Socket-A AMD 760 Motherboard Roundup: Farewell to a Beauty

Chaintech CT-7KJD

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The Chaintech CT-7KJD is the only 760 motherboard in this roundup to not use the VIA 686B. From what we can gather, the VT8231 South Bridge is actually identical to the 686B and is traditionally called the 8231 only when used in a ProSavage chipset. Perhaps Chaintech was trying to get away from the stigma associated with the 686B and some of the associated compatibility issues.

Chaintech uses the VT8231 South Bridge on the CT-7KJD.

Rather than mount a fan on the AMD 761 North Bridge, the CT-7KJD goes with an oversized heatsink for cooling, which held up just fine in our stress tests.

Instead of a full HSF unit, Chaintech went with a large heatsink for cooling the 761 North Bridge.

The board has a reasonable number of options for you to tweak the system. 1MHz increments on the FSB, in addition to a wide range of CPU core voltages allows you to push your CPU to the limit. A jumper is used to set the FSB speed range of the board between 100MHz and 133MHz, while the rest of the overclocking settings are found in the BIOS.

The price of the board, on the other hand, is definitely a strong point. For around $110, the CT-7KJD is definitely a good buy for its performance and features among competitors. It might be relatively hard to find the board, as is the case with many Chaintech products, but the price should justify the effort.