|
Audio Testing
We downloaded and installed to test its CPU utilization. Here's a screen grab (click to enlarge)...
CPU utilization peaked at about 6%, which is a bit higher than the Realtek solutions we've worked with in the past. With 2GHz+ horsepower, I don't think a few CPU cycles are going to hurt. Sound quality from our Logitech Z-560s was excellent, for both music and game playback. Even the MP3-playing-while-transfering-300MB-of-files test passed with flying colours. With our Audigy, I would sometimes get occasional crackling when attempting that chore, but it worked fine with the CMedia.
LAN Testing
We used to test the networking speed, and Windows Task Manager for CPU usage. We copied a variety of install files, varying in size of 300kb to as much as 70MB per file from the Epox machine, to our Shuttle XPC.
 
Download (left), Upload (right)
Download speeds averaged about 10MB/sec, and upload speeds about 9.3MB/sec. CPU usage wasn't bad, topping off at 11% when it was in the middle of a series of 1kB files.
Hard Drive Tests
Firing up HD Tach resulted in 3.6% CPU Utilization, and 12.2ms access times. These are very good results, and it matches closely with our MSI results. Considering both are i845PE motherboards, I would certainly hope so.
Final Words
Through our testing, Chaintech has earned the right to dub its latest Pentium 4 motherboard the "ZENITH". It is easily the best performing i845PE motherboard we've tested thus far, and overclocks very well. Through our benchmarking assault, including in its overclocked state, the 9EJS1 ZENITH was rock solid in stability.
It's as if Chaintech took a poll and asked what should be in an enthusiast motherboard, and slapped it into the package. Great performance? Check. Lots of integrated features? Check. Stability? Check. Overclocking potential? Check. Extra inputs? Check.
The BIOS is a tweakers dream come true, with options to adjust everything from bus speeds, memory speeds, AGP dividers, and peripheral voltages. Chaintech was also very generous with its voltage options, allowing all but the most extreme overclocker to attempt voiding their warranties. As much as we liked the BIOS, there were a handful of options missing such as additional memory, and AGP options, but all in all, a good job.
Overclocking went very well, and the board proved to be very tolerant when attempting to push the envelope. Although it has a jumper to reset the CMOS (when an overclocking attempt goes bad), we never had to use it. If I pushed too hard, either the board automatically defaulted back to 133FSB, or it'd at least let me go into the BIOS to make the changes. This has never been the case before, as every motherboard until the ZENITH required a jumper change to reset if the OC attempt fails.
Performance was simply amazing, posting the highest Pentium 4 related scores we've seen up to date here at VL. At stock speeds, it was the fastest, but when overclocking, it simply runs away. I wanted to test an overclocked MSI board versus the overclocked Chaintech, but the MSI was unable to overclock at the ZENITH's level.
In terms of extras, Chaintech really packs it in, offering all the integrated features you could need, plus nice extras like round IDE cables, and their CBox2. The CBox2 offers a lot of convenience, and is certainly worth the time to install.
Not all is perfect though, but the flaws with the ZENITH are not so much with the board, as it is with the i845PE. There is no AGP8x support, which isn't all that important now, but may be later this year when the next generation of games arrive. There is no dual channel DDR support, which we'll see, in an upcoming review, can make a marked improvement in performance. You'll have to keep in mind that those features are available in the Granite Bay chipset, so these shortcomings are with all i845PE based boards. Finally, considering the number of extras the ZENITH totes, you are going to pay quite a bit for it. It averages , and it's well worth it, but as opposed to the used today, there is a 25$ difference. In terms of features, both are comparable, but the MSI does have GigaBit LAN, whereas the Chaintech comes with extra hardware.
Edit: I did not put a lot of emphasis on the manual, but one reader pointed out at its shortcomings, as well as a few issues he has with some of the hyped features. His comments will be in italic, whereas mine will not...
On the box - it hypes the Apogee OC software - nope does not work. For the Cbox 2, it hypes the digidoc and proclaims it displays the CPU temp. Nope. mine only displays "FF" when it is running.
Actually, we never quite got that feature to work either, but given the time constraints, we weren't able to test for that.
Finally, the bios descriptions in the manual don't show all the features (I've never seen a manual that matches the actual bios settings...) and is not very good in explaining the ones it does show.
He also makes a few more comments about grammar errors, and directions that refer to a section in the manual that doesn't exist. I'll admit, the manual is lacking (as most manuals are), and Chaintech should certainly do a bit of proofreading.
The Apogee overclocking software does not work with the Zenith board.
This is true, and I should have mentioned that earlier, but I feel most of you rely on the BIOS.
The Chaintech 9EJS1 ZENITH is probably the most feature packed i845PE based motherboard on the market. Supporting features such as FireWire, 10/100 LAN, and USB2.0, it certainly has todays needs well in hand. The Hyper-Threading support ensures that the CPUs of tomorrow will be supported to its full potential.
Pros: Excellent performance, good overclocking ability, feature packed, BIOS well suited for the enthusiast, stable.
Cons: No SATA, no GigaBIT LAN, AGP4x.
Bottom Line: Given the limitations of the i845PE, you do miss out on some things that will be the standard in six to twelve months from now, such as SATA, AGP8x, and GigaBit LAN, but don't let that sway you as this board truly does stand out on its performance alone.
Agree? Disagree? Discuss it in our forums
Previous Page - PiFast & Gaming Benchmarks
Home
|
Chaintech 9EJS1 ZENITH 845PE: zenith: n. - the highest point; peak; acme: the zenith of someone's achievements. Will the Chaintech 9EJS1 ZENITH be just that? We'll be investigating that today.
