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For the most part, Chaintech did a good job laying
out the 9CJS. There were a few things they should have done differently,
however. Our first gripe is with the ATX power connector placement.
The ATX power connector is located below the floppy connector, on the edge of
the board. This could cause some awkward cabling, depending on the
location of the floppy drive in your case. We also didn't like the fact
that the case headers were not clearly labeled. Without the user's manual,
trial and error is the only way you'll figure out where your power and reset
switches and LEDs should be connected. Aesthetically speaking though, the
9CJS is real looker. The light blue and black color scheme is very
attractive, and the gold plated connectors and Northbridge cooler look great.
Chaintech made some good decisions regarding the integrated features on the 9CJS
as well. SATA RAID functionality is handled by the Intel ICH5R
Southbridge, and a VIA VT6309 controller provides IEEE-1394 "Firewire"
capabilities. The 9CJS is also the only board in this round-up with
Dual-LAN controllers. One of them offers Gigabit speeds, powered by the
Intel MCH, and the other, powered by a Realtek RT8101L, is 10/100 capable.
One feature that really sets the Chaintech 9CJS apart is the integrated Via
Envy24HT audio controller. Simply put, the Envy24HT is arguably the best
sounding audio controller on the market today. Many people feel the
Envy24's output is even better than add-in cards like the Audigy 2. The
only downside is that the Envy24 doesn't accelerate DirectSound in hardware.
DirectSound processing is handled by the host CPU, which could drag frame rates
down in some games. All in all, the Chaintech 9CJS is a very well rounded
product.
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Specifications & Features of
The Chaintech 9CJS |
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Chaintech. Coming On Strong In '03 |
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9CJS ZENITH CPU Chipset Main Memory Expansion Slots
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One 1.5V AGP slot for 8X/4X AGP
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Five 32-Bit PCI slots (v2.2
compliant)
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One CMR (Chaintech Multimedia
Riser) for Chaintech Multimedia Card (CMC 7.1)
Audio Subsystem
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On-board 7.1-Channel audio
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24-bit resolution audio format
support
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Sampling rates up to 96KHz
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Multi-channel AC-link supported
alternatively
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Supports SPDIF Out
Video Subsystem UltraDMA IDE
Ports
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Supports PIO Mode 4 up to 16.6
Mbps, Multi-Word DMA Mode 2 and Ultra DMA mode 5 up to 100MB/s with Bus
Mastering
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Bus-Mastering software drivers for
all common multitasking operating systems
Embedded USB
Controller
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Three EHCI USB 2.0 Controllers
support total 8 USB 2.0/1.1 Ports
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Support USB 2.0 High-Speed Device
@480 Mb/s Transfer Rates
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Optional USB adapters for
additional USB2.0/1.1 ports
On Board Super
I/O Controller
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ITE 8712 LPC I/O with system
monitors hardware
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Two UARTs support serial ports and
IR function (up to 115.2Kbps) for HPSIR and ASKIR
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One SPP/ECP/EPP parallel port
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One floppy disk drive connector
supports up to 2.88MB
Embedded system
monitoring
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8 external voltage inputs
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2 temperatures sensing for CPU and
system
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3 Fan speed (CPU, system and Case)
monitoring
Boot-Block Flash
ROM
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Award system BIOS support PnP, APM,
DMI, ACPI, & Multi-device booting features
Software Back panel I/O
connector
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One PS/2 mini-DIN mouse and
keyboard ports
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Four USB Ports and two RJ45
connectors
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Two 9-pin D-SUB male Serial ports
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One 25-pin D-SUB female Parallel
port
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Audio Line-in, Line-out and Mic-in
jacks
Dual LAN
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Intel PRO/1000CT Network
Connection (Gigabit LAN)
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On-board Intel® 82547EI Gigabit
Ethernet Controller supports 2X Gigabit performance through Communication
Streaming Architecture and enable ASF 2.0-based secure remote management
Fast Ethernet
Controller On-board SATA
RAID Controller On-board VIA
VT6306 IEEE1394 Host Controller
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Serial bus data rates of 100, 200
and 400Mbps
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IEEE P1394a compliant and IEEE 1394
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Programmable ATA/ATAPI interface
supporting PIO modes 0-4, DMA modes 0-2 and Ultra DMA modes 0-4
On board
connector for external device
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Three 3x1 pin fan connectors
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2x1 pin fan connector with housing
for Northbridge
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Two 5x2 pin USB connectors for
additional 2 USB2.0 ports, CIR and 6 in 1 Card Reader on CBOX3
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6x1 pin Infrared connector
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3x1 pin wake on LAN connector with
housing
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3x1 pin wake on Modem connector
with housing
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9x2 pin front panel connector
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5x2 pin Segment display connector
for 2-digits Debug LED on CBOX3
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8x1 pin IEEE1394 connector with
housing for IEEE1394 port on
Form Factor
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The BIOS:
The BIOS installed on the Chaintech Zenith 9CJS is a
Phoenix / Award derivative, similar to the one found on DFI's LANPARTY Pro875.
All of the standard menu are represented in the screenshots above. Like
the other two boards we're looking at today, the Chaintech 9CJS' BIOS was very
complete, giving user's the ability to enable or disable all of the on-board
components and offering a host of overclocking options...
From within the "Frequency / Voltage Control" menu,
you'll find all of the overclocking utilities. In the Chaintech 9CJS' BIOS,
user's can adjust the Front Side Bus (FSB) from 100MHz to 255MHz, in 1MHz
increments. VCore, DDR and AGP voltages can also be altered. The VCore can be
raised up to 1.675v, the AGP voltages range is from 1.5v to 1.8v, and available
DDR voltages is range from 2.5v to 2.8v. User's can also manually lock the AGP
and PCI BUS speeds. All things considered, Chaintech has done a good job
with the BIOS found on the 9CJS.
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Overclocking: Chaintech 9CJS |
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Turning Up the Juice |
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STOCK CPU SPEED |
CPU OVERCLOCKED TO
3.41GHZ (15 X 227MHZ) |
CPU OVERCLOCKED TO
3.41GHZ (15 X 227MHZ) |
The Chaintech 9CJS was a decent overclocker, but it wasn't quite able to keep up
with the other two boards we tested. Like MSI does with 875P Neo-FIS2R,
Chaintech provides a utility that gives users the ability to overclock their
systems from within Windows. With the APOGEE overclocking utility, users
can manipulate FSB and Memory speeds in addition to adjusting AGP, DDR and CPU
voltages. We stuck to overclocking the system via the system BIOS,
however. In the end, the top speed we were able to hit with our particular
CPU on the Chaintech 9CJS was 3.41GHz (15 x 227MHz FSB). Squeezing an
extra 410MHz out of a CPU with stock cooling and a minor voltage bump is nothing
to sneeze at, but with the same exact hardware and settings, both the MSI and
DFI boards were able to hit higher speeds. Please keep in mind that overclocking
is by no means an exact science. So, your mileage may vary.
It's Time For Some Numbers
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