Related Articles

Specifications

• ATX (305mm x 220mm)

CPU

• Supports AMD Socket-939 Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 processor
• Processor interface via 2000MT/s HyperTransport bus

Chipset

• NVIDIA nForce4 (VNF4) / nForce4 Ultra (VNF4 Ultra)

Main Memory

• Four 184-pin DDR DIMMs up to 4GB
• Supports Dual Channel DDR266/333/400 memory

Expansion Slots

• PCI Express x16 port for PCI Express graphics card
• Two PCI Express x1 ports
• Three 32bit PCI slots (v2.3 compliant)

Audio Subsystem

• Supports enhanced NVIDIA 7.1-channel audio
• Complies with AC'97 Rev 2.3 specifications
• Six audio jacks with automatic jack sensing
• Supports 48KHz coaxial S/PDIF output
• EAX/Direct Sound 3D/I3DL2/A3D compatible

SATA

• Supports four native SATA2 3.0Gb/s devices
• Hot-swap capability, allowing disks to be changed without powering down the system.
• Optimized for the high-performance NVIDIA RAID technology
• Supports SATA ATAPI devices

UltraDMA IDE Ports

• Supports 2 UltraDMA-66/100/133 IDE ports

FDD

• One FDD connector supports up to 2.88MB

FDD

• Supports total 10 USB2.0 ports with High-Speed Device @480 Mb/s Transfer Rates

Embedded system monitoring

• Temperature sensing for CPU and system
• Fan speed monitoring and control for CPU and system

NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet

• Supports 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet with external PHY

NVIDIA ActiveArmor

• A dedicated secure networking engine enhances networking security while reducing CPU
• Specialized features defend against spyware intrusions and hacker attacks
• An intelligent application manager alerts you when unknown applications attempt to access the network
• Supports the new Microsoft networking architecture for fast and secure networking

Boot-Block Flash ROM

• Award system BIOS supports PnP, APM, DMI, ACPI, & Multi-device booting features

Software

• Driver CD
• Value Pack

Rear panel I/O ports

• PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard port
• 25-pin D-Sub female Parallel port
• Two 9-pin D-Sub male Serial ports
• Four USB ports and one RJ45 connector
• 6-port Audio Jack for 7.1-Channel and S/PDIF output

Internal I/O connectors

• Four 3x1 pin fan connectors
• Three 5x2 pin USB connectors for additional 6 USB ports
• 3x1 pin wake on LAN connector with housing
• 3x1 pin wake on Modem connector with housing
• Two 4x1 pin CD-in connectors with 2.54mm pitch housing
• 5x2 pin Front Audio connector
• 9x2 pin Front Panel connector
• 24 pin ATX Power connector
• 4 pin ATX 12V Power connector

There are a couple things of note. Notice that the power supply is specified to be 24-pin ATX connector and NOT a regular 20 pin. Some boards are engineered to accept either or but since the Chaintech specifically mentions 24-pin that is what we ended up doing our testing with so prospective buyers who are not committed to buying a power supply along with a new board may want to note this.

The specifications are a little off also - there is no SPDIF output on the rear panel nor is there an included PCI bracket. A quick jaunt through the manual does not show where the SPDIF headers on the motherboard may be. I think it is safe to write this feature off as a misprint on Chaintech's part. The nForce 4's MCP provides AC'97 functionality that is output through the ubiquitous Realtek ALC850 codec.

*edit A reader has pointed out that the blue audio jack, traditionally the line-in can also serve as a SPDIF out with an appropriate connector. Apologies for the confusion

The rest of the feature set is standard nForce 4 Ultra. There is no secondary ethernet controller, nor is there an additional RAID controller. This is not a knock on the VNF4; it is aimed at those want the rich feature set of the nForce 4 without the extra frills and gimmicks. For a more indepth look at nForce 4 chipset, we encourage readers to take a look at our nForce 4 preview where we take a closer look at topics such as ActiveArmor and the updated disk controller.