First production nforce3 250 motherboard review!

[stardust]

Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-250 Review

Only thing I don't like about the review is that Xbit Labs didn't tell us just how far you could overclock an A64 processor.. it only commented on how the board may be more attractive for overclockers..

 

[McArra]

It's not as great as I had expected . I won't upgrade.

 

[Megatomic]

McArra, wait for NF3-250Gb Ultra and Socket 939 A64 chips. You'll get DCDDR that way. Also, try to see the benefits of the added features NF3-250 offers rather than overall performance increases. With the memory controller located on the CPUs now it's hard for a motherboard to affect overall system performance like it used it.

 

[stardust]

Originally posted by: McArra
It's not as great as I had expected . I won't upgrade.

..or you it could be that you have a chaintech Zenith znfs-150 already

Anyway, I think the ZNFS-250 is a better buy as long as it stays within the price range of what ZNFS-150 was when it first came out.

 

[Alkaline5]

They do mention OCing, stardust, but the board doesn't allow multiplier adjustment.

Increasing the FSB clock rate smoothly, we reached the ceiling at 232MHz. On further growth of the FSB clock rate, the system lost stability. Regrettably, without the option of lowering the CPU multiplier, we hit the roof for this particular processor too soon. We also reached this result with other, older chipsets. Thus, the practical overclocking tests of the Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-250 bring no surprises, even through NVIDIA nForce3 250 chipset is theoretically very suitable for overclocking.

I like the onboard RAID 0+1 Serial/Parallel feature.

 

[wicktron]

Looks like Chaintech just ripped out the NF3150 and popped in the NF3250 with no regard for anything else.

 

[Megatomic]

I'll say it again (almost), wait for the NF3-250Gb Ultra Socket 939 boards, they will be the ones that rock.

 

[jdogg707]

I'll be looking forward to seeing what people like Asus, DFI, Epox, etc. can do with this chipset and how they implement it. Will Abit make boards using this chipset? I know they dropped the nForce2 Ultra chipset. Or are they just taking the K8T800 Pro chipset?

 

[stardust]

Originally posted by: Alkaline5
They do mention OCing, stardust, but the board doesn't allow multiplier adjustment.

Increasing the FSB clock rate smoothly, we reached the ceiling at 232MHz. On further growth of the FSB clock rate, the system lost stability. Regrettably, without the option of lowering the CPU multiplier, we hit the roof for this particular processor too soon. We also reached this result with other, older chipsets. Thus, the practical overclocking tests of the Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-250 bring no surprises, even through NVIDIA nForce3 250 chipset is theoretically very suitable for overclocking.

I like the onboard RAID 0+1 Serial/Parallel feature.

oops guess i didn't catch that! I really hope 232mhz isn't the ceiling for the A64.. I will be using watercooling, so we shall see how high I can push it. I don't think i'll be purchasing from chaintech, but the MSI and EPoX motherboards look interesting.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: stardust

Originally posted by: Alkaline5
They do mention OCing, stardust, but the board doesn't allow multiplier adjustment.

Increasing the FSB clock rate smoothly, we reached the ceiling at 232MHz. On further growth of the FSB clock rate, the system lost stability. Regrettably, without the option of lowering the CPU multiplier, we hit the roof for this particular processor too soon. We also reached this result with other, older chipsets. Thus, the practical overclocking tests of the Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-250 bring no surprises, even through NVIDIA nForce3 250 chipset is theoretically very suitable for overclocking.

I like the onboard RAID 0+1 Serial/Parallel feature.

oops guess i didn't catch that! I really hope 232mhz isn't the ceiling for the A64.. I will be using watercooling, so we shall see how high I can push it. I don't think i'll be purchasing from chaintech, but the MSI and EPoX motherboards look interesting.

well that board can't lower the multiplier. So it should eb able to go higher. I knwo a lot of VIA boards can lower that so I am also waiting on ther next socket 754 chipset, as long as I can find a board with the envy sound on it.

 

[jdogg707]

Seems Zip Zoom Fly has them listed on their website for sale, unfortunately they are on back order right now. I have heard they should be in stock next week.

 

[formulav8]

I didn't read it. Lazy right now I guess.

Does it, without a doubt, have a PCI/AGP lock?

Edit: I know it reached a fairly high bus speed. I just won't to know for sure.


Jason

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: formulav8
I didn't read it. Lazy right now I guess.

Does it, without a doubt, have a PCI/AGP lock?

Edit: I know it reached a fairly high bus speed. I just won't to know for sure.


Jason

Yes, they do have a working AGP/PCI Lock

 

[Wag]

When are the PCI Express boards coming?

 

[Josephus]

The Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-250 is based around the same PCB as its predecessor, Zenith ZNF3-150, and this fact explains why not all of the chipset capabilities have been implemented in the mainboard. Yes, the two chipsets (nForce3 150 and 250) are pin-compatible, but the latter chipset has much broader functionality. As a result, the only difference between the two Zenith mainboards from Chaintech is the faster HyperTransport bus in the ZNF3-250.

They just plugged the nForce3 250 into the 150 socket... the SATA +IDE Raid functionality is not implemented, the RAID is the same as on the 150 board, from the Silicon Image Onboard controller... Two WD Raptors will easily saturate the PCI bus... I'm waiting for the Epox board

EP-8KDA3+


Plextor has just announced a 12x SATA DVD burner... Oh to be rid of those IDE devices

 

[jdogg707]

The Epox board looks sweet, I am also looking forward to getting rid of all IDE cables in my PC and turning them in for SATA cables.

 

[stardust]

Originally posted by: jdogg707
The Epox board looks sweet, I am also looking forward to getting rid of all IDE cables in my PC and turning them in for SATA cables.

T-break has a MSI nforce3-250 review, seems overclocking still isn't as impressive as we all first thought..

 

[Odeen]

"Zenith ZNF3-250 comes in a large box, stuffed with various thingies."

This marks the first time I've seen the word "thingies" used in a professional review.