Customer Appreciation Contest: Win a Brand New Zenith VE VNF3-250 motherboard!

[Chaintech Rep]

It's customer appreciation time here at Chaintech, and we're running a contest/drawing for a free, brand new, nForce3 motherboard! Please tell us and post here which Chaintech motherboard was your favorite and why. We will be selecting the best entry on this thread, and we will be giving the lucky winner one (1) VNF3-250 motherboard based on the nForce3-250 chipset. In addition we'll have 5 Chaintech t-shirts available for the next 5 honorable mentions. Please submit your entry, one per person please, on this PC Perspective forum thread. Feel free to let your friends know and they might win too!

Check back here with us periodically and we will be running more contests in the future, giving away more motherboards, graphic cards, and other goodies! We want to let you know we appreciate your support.

Tell us which is your favorite Chaintech motherboards, and why. You don't even have to own one, just whatever you've heard or read about Chaintech motherboards, that caught your attention. Remember, 1 entry per person. We will be picking the best one, according to our sole preference. We will also be giving away 5 Chaintech t-shirts for the runner ups. Contest ends 6/1/04. Post now!


----------------- Winners -------------------

1st prize VNF3-250 goes to Trollby_IRON for his love of the 7NIL1. It's good to see some value mATX boards get some love. I think we're one of the few that even makes a mATX nForce2 without graphics on board.

T-shirt Winners:
jp5612
lurkmcgurk
forgiven
Scifience
spork27

All winners please PM me so I can get your address and ship you the goodies!

Thank you everyone for participating and watch for our next contest! We appreciate your support and will continue to develop innovative products that you love!

[harleyx]

It's customer appreciation time here at Chaintech, and we're running a contest/drawing for a free, brand new, nForce3 motherboard! Please tell us and post here which Chaintech motherboard was your favorite and why. We will be selecting the best entry on this thread, and we will be giving the lucky winner one (1) VNF3-250 motherboard based on the nForce3-250 chipset. In addition we'll have 5 Chaintech t-shirts available for the next 5 honorable mentions. Please submit your entry, one per person please, on this PC Perspective forum thread. Feel free to let your friends know and they might win too!

Check back here with us periodically and we will be running more contests in the future, giving away more motherboards, graphic cards, and other goodies! We want to let you know we appreciate your support.

Tell us which is your favorite Chaintech motherboards, and why. You don't even have to own one, just whatever you've heard or read about Chaintech motherboards, that caught your attention. Remember, 1 entry per person. We will be picking the best one, according to our sole preference. We will also be giving away 5 Chaintech t-shirts for the runner ups. Contest ends 6/1/04. Post now!

I think you should send one to Uncle Bob before anyone posts.
Not only is he a multi-owner, but he contributes MEGA here and helps others that normally might not be able to purchase one.
He bought and shipped me one, after many attempts from the US to Canada..and NO response from my 4 e-mails to Chaintech.

[cuspid]

I guess the 4th Chaintech NF3 150 was my favorite. It lasted 3 weeks before I had to RMA it. The first 3 were dead right out of the box. Chaintech should get down on their knees and thank everyone for even trying their defective, non-supported products. But like I said the 4th one was my favorite. It didn't die until I had sold it on EBay to some unlucky person.

[jedihobbit]

I think you should send one to Uncle Bob before anyone posts.
Not only is he a multi-owner, but he contributes MEGA here and helps others that normally might not be able to purchase one.
He bought ..........

AGREED!!

He works hard to make sure everyone is a Chaintech Mobo fan!

[UncleBob]

I think you should send one to Uncle Bob before anyone posts.
Not only is he a multi-owner, but he contributes MEGA here and helps others that normally might not be able to purchase one.
He bought and shipped me one, after many attempts from the US to Canada..and NO response from my 4 e-mails to Chaintech.

Guys, guys, guys!
Chaintech wants to know your experience.
I'll give you mine, but I'm a Moderator here and won't enter. They send me products to test periodically and I want someone here to win one!

I started with Chaintech with the 7NJS because for the money it was the most feature rich board with the NForce 2 chipset. I liked the CBOX and it overclocks like a big dog!
There....get the picture? Feel free to paraphrase, but don't quote. I'm not an entrant!

