An announcement for the SL-K8TPro-939 review by Mr. Fink

[High Rolla]

High Rolla and BF04, thanks for your input guys!

High Rolla, could you post your complete system specs plz? Bios revision? SATA or PATA hard drives?

Hehe, it embarrasses me to say what the rest of my system is right now as I am still using components from my old system which I haven't upgraded yet. For example, I'm still using a crappy GeForce4 MX420 card and an IDE drive (whee!). Compared to you guys here, it's lame. But I promise when I fully stock the rig I'll update you. The BIOS revision I'm using is W1.2.

 

[High Rolla]

Is there still a problem overclocking past 250 mhz? I'd rather get this than the MSI but I'd like to be reasonably certain a Bios fix is going take care of the 250 limit.

That's why I'm trying to get info from Soltek about the newest BIOS revision W1.2... I'm wondering what they have changed/fixed other than the one liner from the website.

 

[Omega Ohm]

Anyone happen to know if a XP120 heatsink will work on this board?

 

[bap4201]

don't know that for sure, but I can tell you there is plenty of room around cpu and it will fit zalman 7000cu no prob

 

[Omega Ohm]

Originally posted by: bap4201
don't know that for sure, but I can tell you there is plenty of room around cpu and it will fit zalman 7000cu no prob

Thanks Bap, I was really trying to avoid putting a fan on it.

Here's my planned rig...

Nemesis Elite Case: has 3 120mm fans, front intake, window, and a rear exhaust.

I'm pretty set on the Soltek board and I'll have a Gigabyte 6800GT with the fan on the backside. My theory is that with the Video card pretty much blowing across or really through the heat sink on the processor (64 3500+ 90nm) coupled with the 120mm window practically blowing right down on top of it, I shouldn't need a processor fan at all.

This case is pretty much a wind tunnel and the gigabyte card should serve to direct air flow even better.

Anyway, I'm either going with the XP90 or the XP120. I'd like to use the 120 if at all possible but I can't seem to find anyone or any site that's tried it on this board.

 

[bap4201]

Originally posted by: Omega Ohm

Originally posted by: bap4201
don't know that for sure, but I can tell you there is plenty of room around cpu and it will fit zalman 7000cu no prob

Thanks Bap, I was really trying to avoid putting a fan on it.

Here's my planned rig...

Nemesis Elite Case: has 3 120mm fans, front intake, window, and a rear exhaust.

I'm pretty set on the Soltek board and I'll have a Gigabyte 6800GT with the fan on the backside. My theory is that with the Video card pretty much blowing across or really through the heat sink on the processor (64 3500+ 90nm) coupled with the 120mm window practically blowing right down on top of it, I shouldn't need a processor fan at all.

This case is pretty much a wind tunnel and the gigabyte card should serve to direct air flow even better.

Anyway, I'm either going with the XP90 or the XP120. I'd like to use the 120 if at all possible but I can't seem to find anyone or any site that's tried it on this board.

my evga fan points "south" not "north" when installed in agp slot. I suppose this is to prevent the warm air from hitting the cpu. Are u sure that you want that setup?

 

[Omega Ohm]

Originally posted by: bap4201

Originally posted by: Omega Ohm

Originally posted by: bap4201
don't know that for sure, but I can tell you there is plenty of room around cpu and it will fit zalman 7000cu no prob

Thanks Bap, I was really trying to avoid putting a fan on it.

Here's my planned rig...

Nemesis Elite Case: has 3 120mm fans, front intake, window, and a rear exhaust.

I'm pretty set on the Soltek board and I'll have a Gigabyte 6800GT with the fan on the backside. My theory is that with the Video card pretty much blowing across or really through the heat sink on the processor (64 3500+ 90nm) coupled with the 120mm window practically blowing right down on top of it, I shouldn't need a processor fan at all.

This case is pretty much a wind tunnel and the gigabyte card should serve to direct air flow even better.

Anyway, I'm either going with the XP90 or the XP120. I'd like to use the 120 if at all possible but I can't seem to find anyone or any site that's tried it on this board.

my evga fan points "south" not "north" when installed in agp slot. I suppose this is to prevent the warm air from hitting the cpu. Are u sure that you want that setup?

