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Box Contents

· The motherboard itself;
· CD with software and drivers, CD with bonus software;
· CDs with European and Asian versions of Linux;
· 2 round ATA-100 cables and one round FDD cable;
· Bracket with audio connectors;
· 3.5'' CBOX panel;
· Body Theater headphones;
· User manual in English + brief manual in five languages.

It has taken much time to unpack the entire contents of the package. Firstly, the set of software includes 4 CDs: the first one contains a set of necessary drivers and utilities, the second one (Value Pack 2002): a set of extra software (Norton Internet Security 2002 and Antivirus 2002, Adobe ActiveShare, Acrobat Reader and eBook Reader) and a couple of CDx with Linux operating system (European and Asian versions). Nevertheless, the lattermost disks are bound with an elastic, despite they were seen on Computex2002 in a box. I must tell the following concerning Linux: firstly, this is a free operating system; secondly, there were attempts (unsuccessful) to complete boards with this OS (Abit used to do this). However, the presence of disks is better than their absence anyway :).

Further, Body Theater headphones with pseudo-3d sound. Why "pseudo-3d"? Because all my attempts to determine sources of sound in games like Quake3 were unsuccessful.

The next object taken from the box was CBOX panel.

See how poor this panel is in comparison with CBOX2 (which goes with Zenith). There are only four USB ports, audio out and microphone in. Unfortunately, there is no an extra bracket with USB ports, the manufacturer constrains us either to buy it separately or to use CBOX. As soon as it is made as 3" panel, owners of cases with only one 3" slot will have some problems with connection of a floppy drive. Such cases are rather popular, e.g. Inwin Q500 etc. Besides, USB and audio cables are quite short, that's why connected panel might not reach 3" slot.

Then I have browsed the user manual and have taken a look at the brief installation manual. Generally, they are quite good. Actually, only ten pages is devoted to jumpers and connectors (however nothing is forgotten). The rest is occupied by BIOS setup description and driver installation manual. One third of the book is Linux installation manual.

I didn't like the absence of memory settings description, which could give a significant growth of performance (as we would see in "Memory optimization" section). Also, some other parameters are described too briefly.

The brief manual is big furled sheet of paper, on which information about the board, jumpers and BIOS is written in five languages. Actually, it looks like a commercial poster.

And now I will describe the very zest of the board, these are round IDE and FDD cables. Those who often grub in their computer case, always fight tangles of different cables and wires.

So, round cables are needed to decrease chaos inside a computer case. Also, overclockers will enjoy better air circulation, owners of cases with transparent windows (or open cases) will be able to boast their colored cables, which match colors of the motherboard (yellow for AMD and green for Intel boards).

Actually, it seems like traditional appearance of IDE cables is passing by. The prevalence of boards with Serial-ATA support is near at hand. They, besides thinner and longer cables, have a heap of other advantages (e.g., hot-swap possibility). I consider that Serial-ATA will enter our life faster than it seems. For example, Abit IT7-Max 2 motherboard has special bridges to connect ordinary IDE devices.
In spite of it, Chaintech salesmen have made a coup by including round IDE cables into the box. Because it can be noted that Linux is a free operating system, headphones are sucks and useless for the motherboard. Utility of CBOX panel is also questioned. It is possible to find an ordinary bracket with extra USB ports. The round cables are another pair of shoes. It is hard to buy them in an ordinary shop here in Russia even in big cities. It can be said that round cables don't appear on sale (handymen who slice and twist ordinary IDE cables do not count). However brand Chaintech cables can become the last straw to persuade a potential customer to buy Apogee boards.

And, finally, I will tell about a drawback: an accent was made on special overclocking possibilities during promotion. Particularly, "Chaintech Overclocking Utility" was described. However, it was not recorded on the CD, there is only a sheet of paper with an invitation to visit Chaintech's site and to download this program.

I had to download a rather big installation program (2.2Mb).
So box contents can be marked "A". Round cables countervail such insignificant drawbacks as absence of overclocking utility.

As a finishing stroke, there are Chaintech holograms on the box and north bridge heatsink.

• Page1 - Specifications
• Page2 - Box Contents
• Page3 - Layout
• Page4 - Overclocking and Stability
• Page5 - Performance and Conclusions