Chaintech Athlon 64 ZNF3-150 Zenith with VIA Envy24PT 7.1 and Six-TRAC!!!

[DAPUNISHER]

Part 1 of review It has 4 phase power design with actively cooled heatpipe MOSFET cooling and a bundle that makes the LAN Party seem tame :Q Now to see how the performance and stability are, and of course, what this awesome bundle will cost

Looks like VIA won the battle for audio superiority too! If you had told me they'd be coupling VIA audio with the nF series chipsets instead of soundstorm 6 months ago I'd have told you to stop rockin' da ganja....

 

[xeno2060]

Board looks great I like the gold and purple w/ the orange PCI slots, never used a Chaintech board
though. Any reliability issues?

 

[sandorski]

sweet

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: xeno2060
Board looks great I like the gold and purple w/ the orange PCI slots, never used a Chaintech board
though. Any reliability issues?

Good to see you over here brudda As far as reliability goes, Chaintech is pretty solid, They usually aren't the best overclockers and can be a bit on the pricey side for the Zenith series though. But with the 4 phase power, MOSFET cooling, and swapping out that passive chipset cooling that had zero thermal paste on it :Q for active cooling hopefully they will have a winner. I think the LAN Party concept with the board that looks cool with window mods, and outrageous bundle should help them find a niche and some good word of mouth like the DFI has garnered.

Just saw Neweg has it listed for $199 so it's another pricey offering, but I suppose if you add up what comparable audio card and all the other extras cost purchased seperately then it would still be equitable. It's not for me but then again the LAN Party bundle isn't either.

 

[Picticon]

In the process of installing this board.

First, the Radex fan is LOUD. It's a mid to high pitched whine. At first I thought it was the CPU cooler, then the PSU fan. Nope. Unfortunately, it looks like a hard item to replace. Not sure what to do.

Second, according to the review, an IR remote was included with the CBox3. Mine did not have any remote in the package. There is an IR spot on the CBox tho. Not sure if I got shorted or the review package was slightly different.

Other than that, the number and quality of items/cables is outstanding. Nice orange/gold theme throughout.

Installing XP now, we'll see how it works.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Thanks for the info so far Picticon! I would definitely complain about the remote missing especially if it appeared in the spec for the bundle! Maybe you can still get it sent to you. Looking forward to your review of the performance, overclocking, ect. That's a bummer about the fan though, It would be interesting to see if you could test the board with it on and disabled to see if it factors in much during extend loads at stock or overclocked speeds. If you can't take the noise, maybe the heatpipe would be enough if you have a case fan above it pulling air off it and you remove the shroud so that the heatsink is exposed? It wouldn't be as sweet as having it pumped out the back but maybe a decent trade off for colling to noise

Anywho, keep the info coming please and thanks :beer:

 

[Picticon]

Well, about the remote control. Nothing on the box mentions it. The documentation doesn't mention it. And the pictures at Newegg don't show it.

And about the Radex whine. It got a bit worse today. I'm going to dive in there to see what I can do, although I hate monkeying with things like that.

 

[MichaelD]

Wow! Nice find, Dapunisher! I can't wait for some more NF3 reviews..I may just be delving into the 64-bit club myself.

 

[hardcase]

Originally posted by: Picticon
And about the Radex whine. It got a bit worse today. I'm going to dive in there to see what I can do, although I hate monkeying with things like that.

Just curious, does the Radex contraption come pre-installed? Seems like I saw a serious of pictures somewhere showing the thing being attached. I was very interested in the ZNF3-150 because of the NF3 chipset and the audio h/w on the board. But a noisy fan is enough to make me go in some other direction.

BTW, have you done anything yet with the Envy audio?

 

[HoosierMedhead]

Hi. This is my first post here. I bought the Chaintech ZF3 last week too b/c of the sweet feature list. That noise, however, may make me return the item. I can't figure out how to improve it. My wife was aggravated that I spent so much for a comp that whines. Other than that, I didn't get a remote either for the Cbox 3.....guess you have to buy that separate. I had some trouble at first with bios lock ups but figured that out.... It's a real fast mobo compared to my P4 2.6........if it weren't for that damn noise.....arrrggggghhhh. Why didn't Anandtech mention it in his review?


Hoosier

 

[will889]

I'll wait until these mobos mature. They may start looking good now, but people are going to be pi$$ed when they get them, and a much better revision is out 3-4 months after they set it up, I would wait about 4 to 6 months. Just like the fan whine - it's "unrefined". It's like how could the techs-QC miss that? - Because they are eager to put pretty colors on it, and get it out the door ASAP, and "wow" people like us. Why did a hardware site miss it on a review? Because they just do - hardware sites miss stuff all the time. We are the real beta testers.

 

[hardcase]

If you wait 4 to 6 months, then there's a good chance you'll never buy anything, cause the lifetime of a motherboard, and sometimes even a chipset, hardly lasts that long any more.

