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The Chaintech Zenith 9CJS has the appearance of luxury thanks to its use of 24carat gold-plated fixtures, a huge assortment of features and a comprehensive retail bundle. It is equipped with just about everything you'd expect. Surprisingly, it comes with two Lan ports (one 10/100 and one Gigabit), which lets you connect two other PCs directly without using a network switch.
Unusually, the 9CJS features a Communications and Network Riser (CNR) slot. Unlike those found on many older boards, this is not redundant thanks to the inclusion of a dedicated seven-channel sound card. This has digital outputs and a pair of Firewire ports.
Like DFI's Lanparty, Zenith's bundle is comprehensive. It features all standard connectors, but one of the most unusual surprises was a four-in-one screwdriver set.
The enormous box housing the Zenith includes the CBox3 front panel. This fits into a 5.25in drive bay and provides USB, Firewire, audio in/out connectors, and a five-in-one memory card reader.
The front fascia of the CBox3 is silver, but Chaintech has also included black and beige front covers to match different cases. A dual-digit LED provides quick reference to motherboard error codes. It also has an infra-red port for the bundled Handigator, a full-featured remote control that enables you to switch on and control your PC.
As our graphs indicate, the Zenith's performance was slightly better than the rest of the group's. This was because its quad-pumped FSB automatically defaulted to 203MHz instead of the standard 200MHz. Despite this slight advantage, the motherboard's remaining performance is of the highest standard. If you can look past the high price, this is a great board in a package that is unrivalled in this group and worthy of the Editor's Choice.
Contact: Chaintech +31 182 623 960
www.chaintech.com.tw
Back to Intel motherboards group test
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This motherboard's colour coded fixtures makes installation straightforward. 14 May 2004
All Motherboards
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