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

[Ompus]

I've had some problems with memory and would appreciate feedback.

I installed 2x256MB PDP "Patriot" DDR400 RAM. After having multiple crashes while trying to install XP, I ran Memtest and found that the second bank was bad.

I next installed 2x512 Corsair "value select" DDR400. [For 2 weeks] it worked like a charm and ran as dual channel. Then the whole computer died. I eventually determined the second bank of RAM had died. No matter which slot I put it in, the computer won't do a thing. It would beep twice and stop. The computer runs fine on the other stick.

[In other words, stick "A" now fails regardless of its slot, while stick "B" works fine in slots 1-4]

So here's the thing...what are the odds that I'd get two bad sticks of memory? Could the Motherboard be blowing my RAM?

Thanks,

Glenn

 

[orangat]

Sounds like a bad mb. Can you try the ram on another mobo?

 

[dashiki]

sounds like the ram isn't compatible with the mobo.

 

[dashiki]

how many replies do we need for this thing to get a sticky???

 

[Ompus]

Originally posted by: dashiki
sounds like the ram isn't compatible with the mobo.

If the corsair ram wasn't compatible, why would it run fine for 2 weeks? Can anyone recommend "budget" ram for my third try?

Glenn

 

[rocketman14]

i have the corsair ram and its been working fine for about a month

 

[dashiki]

I miss read your post sorry I thought you said the crsair worked and the other brand did not. could be the board also could be the mem controller on the proc. can you try the cpu in another machine to test it? if it works rma the board.

 

[OVERKILL]

I can't beleive I just finished reading all 30 pages.
Anyway, after reading some reviews about this motherboard, it sounded like a good purchase.
However, Between the temperature, memory and the not so great Vdimm voltage limit issues, I'm hesitant about buying this board.
I love the price and the features, but the problems I'm reading about here in this thread, makes me think twice.
Also, i think it's wonderful that Lydia is here representing Soltek.
This really does make Soltek look that much better.
It would be great if the other motherboard manufacturers( and other companies in general) would get involved more with there customers in forums like AnandTech.
Like someone else said earlier, companies interacting with there customers can only help make better products and updates ( bios, drivers,etc).

 

[orangat]

Originally posted by: OVERKILL
I can't beleive I just finished reading all 30 pages.
Anyway, after reading some reviews about this motherboard, it sounded like a good purchase.
However, Between the temperature, memory and the not so great Vdimm voltage limit issues, I'm hesitant about buying this board.
I love the price and the features, but the problems I'm reading about here in this thread, makes me think twice.
Also, i think it's wonderful that Lydia is here representing Soltek.
This really does make Soltek look that much better.
It would be great if the other motherboard manufacturers( and other companies in general) would get involved more with there customers in forums like AnandTech.
Like someone else said earlier, companies interacting with there customers can only help make better products and updates ( bios, drivers,etc).

Overkill, ignore the drama queens. This board works very well.

The only reservations I have is you are going to use very high speed memory or oc'ing since it can't handle HTT above 275 (I think, check thread to be sure) or if you prefer Japanese capacitors.

The -5v is a non issue because it is not used, and it is probably a h/w monitor problem.

The temp problem is fixed with bios 1.4 and the latest h/w monitor - dload both from Soltek.

 

[dashiki]

all issues with this board as far as I know are fixed. Lydi rox and soltek is awesome I don't think Asus will get me back after Soltek's great customer service. Also this board screams!!!!

 

[morfinx]

Originally posted by: dashiki
all issues with this board as far as I know are fixed. Lydi rox and soltek is awesome I don't think Asus will get me back after Soltek's great customer service. Also this board screams!!!!

Is it normal that as soon as the CPU is under load, the temp reading goes up 15C almost immediately? And what temps are you guys running at?

 

[dashiki]

Yes it is normal, I'm running 36 idle 50 under load

 

[savagexp]

I just received this board and a 3000+ processor, along with some PQI DDR400 memory and a MSI 6600 GT. The board came with the newest BIOS on it and booted up just great. Windows installation took a little while longer than I would have liked, since the driver for the Promise RAID controller that came on the floppy with my board kept causing the installation to crash (I finally just decided to not install the Promise RAID controller during install). Everything runs smooth, rock-solid. I'm quite happy with it.

However, I bought the board to do some overclocking. Or, what I recall as overclocking. See, I haven't done an OC since back in the day with a good 'ole Celeron A-- back when a FSB was a FSB and RAM didn't have "timings."

I feel absolutely horrible about this, but I have to swallow my pride and start asking dumb-@ss n00b questions.

Mainly, how do I OC this thing with this board? I've read the OC How-To thread for the A64, but it doesn't really provide anything that I don't know. What I'm having trouble with is how the HTT, LDT, CPU Clock, AGP/PCI Locks and everything else comes together. I know that nobody can give me fail-safe numbers to plug into the BIOS, but if anybody could at least give me an idea of where to start, I'd be much obliged.

Thanks in advance.