Hot air goes up regardless. Pointing south, it just pushes the air down before it still has to go up unless you have an exhaust fan sitting below it to catch most of it. I've always considered that to be a bad design and a lack of effort on the video manufacturer's part.

My aim is to push the air out of there as fast as possible, not giving it a chance to rest or collect anywhere. I have the bottom front 120mm intake pulling air in, the window 120mm blowing more in top of that. I have yet another 120mm fan sitting above the vid card about level where I expect the processor to be, pulling air out and then a 80mm fan in the power supply sitting above all of it catching whatever is left and blowing it out. I still have to check the RPM's of the fans and see about getting the exhaust equal to the intake. I figure it's worth a shot and I'm curious to see if it works.

If it doesn't, I can still throw a panaflow on top of the heat sink.

 

[Kabob]

Just bought a 3200+ and this Soltek board. Can't wait to get it fired up

Has anyone tried overclocking with the new bios?? Can the HTT break 250MHz now, or is that still a nogo??

 

[bap4201]

yes, it is a very stable, rock solid board. Have not had 1 single problem with this board!

 

[Kabob]

OK, a few quick questions:

-bap, what's the max OC you've hit using the Soltek board??

-I'm using a weakish power supply (400W w/17A on the 12v rail) Should I upgrade (it's also an MGE, which I'm none to impressed with) I won't be using a monster of a video card ATM (9800 Pro) but I do hope to upgrade in the future.

-I need a new case too, as I am officially about to break mine in half (lookes like someone took giant pieces of steel and threw some screws on it to hold it together, stupid MGE!) The floppy drive doesn't fit, and the Hard Drive will only fit in the floppy drive slot. What's a good case that doesn't cost and arm, 2 legs, and 1/2 of my hair?? I've heard that Antec and Thermaltake make good cases, but I see that many of em are expensive... That clear side window would be sweet too

Board is currently in my neibhorhood somewhere on a Fedex truck...just waiting for it to get to my house

thanks guys!!

 

[elocal]

I also wait for this board to arrive. I currently have a Soltek SL-75FRN2-L, and it all good, really nice motherboard, except for some cold booot problems I had while overclocking before. I hope this board gives me no problems, as it should if Soltek has been keeping up their quality which I assume

http://forums.anandtech.com/i/...e-icon-small-smile.gif</a>" border="0"> .

kabob983: well, I will be building with an Enermax Noisetaker 420W, and an Skyhawk Aluminum case(which I got for $35 with free shipping). After researching a LOT on power supplies, I ruled out all those overrated and cheap brands, I would recommend you, if you want to buy a new PSU, Antec, Enermax, PC Cooling &amp; Power, E-POWER "Tagan" Series, Thermaltake, Zalman, and OCZ (in no particular order).

Can't wait till this board arrives!!!!!

http://forums.anandtech.com/i/...e-icon-small-happy.gif</a>" border="0">

 

[Kabob]

Got mine!! Good grief the box was heavy (when compared to my ASRock case)

Unfortunately the guy forgot to ship my 3200+ already, so I can't set everything yet, but it's all good. After thanksgiving it'll be ON!

 

[Omega Ohm]

Probably from the million SATA cables they send with it.

 

[Megatomic]

These Soltek boards sure are pretty. My "little" ole K8AN2E-GR looks like a jewel in my Sonata. How are you guys liking the Via board? I had halfway considered getting one but I've had such good luck with nForce that I went NF3-250Gb instead.

 

[Kabob]

Looks like VIA got it right this time...

 

[elocal]

I did not had a good experience with the last VIA chipset motherboard I used. It was a EPOX using KT266, it did not left a good taste. When I switched my current Nforce 2 Soltek board was like heaven, and has been ever since. It will be a really good experience if VIA got it right this time around .

 

[docbrown3805]

I just ordered my solkek. I originally ordered the asus a8v but thats going right back. I also got the PQI dual channel pc3200 low latency ram. Their were such good reviews on the ram and the price was right.

