The Chaintech VNF4 Ultra : nForce 4 Ultra on a budget

Final Thoughts

I ended up having real mixed emotions about this board. First, the positive… I like the fact that Chaintech made a board for the masses, no bells and whistles that some people simply don’t want or need. I mean, if you are on a budget, building your first system, or don’t have to break any records, then why put out more money than you have to? The Chaintech VNF4 Ultra was found to be an extremely stable motherboard at defualt clock speeds. When you consider price versus performance, this board is a perfect fit for those looking to get the most out of their money.

On the negative side, this is a very raw BIOS that needs some tweaking from Chaintech, a small issue as the board is only now coming available. I anticipate Chaintech will contiue to refine the BIOS for this board. I really didn’t care for the passive cooling solution on the chipset, but again this is something that might change as one of the boards fan connectors was labeled “chip fan”. I think all nForce4 boards will require active cooling as the chip is just too hot. I also didn’t like the configuration Chaintech used for their memory, the positioning was fine, but the spacing was not, they need to move the DIMM slots apart even just a bit to allow them to be cooled better. I think the negatives here are what keeps this board from being all it can be as an overclocking alternative.

That being said, the board is inexpensive, stable, and definitely has a market. I wouldn’t recommend Chaintech’s VNF4 Ultra to everyone, but I would recommend it to those of you who are just starting off or those who have no interest in overclocking.

The Legit Bottom Line

The Chaintech VNF 4 Ultra is a fine budget or entry level board for those that don’t need all the bells and whistles.