The fan in the Radex whines because it's a very small fan, and for small fans to move an appreciable amount of air, they have to run at high rpms. I suspected that thing was going to be noisy the first time I saw it (although I was hoping I would be wrong). I doubt that you going to find some other fan that size that does much of a better job.

I have the same concerns about Gigabyte's new line of boards, the ones with the six-phase power. Those MBs are starting out with two fans, one on the NB and one on the aux power board. And that's even before you add a power supply, CPU fan, GPU fan, etc. If my PC was outside a construction site I might not care, but in a bedroom or study, no thanks. It may not be possible to eliminate all the fans in a high performance system, but some MB manufacturers (and reviewers) seem to have forgotten that noise matters. I see this not much so much as a refinement issue, rather, some MB makers must percieve that their market is overclocking at any cost. Somehow, I think they've missed the boat.

 

[Picticon]

Well, I guess it's not just my fan then. Was hoping it was just faulty when it got louder today.

The little fan does pump alot of air out, almost as much as the 80mm case fan next to it.

I'm thinking of using a 60mm fan and creating a duct to attach to the Radex exhaust. I'd rather have something sticking out the rear of the case than listen to that whine for any longer. Hopefully it'll work with pulling air instead of pushing it.

 

[will889]

Well, I will get a newer A-64 board, Im just going to wait a while I saw an AMD8151 board that Soyo will be manufacturing. I thought AMD chipsets were all but gone (Its a 754 pin A-64 board). I'll get one in about 4-6 months probably. But I really dont want one that whines like that If I can help it. Im sure it cools the chipset well, but I bet I could add another ative Chipset HSF that would reduce the whine, and get about the same cooling. I'll keep my eye on that board - and please keep us posted on your opinions as you set up, and use the board.

 

[HoosierMedhead]

I was contacted today by Chaintech who saw my post on Anandtech. Here is the exact quote......

Hi,

I have seen your post on Anandtech regarding the ZNF3-150's fan being too loud. Chaintech has acknowledged the problem from the first batch of ZNF3-150s. We are willing to send you a brand new RadEX to solve the loud fan problem. Please give us a shipping address and we would gladly send you the improved version of the RadEX with a better fan. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.


Best Regards,

Ruby Lin
Chaintech America
510-656-3648 Ext.101
rubyl@chaintechusa.com

Needless to say they are sending me a new Radex and have corrected the problem in future boards. Thanks Chaintech.

Jeff

 

[sandorski]

Wow! Talk about Customer Service!

 

[will889]

That's absolutely kick a$$. Thumbs up for chaintech looking at us, and reacting to the customer. If only Soyo would do that.

 

[will889]

Aww hell. I just might get a Chaintech now

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Hoot
That's absolutely kick a$$. Thumbs up for chaintech looking at us, and reacting to the customer.

Without a doubt above and beyond :beer: You guys need to get those performance and overclocking results posted for us now!

 

[Picticon]

Mind sending me her email address so I can request a replacement too? I had email visibility off.

One of my Maxtors in my Raid crapped out last night after 2 days. In the process of removing it I must have did something bad. The computer refused to boot. Was giving a C1 error on the Cbox. I removed everything. Ended up reseating the CPU and it seems to work fine now (other than having no OS).

Pretty amazing that Chaintech was viewing this board. Even more amazing that they are willing to replace the fan.

I bought a 60mm fan and started fashioning a collar for it. But that might have to wait!

 

[will889]

Yeah it is great that Chaintech was viewing this board. After all the time building PC's. It's really the lack of mobo brand seperation that's kept me from joining anand. And until that happens, if it ever does, I'll just pop in once and a while. While it's nice to have an all encompassing mobo section, it's far to diluted for my taste. Nice people in here though.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I keep looking at that board! must resist! Must not click checkout! Must wait for nF3 250 boards!

 

[HoosierMedhead]

Hello all again,

Chaintech wants to make sure anyone who buys the ZNF3 and has a problem should contact Ruby at the above email address and phone #. She has been very polite and helpful. Glad I bought the Chaintech afterall....

As I was running a P4, I need to reinstall XP to have the system working cleanly.....will post stats soon........


Actually this is just a shameless bump......but does have a good purpose.......


Jeff

 

[Picticon]

Boy am I a moron. Her email is right there.

Got a replacement drive. Started reinstalling XP and it locked up. Then I started getting problems powering the computer on. Got to the point where it wouldn't post at all, just lots of beeps. I fiddled with some stuff, including resetting the CPU. Nothing. I moved a ram stick from #2 to #3 and it booted. Not sure what the hell is going on.

XP is installing (yet again). Of the 20+ computers I've built, this one has been the worst. I swear it's cursed.

 

[HoosierMedhead]

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