SOLTEK mobo's. Opinions Please

[Longlynx]

I am considering getting a SOLTEK mobo. I have checked out their website, and read the reviews on Tom's Hardware, but want the opinions that really count - from you guys.

General reliability
Layout
best model/chipset (For Athlon XP)
Other comments

Thanx
LonglynX

[BipolarBill]

Ask an Aussie. They buy more Soltek than anyone else. They're not really big here in the States. Neither is Albatron, but that's changing.

[Longlynx]

I'm looking at getting a SOLTEK SL-75FRV

VIA VT8377(KT400) + VT8235 chipset
FSB 333/266/200 MHz
Supports DDR SDRAM @ 400/333/266 MHz
Supports Ultra ATA 133/100/66
Supports AGP 8X/4X
Supports ABSII
Vcore, AGP, DIMM Voltage Setting
Supports USB2.0
6-channel Audio
SCR (Smart Card Reader) Interface
Optimized for all Socket-A processors

What do ya think?

LonglynX

[Longlynx]

I've heard that there is a bug in the KT400 chipset whereby DDR 333 out performs DDR 400. Has anyone else heard about this?

Thanx

>>LonglynX<<

[smeg]

Well I've had a few Solteks over the years, and built quite a few for others using them too.

They are probably not at the extreme end for speed, but I have found them to be generally a good thing.

Out of about 40 boards have RMA'd 4 or 5, which is fairly average for components these days in my experience.
Have RMA'd at least the same Asus boards for instance.
I am using that exact same board now on this system. The board layout is pretty standard, has a 4x or 8x only AGP slot, so make sure your Vid is compatible or you will damage the board.
Am running an XP1600+ at present, I usually don't overclock at all but I couldn't resist with this board. It's just so easy, without trying or unlocking it was running @1750 or thereabouts Mhz. Didn't go for long as I don't have the cooling and didn't want to damage anything.

I read on Tom's site about the 400DDR so I went for 333 myself and it runs great.

I have no probs recommending this board to u, is very good value.
BTW most of the RMA's were for printer ports, go figure.

[Longlynx]

Cheers Smeg,
I guess Bipolar Bill was right when he said "ask an Aussie".

The board sounds good based on what you have said, and providing I don't hear anything bad in the meantime, I'll probably go for it.
Further comments and/or recommendations are welcome.

Cheers
>>LonglynX<<

[Mshaw213]

I would say go with the Soltek boards.

I work in the tech support department for a company selling computer components. We tend to stock 4 different manufacturers boards - Epox, Soltek, MSI and Asus. From experience, despite selling a lot more Epox and Soltek boards we get fewer calls regarding the general setup of the boards or general weirdness (BSOD problems etc).

Also, despite selling more of them, we also get fewer returns.

My personal system at home has the Soltek SL-75DRV4 (a bit old now, but still going fine).

[Longlynx]

Thanx for your comments guys, one final question though....
If you were to pitch the Soltek against an MSI board, which MSI would you choose???
(looking at the MSI 845 PE Max)

Cheers
>>LonglynX<<

[BipolarBill]

That's the one. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any MSI board. They are easy to set up and very reliable.

[ALS]

Go with MSI or ASUS or ABIT. DON'T GO WITH ECS.
I hear that Soltecs are good, bang for a buck...

[BipolarBill]

He's not considering ECS - take a pill, ALS. :rolleyes:

[smeg]

Had a guy come in just a cuppla days ago needing an amd board in a hurry, so sold him my SL-75FRV to get him out of trouble (he's happy)
So I bought myself a new golden flame Soltek SL-75FRN2L and some DDR400 matched ram (to run dual DDR).
Wow, I love it. Initially got the probs most get with burners etc (not with Win98 though???) however Soltek have a fix to download and it works.

I suggest u spend just a little more and go for one of these.

[mrpickles]

......Read this review on it SL-75FRN-L VS the EPoX 8RDA+.........
Soltek SL-75FRN-L there are three default level settings built in (optimal, aggressive and turbo) which tweak your hardware at increasing performance levels. Also included is a very nice Expert setting which allows you to tweak everything from the asynchronous CPU and RAM FSB setting, to AGP Frequency, all in small increments. The RAM FSB frequency is set as a percentage of the CPU FSB. Leaving this value at 100% ensure they will always run synchronously, something the Atlon XP chip seems to enjoy.
What is there to say, both boards performed relatively he same in every test, the Soltek SL-75FRN-L pulled ahead in a few of the benchmarks but by such a slight margin This is to be expected given they both use the A3 Northbridge. But, as I think many have seen in most reviews in regards to nForce2 boards, most of the decision making will be done based upon features rather than performance.

[causticVapor]

The soltek Nforce2 delivers less stable CPU voltages than the 8RDA+.