 

[nightwing36]

bump this thread

 

[elocal]

I went to pick up my board over the weekend, installed it, performance was very nice after a BIOS upgrade and Windows reinstall. I have yet to install Gentoo Linux for AMD64, or Ubuntu(AMD64) and do some tests there see how it behaves in that front.

Right now I have been overclocking my 3000+ 90nm HTT bus to 245, and still increasing, so basically I have yet to experience the limited overclocking. Over the weekend, after setting my LDT(the Hypertreating Bus Speed) to 800(4x) from a default of 1000(5x), my overclock was being limied to 235(Actually was between 236-239, but did not tried this speeds) HTT,. But today I noticed something in the speed that my RAM was working. I wasn't able to pass 240 yesterday because my memory was being clocked too high. The memory speed in this board is determined by dividing the final CPU clock speed, so when I set it to 166MHz it had a divider of 11, when I overclocked HTT to 235 my memory reached 193MHz, with my manual 2-3-3-7 latency setting, given that this memory is an Apacer 512 module rated for 166MHz 2.5-3-3-7 I was amazed it passed 9 hours of MemTest 3.2 last night at 193MHz with 2-3-3-7 latency with no errors. So today I set the memory speed in the BIOS to 133, which is a 14 divider to the final clock speed, and I am running my HTT speed at 245 so far, and will be increading later on.

 

[Omega Ohm]

What kind of heat sink are you using elocal?

 

[elocal]

I am using the heatsink+fan that came in the RETAIL box, is not the best heatsink as you know.

I am now running 250, so far stable, but have to run Prime95 stress to make sure.

With load, at 250 it was hitting 63c, but I added 3 case fans and now it is hitting 58c, I might have to play around with the fan positioning so that there is a good airflow. Right now they are all taking air out, two in the left panel and one in the back side.

 

[Omega Ohm]

Grrrr... need to find someone who's tried a XP120 on this board.


Anyway, would you mind throwing up the BIOS settings that got you to 250?

 

[Kabob]

XP120 doesn't fit. I asked Thermalright a few weeks ago and they said it wasn't supported. I suppose that could mean that they just havn't tested it, but I don't want to waste the money finding out

 

[Omega Ohm]

Originally posted by: kabob983
XP120 doesn't fit. I asked Thermalright a few weeks ago and they said it wasn't supported. I suppose that could mean that they just havn't tested it, but I don't want to waste the money finding out

Yea, "not supported" isn't very definitive. None of the Soltek boards are listed on the Thermalright compatibility chart but I did see a post somewhere where someone was using a XP-120 on a Soltek socket 754 board just fine.

 

[elocal]

Originally posted by: Omega Ohm
Grrrr... need to find someone who's tried a XP120 on this board.


Anyway, would you mind throwing up the BIOS settings that got you to 250?

See the post above .

Originally posted by: elocal
I went to pick up my board over the weekend, installed it, performance was very nice after a BIOS upgrade and Windows reinstall. I have yet to install Gentoo Linux for AMD64, or Ubuntu(AMD64) and do some tests there see how it behaves in that front.

Right now I have been overclocking my 3000+ 90nm HTT bus to 245, and still increasing, so basically I have yet to experience the limited overclocking. Over the weekend, after setting my LDT(the Hypertreating Bus Speed) to 800(4x) from a default of 1000(5x), my overclock was being limied to 235(Actually was between 236-239, but did not tried this speeds) HTT,. But today I noticed something in the speed that my RAM was working. I wasn't able to pass 240 yesterday because my memory was being clocked too high. The memory speed in this board is determined by dividing the final CPU clock speed, so when I set it to 166MHz it had a divider of 11, when I overclocked HTT to 235 my memory reached 193MHz, with my manual 2-3-3-7 latency setting, given that this memory is an Apacer 512 module rated for 166MHz 2.5-3-3-7 I was amazed it passed 9 hours of MemTest 3.2 last night at 193MHz with 2-3-3-7 latency with no errors. So today I set the memory speed in the BIOS to 133, which is a 14 divider to the final clock speed, and I am running my HTT speed at 245 so far, and will be increading later on.