Set within the steamy confines of New Orleans and its infamous French Quarter, Chaintech Reloaded 2003 took place with 35 media groups in attendance from all over North and South America. The focus of the event was to inform and familiarize the media with Chaintech Computer Corp, a company founded in 1986 which focuses on producing desktop motherboards, information appliances (IA) and gammers videocards.

Chaintech are a Taiwanese company with about 1080 employees, and hold an ISO 9001 certification. As far as the mainboard industry goes, Chaintech are considered a Tier 2 manufacturer which puts them in the same ranks as companies such as Abit, Epox, DFI and Shuttle. Under the brand names of Zenith, Apogee, and Summit Chaintech have produced a concise set of products which are firmly aimed at the more affordable markets which make up the bulk of today's consumers.

With President Simon Ho in attendance, the conference began with a brief history of Chaintech, a look into the meaning of their "86-infinity" styled logo, and discussion of their position within the mainboard industry. Presentations by nVidia, Corsair and Intervideo were to follow, but first let's take a look at the hardware we are going to be more familiar with in the coming months.

Zenith Motherboards

This line is Chaintech's most full featured and most geared towards enthusiast users. Only one motherboard per chipset is made and the largest number of features and extras are included in the package. The company officials are intent on keeping the name Zenith reserved for the most current, and highest performing chipets and features.

The Zenith name is held in high regard, and is only given to a very small assortment of motherboards each quarter. As newer chipsets arrive on market, or drop out the roster changes.

Apogee Motherboards

Apogee is the mainstream line of products which offer good features, good performance and are priced more competitively.

Mainstream users and moonlighting overclockers should find what they are need in this set of products.

Summit Motherboards

Geared towards the value markets, the summit line offers users looking for basic motherboard configurations a good option at a lower price point.

Overclocking and reams of extra features are not the main point with this line, so it would be good for general users for example.

At the moment there are no Zenith Videocards for us to tell you about, Chaintech have stated that they are quite happy with the performance characteristics of the Apogee Videocard, but are looking to something a little more jaw dropping for their Zenith brand name. The Apogee videocards come with heatpipe coolers and a box full of add-ons like VIVO breakout boxes, TV-out cables, and DVI-VGA adapters.