[jp5612]

I've owned two Chaintech boards, the ZNF3-150 and the VNF3-250. Of all the boards I've owned in the past several years, the VNF3-250 has been the biggest surprise. To be honest, I didn't expect much because of its value position in the market. Instead, I got a board that was not only inexpensive, but is as fast and stable as any I've ever had. This board is currently running rock solid at 288 fsb. Coupled with a Radeon 9800 Pro, 2 36gb Raptors in RAID 0, an Audigy2 and some excellent OCZ pc3700eb memory, it posts 3DMark 2001 scores in excess of 22000 and 03 marks greater than 6700. My much-ballyhooed Abit IC7-Max 3 and a P4C overclocked to 3.4 ghz couldn't come close.

The only limitation I have is my processor, which tops out at about 2.3 ghz.

This is probably the least expensive board I've ever owned.

And it very well may be the best.

[AMDDude64]

The ZNF-3 250 is my very first Chaintech board... And I have been pleased with it so far.

I've been an avid gamer/PC enthusiast for the last couple of years and finally had the funs to really upgrade from my former rig (Athlon XP 2700+ with KT333 VIA Ultra2 mobo) to what I hope is going to be a future proof system for at least a few years.

What really attracted me to the ZNF-3 250 was the fact it was (at the time) the only socket 754 board with a working pci/agp lock that wouldn't limit over clocking like other boards had.

The fact it was NForce also attracted me because I've heard nothing but glowing reviews about NForce boards and wanted to see what all the hype was about.

However, when the board actually arrived and I saw all the other features the board had (on board Giabyte LAN; 7.1 Dolby Digital decoding; CBox Temperature read out; etc.) -- Which I really wasn't that concerned with -- I was completely blown away with how much "bang for your buck" you get with the product let alone the high performance features that originally attracted me to the board to begin with.

In addition, the rock solid performance of this board is fantastic.

I have been experimenting with various O/Cing with increasing the CPU FSB; RAM timings; HT settings, etc... And the board itself hasn't exhibited any problems in the process whatsoever

Whenever the system itself (not the board) does get a problem, all I have to do is reboot, hit "Delete" during the POST and I'm "back in business" -- Which is what cver clockers like myself want instead of always constantly having to clear the CMOS via a jumper which can be physically annoying each and every time you are trying a new setting.

The only negatives I can see with the ZNF-3 250 is that the BIOS doesn't report the CPU temp properly and there seems to be major problems with getting USB mice and keyboards to work as well.

I've heard Chaintech is going to release a BIOS next month that hopefully will correct these issues as well as unlock CPU multipilers as well. I call that good customer service if this is indeed true.

Besides those two things -- which really are minor in the grand scheme of things compared to other problems one could have with a mother board -- I've had no problems with this board and would easily recommend it to anyone who is into high performance PC construction and/or is a high performance PC enthusiast as it provides ease of use, stability and an unprecedented level of high performance that today's users not only demand, but will come back to Chaintech again and again for in the future... Hopefully, with a few friends and their pocket books in tow

[UncleBob]

We have a couple of mentions on the front page!

[jedihobbit]

With Uncle Bob making me feel comfortable with the decision I purchased a 7NIL1 & 7NIF2 for folders, but unfortunatly life has prevented me from completeing them yet. However again on UB's commetary and the apparent interest Chaintech has shown > very much thinking of going the VNF3-250 route for A64.

Again I would not have gone this direction without UB & others from this site.

As this is a non entry, look forward to reading various users have faired with their stuff!!

[Chaintech Rep]

I'm sure we'll start a UncleBob appreciation contest sometime in the future.

We are very thankful for his dedicated help to everyone in the forums.

[lurkmcgurk]

My vote goes to the ZNF-3 250.

I'd been waiting and waiting to go AMD64. After reading the early reviews on the ZNF3-250, I reached for the plastic.

I've been very impressed. I picked up a week 15 Newcastle 3000 at Fry's in Dallas, and replaced the Mobile Barton 2400 and older N-force board. No re-install was even required, just a driver update. Cool.

Today it's running at 250 x 10(3x HT, 166 Memory=413 DDR)

I've picked up 3000 3Dmark 01 points and am out-pacing an fx-53 in Sandra.

So, a $325-ish investment is performing like a $800-900 one. That's value.

