Page 11: Chaintech
Chaintech
About
Chaintech makes more than just motherboards, and has done so for quite a while. They are not out to set any records, and target the value market. You'll find the boards around a bit, and tend to be the choice for uninformed buyers.
website
http://www.chaintech.com.tw/
http://www.chaintech-excel.com/
Performance:
Chaintech performance is usually poor, they are not even decent in this category. You will be lucky if it benchmarks even at the middle of the pack. Even if they copied the reference design, there would be large jumps in average performance, I'm guessing they are attempting to minimize their costs. There are the occasional board which scores high, but that is rather inconsistant.
Rating: 1/10
Stability
Chaintech, in all the motherboard brands reviewed here, has one of the worst stabilities. They have gone from awful, to decent as of late. They are currently one of just a few boards that actually needs to be tested for stability. When compared to some brands not even in this review, they aren't all that bad, but a far cry from server material.
Rating: 1/10
Overclocking
The company does not cater to the overclocking crowd. They have minimal settings, and aren't really stable enough to overclock in the first place. Overclocking results are on the low end, even when attempted. You will still find various jumpers, most of them not even included into the bios.
Rating: 3/10
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Price:
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These boards are cheap, as they are meant to be. They must be designed to be cheap, as its the only reason for their performance. In my opinion, it isn't worth it, but many find that it is. But for price alone, they are quite good.
Rating: 9/10
Features
Chaintech often adds a few options to sweeten the deal. They add sound, and video, but you won't find RAID or anything really useful. But for the crowd its targeted for, it is more than good enough.
Rating: 3/10
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History:
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Chaintech's history is constant, they make low quality boards that are cheap. All their boards are below the competition in almost every way. On the plus side, there isn't a huge number of incompatibilities, or RMAs, which is refreshing for value boards.
Rating: 4.5/10
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Support
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Chaintech has a large number of sites available to the end user, if you speak a non english language, chances are there is a site configured to you. My first attempt to get files failed, but I've gone back and since updated this section. Bios downloads are easy to get, but drivers are still complicated, requiring you to know the chipset (which many people don't) of the board. The site for the US also doesn't seem to be working properly, as bios and drivers are not listed there. Chaintech has a large team speaking many languages to provide email support, and they promised a 24 hour return period (highly european based, you will most likely have to wait till the next day).
Rating: 6/10
Products worth mentioning
None, they are forgettable.
Rating: 0/10
Overall Rating 3.4/10 I would avoid these boards, they are at best, going to setup OK, and run somewhat stable. If you are running win95/98 you might not notice it too much, but you will for anything else. If you can live with a possibly unstable board, they aren't a bad buy, there doesn't seem to be large many problems with them after purchase, like many higher end boards.
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