nForce2 6-way Motherboard Roundup - December 2002

Chaintech 7NJS: Basic Features

Chaintech includes a huge set of features onboard the 7NJS, in addition to one of the richest bundle of accessories we've ever seen.

The onboard LAN controller is utilized by Realtek's RTL8201BL PHY, which is also found on ABIT and ASUS's nForce2 motherboards. In this case, the RTL8201BL is acting as the physical layer to the nForce MAC found in the MCP-T South Bridge. Though there's also a 3Com MAC integrated into the MCP-T, Chaintech decided not to take advantage of it. There is an option in the BIOS for NVIDIA and 3Com LAN actually, but there's only a single LAN port onboard and only a single PHY.

Chaintech set themselves apart from the competition by using a CMedia audio controller instead of the ALC650 AC'97 codec. The CMedia 8738 actually takes the place of the nForce APU which makes very little sense on a nForce2 motherboard since the nForce APU is clearly a much more powerful DSP.

The 7NJS I/O configuration is fairly standard for a high-end desktop motherboard, though we would have like to have seen rear SPDIF out. Included are two PS/2 ports, two serial ports, one parallel port, one game port, one LAN port, two rear USB 2.0 ports, and three 1/8' jacks, which are driven by the onboard sound. No rear FireWire unfortunately, but this board did come with a FireWire riser card.

Another intriguing feature this motherboard comes with is Serial ATA support. Serial ATA is powered by Promise's PDC20376 controller (two onboard SATA connectors are available).

The PDC20376 supports two independent Serial ATA devices as well as IDE RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring). This is definitely a nice combination of features to have, especially since this is the only nForce2 motherboard that has support for more than four IDE drives through the additional (third) IDE connector located next to the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors. Therefore, users looking to add as many IDE devices to their nForce2 system as possible should look no further than the Chaintech 7NJS.

The MCP-T South Bridge supports USB 2.0, six USB 2.0 ports altogether. There are two rear USB 2.0 ports that you can use if you like, or you can utilize the onboard USB 2.0 headers located towards the bottom of the board near the Primary, Secondary and IDE RAID connectors.

The accessories bundled with this board are quite rich. Chaintech includes:

All in all, Chaintech really goes all out not just with the onboard features of the 7NJS, but the accessories as well.