 

[morfinx]

Originally posted by: dashiki
Yes it is normal, I'm running 36 idle 50 under load

But I mean does the temperature go up by 15 degrees in a matter of a couple of seconds when under load? Also, what voltage are u running at?

 

[docbrown3805]

im having some issues with the board... i had a sythe kamakazi and my temps out of the gate were a little warm 50c idle and 60 under load.. i just bought a zalman 7700cu and used artic silver 5 and im still getting 50c under idle.. whats going on here.. im running at stock speed.

 

[rocketman14]

did you update the bios? i have an antec sonata and its known to run a little hot (in exchange for silence) and i idle at 44c. the newest bios is 1.4 but i still have 1.3 on mine. i just downloaded everest and speedfan and they work fine in reporting temps.

 

[docbrown3805]

i have bios 1.4...

 

[X2C]

Lydia: I've been asking around everywhere just trying to find out if a OCZ DDR Booster will work on this board.
It's not on the OCZ website, I have emailed them and they told me just to ask around some more
So does anybody know if it works? and if it does what slot at what voltage?

Thanks to anybody that can help

 

[Unaimed]

docbrown3805: I have the exact problem you have. I have a 7700cu aswell and i have 48-50 idle and up to 68-69 full load. My possible answer to this is that the cpu temperature reader doesn't get as much cooling on it since the fan is moving slower. But this might be totally wrong as i've read that this board reads the internal cpu temperatue, whatever that mean.

savagexp:
HTT: This is the FSB.
LDT: This is the bus between the north bridge and the cpu. The speed of this one shouldn't exceed 1000mhz. In solteks bios the options are 1000, 800, 600, 400 and 200 mhz. They correspond to x5, x4, x3, x2 and x1. So, if you have a HTT of 250 and a LDT multiplier of 800mhz(x4). You will have a LDT of 1000 mhz. 255 x 3 = 765. I don't think this has a very big impact of performace but i'm not sure.
CPU Clock: The speed of which the cpu runs at. HTT x CPU Multiplier. The CPU multiplier for your cpu is x10 and lower if you choose. This means 250x10 gives 2500mhz.
AGP/PCI Locks: I think it's called "AGP/PCI async lock" in the bios and should be set to the correct value in the bios originally (ie, the one that allows for overclocking).

Thank you, and have a good day!

 

[orangat]

2 things to fix the high temps - update the bios to 1.4 and use the Soltek HWM 1.26k.

On my PC, the bios reports 40C idle. And in windows HWM 36C idle, 46 load.

 

[Unaimed]

Yay, seems like that new SoltekHM fixed the issue. I tried it with another beta version released after W1.4 and that one didn't work. Now i get 41-43 idle and 55-58 load. Anyone know if there is a less bloated program that reports the temperature correctly? It seems like SoltekHM uses 2-7% of the cpu. Which sucks, also the gui is crap. No offence, but it is.

 

[morfinx]

Originally posted by: Unaimed
Yay, seems like that new SoltekHM fixed the issue. I tried it with another beta version released after W1.4 and that one didn't work. Now i get 41-43 idle and 55-58 load. Anyone know if there is a less bloated program that reports the temperature correctly? It seems like SoltekHM uses 2-7% of the cpu. Which sucks, also the gui is crap. No offence, but it is.

You can use SpeedFan, but you must offset the sensors to match its readings to SoltekHM's readings. You can do that through "Advanced" tab in "Configure"

CPU - LM90 Temperature 2, offset -13
Chassis - IT8712F Temperature 1, offset -6

Those value corresponds to SoltekHM's readings accurately, I found those through alot of trial and error.

P.S. you must have BIOS version W1.4

 

[xeizo]

Anyway, the Soltek seems to have one up on the NF3/4-boards as The Inquierer
reports today that the New AMD E-revision chips don't work on most NF3/4s.

 

[savagexp]

Originally posted by: Unaimed
savagexp:
...
LDT: This is the bus between the north bridge and the cpu. The speed of this one shouldn't exceed 1000mhz. In solteks bios the options are 1000, 800, 600, 400 and 200 mhz. They correspond to x5, x4, x3, x2 and x1. So, if you have a HTT of 250 and a LDT multiplier of 800mhz(x4). You will have a LDT of 1000 mhz. 255 x 3 = 765. I don't think this has a very big impact of performace but i'm not sure....

Thanks, Unaimed. That's the missing piece of my puzzle, methinks. The only other question I'd like to ask is if people would mind posting their voltage settings? I've read that 1.65 - 1.7 is the max you should put through a Winchester; I'm just curious as to what people with this board are using.

Thanks again.

 

[xeizo]

There is not any higher than 1.55V in the bios, so there's absolutely no risk that you can fry your Winchester with this board. And of course 1.55V is what gives the highest clock for me. I guess 1.6-1.65 would get me over 2.6GHz, but according to Lydias technician it isn't possible with this board as 1.55V is hardware-limited and not bios-limited. Strange though, that it can run 1.7V with a Newcastle .... but there's probably an explanation for that. One can always do a hardwired V-core mod, if one is capable of that ...