Chaintech Mobo Quality?

[Poppa_Meth]

I've got a few other posts about a system I'm currently building and I've finally decided to Go with an AMD64 in the rig. Now I'm down to choosing a mobo and both price and features are a factor. Anyone have any comments on how good Chaintech mobos are? This is the one I'm looking at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152049

[Soopafresh]

I've installed a few. They're fine. Dunno if you care about FireWire, but that mobo doesn't have one. Also, you do know you'll need a new video card.

[redwudz]

I've used a couple. Running one now with a AMD Sempron 2200+ OC'ed to 400Mhz fsb for my office. No problems. It's been very stable. The one you are looking at seems to have good reviews.

I'm not a gamer, so in my AMD 64, I use a Sapphire Radeon X300 SE PCI-E video card. About $64US with VGA and DVI out. Does everything I need.

[Poppa_Meth]

Yeah I've reworked the whole layout. I'll be using a Gigabyte x600xt in it. Budget but still a pretty decent card for light to mid gaming. Here is the whole layout.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor - Retail $146
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537

CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $84
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152049

Antec Life Style SONATA Piano Black Computer Case - Retail $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129127

CORSAIR ValueSelect 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM System Memory - Retail $47
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145026

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148040

NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM $42
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152047

SAMSUNG Black Internal Floppy Drive Model SFD321B/LBL1 - OEM $12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103203

Saitek Black Wired Eclipse Keyboard - Retail $54
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823175103

GIGABYTE GV-RX60X128V Video Card - Retail $92
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125146

Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2 -OEM $93
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=37-102-151&DEPA=6

Monitor Envision EFT720 Black/Silver $120 at Staples.

Thermaltake A2018 120mm 1 Ball 1 Sleeve Blue LED Light Case Cooling Fan - Retail $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999122

Thermaltake IDE Round Cable - Retail $10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812183036

Razer Plasma Diamondback Black Mouse - Retail $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826153104

GIGABYTE GN-WPKG PCI Wireless Adapter - Retail $26
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16839121008

LINKSYS WRT54G Wireless Router - Retail $47
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124010


And I was a bit concerned on the firewire, especially since the case has a front port for it. But this is for my girlfriend and she'll never use firewire for anything. If she needed to I can always slap in a PCI card to connect it all. I won't be using but one slot for the wireless card as it is.

[RabidDog]

ChainTech motherboards can be pretty good (But I'm talking P2 days) ..
$60 for a mouse? spend more on the monitor instead..

[Poppa_Meth]

Believe me, I already have a keyboard and was going to get a $20 logitech mouse, but she wanted the bling bling treatment on it so she's paying the difference. Anyone have a recommendation for a better monitor? I've trying to keep it as low budget as possible and that one has excellent reviews everywhere I looked. Must be CRT as well. I'm still not a fan of LCD. Especially with dead pixel return policies the way they are.

[redwudz]

I've got a Envision 17" monitor at home. ~$80US on sale from Staples. Runs hot, but most of the newer ones seem to. Quality is OK, but this is maybe one time to look into Staples extended warranty.

BTW, IMO, locally is definately the way to buy monitors, especially 17" and above. Shipping them back for RMA is expensive and a pain in the ass. In my area, it's either Staples or Sears if you want a resonable deal.

The rest of the system looks good to me.

[Poppa_Meth]

Yeah I noticed staples runs sales on them sometimes. Unfortunately I haven't seen one lately. It'll probably go back on the day after I buy one. I was thinking about stepping up to the Samsun 17". I know the 19" has good reviews but haven't looked into the 17" yet.

[Poppa_Meth]

I just got an order of parts for this thing.
I got a Zalman heatsink and fan.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118119

This thing is friggin huge!! I had no idea it was quite that big. I hope it fits. The case is pretty roomy though and the Mobo looks like it should be laid out okay. But now I'm worried.

[Soopafresh]

I'll bet it'll fit. BTW, the stock AMD cooler is quite good, and quiet.

If anything, remove the whiny little fan off of the graphics card and replace it
with a passive heat sink, like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Go&DEPA=0&type=&description=north...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Also, here's a good deal on fans http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999073

[budz]

I'll bet it'll fit. BTW, the stock AMD cooler is quite good, and quiet.

If anything, remove the whiny little fan off of the graphics card and replace it
with a passive heat sink, like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Go&DEPA=0&type=&description=north...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Also, here's a good deal on fans http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999073

Yup get that 6 pack of COOLER MASTER FANS!!!!!! I bought a pack of those and I was to see my mobo and cpu temps drop.

[Poppa_Meth]

I don't have any 80mm mounts in the case. Everything is 120mm in this one. It comes with one and I'm mounting another by the harddrives. The CPU fan goes right in the middle of them almost so I should get good ventilation. I'll look into the replacing the GPU fan if it end up being noisy. I've installed several gigabyte cards though and have yet to get a fan on one I can even notice the sound of. My biggest concern with the Zalman is that it must weight 3 or 4 pounds. I just hate the thought of that hanging off the mobo by two little screws. Guess I'll get it mounted when I get the rest of the parts here and then decide though. It should definitely stay cool though. I may as well have stuck with the stock parts on this one, but too late now. I got the Zalman for $20 from some poor sot so I won't complain.

[Poppa_Meth]

I think I'm going to switch the video card anyway for this one.
ABIT RX600 XT-PCIE Video Card - Retail $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814123140

Looks like a nicer fan and it has RAM heatsinks for a few dollars more.

[redwudz]

I know what you mean about those heavy coolers. They must distort the MB a little. I try to use every available MB mounting hole to help.

On one heavy cooler I was thinking about using a 'bungie cord' up to the top of the case. But it's still running strong after a year. If the case ever fell over, would probably do some damage.

My AMD 939 runs about 32C at idle with the stock cooler, which is surprisingly quiet. I don't think you will have any heat problems with it. The HD's and the video card put out more heat.