Chaintech Summit 7NIF2 Mainboard

Manufacturer: Chaintech
Supplied by:  Chaintech
Street Price: $99.00

By Brian Tiller  (3/28/2003)

Introduction

While it's great to have the opportunity to review the latest and greatest hardware and gear out there Dean, Eric and I also like to try and find the best bang for the buck models as well. Not everyone can afford the top end hardware but everyone still wants good performance. To that end, Chaintech supplied us with their budget nForce2 motherboard, the Summit Series 7NIF2. The nForce2 chipset comes in two different designs, the SPP and the IGP. The basic difference between these two is the integrated graphics controller. The SPP is designed to be a pure performance chipset while the IGP with it's integrated graphics can be billed more of an all-in-one combo board. The Chaintech 7NIF2 board that we have here today is based on the IGP chipset with the integrated graphics. Now before you say "awwww crap" and go away, nVidia designed the integrated graphics processor to the GeForce4 MX400 video performance. It also includes an AGP 8x slot should you decide to add in a separate graphics card, so the performance of the board shouldn't be lacking.

What you get

Although the box is plain looking, the bright yellow lettering on the black background is very eye-catching. The first thing I noticed about it was it's small size and you'll see why in a moment. Inside the motherboard and carious supplies were packaged very securely for shipping which, when you consider the rough handling this stuff always gets from the shipping companies, always deserves a kudos to the company. Now you can see why the box was so small, this is a micro ATX motherboard.

   

Aside from the motherboard itself, Chaintech includes a manual, driver CD, one IDE (ATA 100) ribbon cable, one floppy cable, and rear I/O plate for the motherboard. Also included is a handy sticker titled "Quick Reference Jumper Setting". The manual the Chaintech sent is a little sparse on the info. It gives the user a basic setup guide but with very little actual information on the motherboard itself. This is something that they really need to beef up.

Specifications (White paper stuff)

• CPU: AMD Socket A

• Chipset: nVidia nForce2 IGP + MCP

• Max. Main Memory: Max. 3GB DDR SDRAM for 184pin DIMM*3

• Supports PC1600/2100/2700/3200 Dual-Channel DDR modules (Note: Supports up to Dual-Channel PC2700 when using on board VGA) 

• On Board Sound: 4-Channel AC '97 Codec

• On Board LAN 10/100

• Expansion Slots: one 4x/8x AGP, three PCI

• I/O Panel
  2 PS/2 mouse/keyboard ports
  1 On board LAN port
  1 (25 pin) Parallel port
  1 (15 pin) Game port
  2 USB Ports w/support for total 6 USB 1.1/2.0
  1 S-Video for TV out
  3 Audio (line in, line out, mic in) ports
  1 VGA Connector

• Video Sub System
  Integrated NVIDIA NV17-class (GeForce4 MX) GPU 
  Embedded TV encoder supporting NTSC/PAL TV 
  256-bit 3D/2D graphics accelerator 
  Full frame rate video playback of HDTV and DVD content

• On Board Connectors
  2 ATA 66/100/133 IDE connectors
  1 Floppy drive connector
  Wake-on-LAN
  2 Serial Port Connectors
  Smart Card Reader Connection
  2 CD-In w 1 Aux. In Connectors
  S/PDIF Connector

• Size: 244mm x 244mm

• Form Factor: Micro ATX

 

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