Chaintech Reloaded

New lines

What I do want to do is show you some of the things we can talk about.  A couple of the hot mainboards coming out of Chaintech are the Zenith 9CJS (i875 chipset) and the Zenith 7NJS Ultra (nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset).  To give you a taste, the 9CJS is going to be sporting a myriad of features such as 800MHz FSB, SATA 150 RAID, Intel's Gigabit Dual LAN and 7.1 Channel audio just to name a few.  A couple of the Apogee boards we can expect to see are the Apogee 9PJL (i865 chipset), the Apogee 9EJL2 (i845 chipset) and the Apogee 7NJL1 (nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset).  As we haven't had a chance to abuse the boards directly I can't comment on the performance one way or the other.  Some of the "extras" I cited above, we did get a chance to look at and play with. 

Cool stuff

The first is what Chaintech is calling their CBOX3 unit.  This is effectively a front mounted multifunction panel with BIG emphasis on multifunction.  Included is a LED display that can show 80 POST error codes to help you troubleshoot should the need arise, a Firewire port, two USB 2.0 ports, standard audio jacks, and hold on to your pants - a 6 in 1 media card reader (SM/MS/CF/MMC/SDC/MD).  The unit also comes with several colored face plates (black, silver, beige) so you can match it to your case.

The CBOX2 / DigiDoc unit looks to rock almost as hard as the CBOX3, maybe even harder.  It has the 80 POST error code LED display but also displays CPU and System monitoring.  Below is a pic that was in the Chaintech material we were given.  I did not see an actual unit at the event myself.  The pic looks like a mock up of what the real deal may look like upon release.

Another notable is the Handigator.  I'm hoping the name is a work in progress myself but the product rocks and most certainly is a polished ready to ship product.  The Handigator is a remote control that can operate you PC.  You can't do text from it of course but pretty much everything else including mousing tasks.  The quarter sized button at the top of the controller is for moving your mouse cursor.  After the awkwardness of something new wore off, I became a big fan.  I was having visions of a wireless keyboard on my lap along with the Handigator while lying on a sofa.  Put a small fridge in arms reach and I'll be set!

All Zenith mainboards will have the CBOX3 and Handigator units included as standard.  In addition to these, the Zenith boards will include three 60cm rounded cables, Multilanguage manual, an EZ manual (down and dirty jobber), and a 5 in 1 screwdriver.  The 7NJS Ultra will also come with Chaintech's Digidoc utility while the 9CJS board will come with the Apogee Overclocking Utility. The Apogee mainboard products will have a somewhat different package of extras.  These being the CBOX2, three 45cm rounded cables, Multilanguage manual, EZ manual, and the Apogee Overclocking Utility.

You are asking yourself about now, what is an Apogee Overclocking Utility.  Upon its release, it is supposed to have the capacity to change the CPU multiplier, the FSB, voltages, memory and PCI/AGP speeds on the fly.  I am really looking forward to seeing this one.  The Chaintech engineers have earned their pay this month!

 

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