubycon or Nichicon capacitors even on their premium products.)
Software and Accessories
A limited selection of cables is supplemented by an adequate software package
The VNF4 Ultra includes only one ATA, two Serial ATA, and one Floppy cable, in addition to the 4-pin Molex-to-dual-SATA power adapter. Not so much as a USB breakout cable is included.
But what is included is a reasonable manual, driver CD, and software pack featuring Norton AntiVirus 2005, DPU and ProMagic Plus recovery utilities, and Image It backup utility.
Events
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