There is another rig here, that just doesn't look as good as it did two weeks ago, due to the dang fine product that Chaintech has developed.

[forgiven]

Oh how I love my VNF-250...let me count the ways.

1. By your wonderful bios options on a value board...OH HOW I LOVE THAT.

2. By your stability that if you allow me to get into windows I am usually pretty darn stable even at very overclocked speeds 2.45 gig on a 3000+

3. By your placement of motherboard connectors (near the edges of the board) so I can keep my window in my case looking nice and neat while promoting good airflow through my case.

4. By adhering to reference design and allowing me to have a PCI as well as an AGP lock. I have lots of PCI cards for TV and Firewire and they don't limit my overclock anymore.

5. By giving me a passive heatsink so it is quiet yet performs well.

6. By allowing sufficient room around the Heatsink area for my Humongous heatsink.

7. By including a HSF retention clip so I didn't have to get on of those.

8. By including a clean concise manual that doesn't waste my time yet gives me the information I need to set up my board.

9. By cutting the initial people a deal to be early adopters in the form of a 20 dollar instant rebate...GREAT MOVE.

10. By providing obviously good component to facilitate GREAT overclocks with good memory performance at a reasonable price.

11. By including SATA raid on a value motherboard...PROPS

12. By updating the bios quickly to correct the CPU tems AND hitting the motherlode with the CPU multiplier manipulation.

13. By having the audio riser to complete the 5.1 sound as it should be but yet at a value pricepoint.

14. By giving me tons of USB hubs since I kept running out of them on my XP rigs.

15. By putting together what I would like to think is going to be the benchmark for Value and Performance. If it were a CPU...it would be a Celeron 300A, P4 2.4 Northwood, XP 1700 (DLT3C), or as in my last Mobo XP mobile 2400 @ 2.5 gig.

I would like to conclude with two things. Very rarely to I stand behind a product so strongly but I have with this because it is such a great value. See the motherboard section on forums.anandtech.com and search under Blindbartimaeus (that's me ). I have even gone so far as to offer to trade people out of one of these or flat out buy it since some were pissing and moaning about little stuff...see attached link.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...&enterthread=y

Lastly I would like to say if I win nothing...that is cool. It really isn't going to change how I feel about the product you have put out. I did not get in this link trying to "stroke" anyone to get something. This is how I really feel. I have not been a Chaintech customer in the past, but this board caused me to look into other products like the 7.1 Envy soundcard which is another AWESOME value product for the masses just like this. I have looked at the 5900XT video card...You guys should really get onboard with ATI BTW...although your version of the 5900 is not only competitive but again...A GREAT BARGAIN. I would just like to thank you for being timely and putting out a solid product as a great price with a kiss on the cheek to early adopters.

Good Job Chaintech

[Chaintech Rep]

Anyone else?

[Wurm65]

Anyone else?

ZNF3-250Gb here...

This is my first Chaintech motherboard and having only owned it a week I really can't say much about it, other than the BIOS, I am happy with it.

However I could write a few nice words about my Chaintech Graphic Cards, All of the ones I owned rocked!

[Scifience]

I just got my new Chaintech ZNF-250Gb motherboard from Newegg Wednesday, and it was my first time building a computer. I did a lot of research before purchasing, and decided on the Chaintech board because it seemed to have good reviews and a lot of nice features.

What really impressed me was the number of extras that were included with the motherboard. The CBOX3 is very useful, even though my digital camera uses an xD card which isn't supported by the built in card reader. The entire thing was very easy to set up and I really liked the included color diagram showing what all the connectors were for.

The rounded IDE cables with the orange coating really look nice in my yellow Chieftec case with blue lights. The included set of screwdrivers was also a nice touch.

The board seems very reliable, and I haven't tried overclocking yet, but from looking at the options in the BIOS it seems fairly easy to do.

My AMD processor installation guide talked about installing brackets, etc. onto the motherboard but I found that they were already installed, so all I had to do was pop the processor in the slot, clamp down the heatsink, and I was ready to go.

My favorite part was how it seemed like everything you could possibly need was included in the box and was all designed to match the motherboard's design. I'm really enjoying it and it seems to be an excellent product. I would definately buy another Chaintech motherboard.