Chaintech SUMMIT SKT600 Motherboard

Reviews: Hardware

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
Chaintech
Jul. 29, 2004

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Overclocking

The Summit series of motherboards is not marketed toward the power user. In this model line, Chaintech emphasizes stability and affordability above all else. That being said it is no surprise that overclocking on the SKT600 is virtually non-existent. The only "overclocking' feature is the limited FSB adjustment between 100MHZ and 165MHZ. There are no voltage adjustments and the AGP/PCI clock is tied to CPU speed and cannot be locked. This means that even though you might be able to set the FSB to 165MHZ, your system will probably not boot as your AGP and PCI clocks would rise accordingly to 83MHZ and 55MHZ respectively.

Knowing that I was unlikely to have much success I did try anyway and of course I didn't get very far. I was able to run at an FSB of 140 just fine but couldn't get higher. I got missing file errors loading Windows indicating that the VIA southbridge did not appreciate the extra boost in speed. So I ended up with about an 80MHZ increase in overall speed. Not much to write home about.

Conclusion

So clearly by the benchmark numbers and simple feature set you can see that this is not the most impressive board on the market. There are none of the overclocking options that the hardcore performance geek will demand. There is no onboard RAID controller, no firewire, no SPDIF out, no fancy colored plastic and no rich software bundle. So why would anyone want this board? Well for starters, its cheap, dirt cheap. I'm talking less than the cost of a two person dinner at your neighborhood steak-house. You can pick this board up online for under $50. And not everyone needs a high performance board with features they are unlikely to use.

This is the perfect board for the person who spends most of the time on their PC browsing the internet or working with office applications. Yet it will still put up satisfactory numbers during game play. You might not be able to play at 1600x1200 on high quality, but you will get to play. I would definitely pick up this board if I were building a system for a family member. The lack of features means a lot less support hassle for me; if the port isn't there, they can't plug anything into it. It would also make a great second system for use as a file server or PVR box. Chaintech is aiming this board for those looking for quality and reliability over bells and whistles and I believe that with its price and no-nonsense feature set that they hit the target right on the nose.

Pros

Cheap!
Supports all AthlonXP processors
SATA, audio, and LAN onboard for under 50 bucks

Cons

Funky AGP card lock
No back panel cover plate
Not a high performance board (to be expected)

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Page 10 of 10

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Board Layout and Features
Page 3: Bundle and Extras
Page 4: BIOS
Page 5: Test Setup / Benchmarking
Page 6: Benchmarks: PCMark04 / Aquamark 03
Page 7: Benchmarks: Aida32 / Sandra 04
Page 8: Benchmarks: SpecViewPerf 7.1 / ScienceMark 2.0
Page 9: Benchmarks: Winbench 99 / UT2k3
Page 10: Overclocking / Conclusion

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9 User Comments

1 - Posted by EmoMakesMeCry on July 30, 2004 - 1:39 am

i don't think i've ever seen anyone use a chaintech mobo.

2 - Posted by autodafe20 on August 1, 2004 - 4:43 am

I've never ran across a Chaintech either. From the review I think I'll stick with MSI if any of my friends needs a low end comp.

3 - Posted by Kurtis on August 1, 2004 - 11:21 am

This board only costs $40... Not sure why you guys are acting like it sucks. Its a badass board for $40. Chaintech does have higher-end motherboards just like other manufacturers, this is just their low-end one.

4 - Posted by autodafe20 on August 1, 2004 - 1:28 pm

It's not that it sucks, it's just nothing out of the ordinary for a low end board. I'm used to MSI's and the few I've used have been rock stable.

5 - Posted by playahata123789 on August 4, 2004 - 6:25 am

i really wouldn't go with this board, if possible. a close contender is the shuttle an35n ultra

6 - Posted by Guest on December 1, 2004 - 1:44 pm

I received a Post Code error 75 immediately on boot up. I tried clearing the CMOS and any attempts to enter the BIOS by pressing the delete key failed. I had to enable jumper J6 from its factory default setting of pin 1-2 to pin 2-3 in order to get pass the POST error. However, there is nothing in the documentation that said you have to enable this jumper in order for the MOBO to POST. Otherwise, it is not a bad MOBO for the price.

7 - Posted by Guest on July 6, 2005 - 3:03 am

Got the same error here on the boot up sequence. After setting this jumper everything has worked flawlessly. No crashes what so ever after a few months of constant running games, programs you name it. Not a bad mobo at all for its price.

8 - Posted by Trollius on December 6, 2007 - 3:54 pm

I have locked for a Manual for this Motherboard, but no.
Is there anyone who can help mee

9 - Posted by Kurtis on December 6, 2007 - 4:41 pm

I think you're out of luck, that motherboard is so old and Chaintech's site loads so mind-bogglingly slow... The only thing I'd suggest is emailing Chaintech's support and asking if they have a PDF of the manual.

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