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Motherboard manufacturers have
gone to great lengths to promote the VIA K8T800 chipset as a performance
solution for AMD's Athlon64 processor. Granted, the
lack of an in-place PCI/AGP lock is an almost-instant turn-off to the serious
Overclocker who wants unlimited flexibility with their system build. To entice
the enthusaist level buyers, many additional features such as Firewire, and
extended RAID capabilities are added to the motherboard's base design features.
As extra
options tend to carry extra cost, that usually leaves the folks who just want to
build a budget Athlon64 system behind.
Chaintech makes it possible, by putting in the box only the functions and
options that a typical consumer would expect.

Opening the
box reveals a very slim list of included equipment -- but don't let this
discourage you too quickly. Not including a ton of bundled hardware/software
isn't a bad thing at all, because it is the number one way to keep end-user cost
down. What we get is the SK8T800
motherboard, driver CD, User Manual, and two packages of drive cables.
IDE, Floppy and Serial ATA data cables complete with a Molex "Y" cord.
There wasn't even any fancy full-color fold-outs inside the box to tear through
to get to the merchandise within.

Chaintech SK8T800
Features / Specifications
Processor

AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor
FSB
800 MHz
Chipset

North Bridge : VIA K8T800
South Bridge : VIA VT8237
LAN Chip : VIA VT6103 PHY 10/100 Mbit
Audio Chip : 5.1 Surround AC'97 Codec
Memory
2 x DDR Sockets:
DDR200/266/333/400 NON-ECC DDR SDRAM up to 2GB
Expansion Slots
1 x AGP(3.0) 8X slot (1.5V only)
5 x PCI slots (PCI 2.2 compliant)
IDE Connectors
2 ATA133/100/66 Channels, up to 4 ATA 133/100/66 IDE devices
2 Serial ATA150 Channels, up to 2 Serial ATA150 Hard Drives
Onboard I/O Connectors
Three 3x1 pin fan connectors
Three 5x2 pin USB connectors for additional 6 USB ports
Optional 3x2 pin S/PDIF connector for additional S/PDIF-out adaptor
3x1 pin wake on LAN connector with housing
3x1 pin wake on Modem connector with housing
Two 4x1 pin CD-in connectors
9x2 pin front panel connector
5x2 pin front side audio connector
20 pin ATX Power connector
4 pin ATX 12V Power connector
I/O via Back Panel
PS/2 keyboard/mouse, 2 x USB(2.0/1.1), 1x RJ45, 2 x Com(serial), 1 x Parallel,
1x Line-in / Line-out (Speaker Out ) / MIC, 1x Game / MIDI
Power
20-pin ATX power connector, 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
Form Factor
ATX ( 305 x 220 mm )
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