Abit or Soltek?

[vwgeek]

I'm debating between two motherboards -- the Abit AX8 and the Soltek SL-K890Pro-939. Both have the necessary features for me. I haven't seen any reviews of the Abit board, but the Soltek reviews have been quite good. However, here's my questions:

1. Which vendor provides the best support and/or is more responsive to issues?

2. I'm looking for stability and long-term reliability most of all. Does either vendor's products have better reputations in this regard?

3. I've heard the Soltek board has cheap capacitors. Is that going to be an issue if I don't overclock, or just do mild overclocking?

Thanks for any insights.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Soltek definitely doesn't use the HQ Jap Caps Abit does, so if longevity is a big must, stick with Abit. That said, I have quite a few Soltek nF2 IGP boards out there and none have had the cap issue yet. Most are approx. 2yrs old now, which is the duration of the warranty period. I understand they will ship you new caps if they do go bad even when the warranty is up but that requires a little skill and labor on your part so something to consider. Abit also tends to have better voltage ranges right out of the box too, but Soltek almost always gets a power user's bios out for any who want it and/or make a new revision that provides them. Soltek definitely has great customer service and support, better than Abit IME, knowledgable and faster in response time to inquiries. Overall I'd give Abit the nod, but if the Soltek is considerably less expensive, which they often are, and the you don't need uberoverclocking votages then Soltek is a great alternative.

 

[vwgeek]

Thanks for the information, DAPUNISHER. It is very helpful.