Chaintech 7NJS Zenith

Company: Chaintech
Product: 7NJS Zenith Motherboard
Street Price: ~$160 USD
Date Reviewed: April 16, 2003
Reviewed By: Joey C. aka Chong345
Overall Rating: (9.6/10)

Introduction:

The NForce 2 chipset from nVidia seems to be dominating the AMD platform. Many users have been using the NForce 2 based motherboards for its many features like dual channel DDR, 8x AGP, and other great onboard features. Chaintech’s version of the board, the 7NJS Zenith, has all of the standard features but then offers a very broad range of other features. This is a feature rich board, geared towards the average user to the high-end users. Chaintech also offers the 7NJL1 APOGEE, which is more of a budget board but still comes with many good features. For our purposes, we are going to look at the Chaintech 7NJS Zenith.

Specifications:

CPU: AMD Socket A
System: Frequency 200/266/333MHz FSB
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 SPP + MCP-T
Memory: (3) DDR SDRAM DIMMs (3GB)

Physical Form Factor ATX
Dimensions 305mm x 230mm

Expansion Internal upgrade slots (5) PCI, (1) AGP, (1) ACR
IDE Bus (2) Ultra DMA-66/100/133 connectors
Serial ATA RAID/IDE (1)Ultra DMA-66/100/133 connector, (2)Ultra DMA-150 connectors

AV Subsystems Video 8X AGP
Audio CMedia 8738 / 6ch

CPU Supports AMD Socket A Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP CPU
System clock supports 200/266/333MHz

Chipset NVIDIA nForce2 SPP + MCP-T

Main Memory Three 184 pin DDR DIMMs up to 3GB
Supports PC1600/2100/2700/3200 Dual-Channel DDR modules

Expansion Slots One universal-AGP slot for both 4X/8XAGP
Five 32-Bit PCI slots (v2.2 compatible)
One ACR slot supports modem, audio, LAN, Dolby AC3 Decoder or IEEE1394 adaptor

Audio Subsystem Full-duplex operation for simultaneous recording and playback
6 Channel speaker audio supports
Embedded 32OHM 5w earphone amplifier
Supports MIDI and dual game ports
32 Voice HRTF 3D positional audio, CRL 3D supports MS Direct
Sound3D, Aureal A3D and Creative EAX APIs
Support SPDIF

Video Subsystem Video : 8X AGP

UltraDMA IDE Ports Supports two IDE ports up to 4 ATAPI devices
Supports PIO Mode 4 up to 16.6MBps, Multi Mode 4 up to 66MBps, Multi Word Mode 5 up to 100MBps and Multi Word Mode 6 up to 133MBps with Bus Mastering
Bus-Mastering software drivers for all common multi-tasking operating systems

Embedded USB Controller Embedded USB1.1/2.0 Controller
Three EHCI USB 2.0 Controller support total 6 USB 2.0/1.1 Ports
Support USB 2.0 High-Speed Device @480 Mb/s Transfer Rates

On Board Super I/O Controller ITE 8712 LPC I/O with system monitors hardware
Two UARTs support serial ports and IR function (up to 115.2Kbps) for HPSIR and ASKIR
One SPP/ECP/EPP parallel port
One floppy disk drive connector supports up to 2.88MB
Integrates smart card reader function and interface, to be qualified for meeting PC/SC standard

Embedded system monitoring 8 external voltage inputs
2 temperature sensing for CPU and system
2 Fan speed (CPU and system) monitoring with on/off control in suspend

Boot-Block Flash ROM Award system BIOS support PnP, APM, DMI, ACPI, & Multi-device booting features

Software Driver CD (Chipset Autodetect)
Value Pack 2002
DigiDoc System Monitoring Utility

Other Feature Three 3x1 pin fan connector
2x1 pin fan connector with housing for Northbridge
Two 5x2 pin USB connectors for optional 4 front side USB2.0/1.1 ports
6x2 pin Infrared connector
3x1 pin wake on LAN connector with housing
3x1 pin wake on Modem connector with housing
Two 4x1 pin CD-in connectors with 2.54mm pitch housing
4x1 pin Aux-in connector with 2mm pitch housing
5x2 pin SPDIF connector (optional)
4x2 pin woofer/center connector for 6-channel audio
5x2 pin front side audio connector
9x2 pin front panel connector
7x2 pin Smart Card Reader connector
5x2 pin Segment display connector for 2-digits Debug LED
17x2 pin floppy connector

Fast Ethernet/Home Networking Controller with MII Interface
Support 10/100Mb Fast Ethernet or 1/10Mb HomePNA 2.0 with External PHY

*Spcifications courtesy of Chaintech

The Chaintech 7NJS Zenith has a variety of onboard features that appeal to the high-end users. The board is packed with just about everything a person could want in a motherboard. Priced at $158 (lowest price currently on Pricewatch) one would expect this board to be one of the most feature rich boards on the market and it is.