K8T890 Done Right

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ChicagoPCGuy

Senior member
Dec 11, 2004
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http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/slk890pro939/index.html

For all of the nay-sayers about the VIA chipset, this should set you correct. As you can see, and from the Legion Hardware review as well, VIA/SOLTEK has a SERIOUS contender here. True, the nForce4 has more features, but the Soltek board POUNDS the Gigabyte NF4 SLI board in most of the tests.

In my previous posts about the ASUS A8V-E Deluxe, I did not want to come off as a VIA hater in any way--as I said before, ASUS is the problem here. If you missed my whistle-blowing on ASUS, search for A8V-E on the forums and read up.

I will further point out that again, it is Soltek that has put out ANOTHER production board with NO APPARENT ISSUES and is blistering fast at stock speeds, and guess what, this board will overclock well, too. If you are a VIA fan, and want PCI-E, this is the board to buy. Not bad at all for a previously little known Tiawanese company who only sells their products through NewEgg in the states!
 
SunSamurai

SunSamurai

Diamond Member
Jan 16, 2005
3,914
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From what I saw it looks like the best VIA board out there, but...

1. In the memory bandwidth tests.. who cares? Youre slapping a A64 in there. Memory bandwidth with a 3200 haveing a %5~ on the VIA will make no real world differance. Thats not exactly a pounding.
2. In most of the other tests the gigabyte is within %5 of the via. Again, never gonna notice. Call me when its %15
3. In tests that matter, like ethernet thoughput, the gigabyte wins.
4. I do like, however, how VIA typically uses less clock to do _some_ things. But that can be improved though software on Nf4.

All in all Id take more features over %5 improvement in FPS or slightly better yet altogether irrelevent memory bandwidth.
 
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ChicagoPCGuy

Senior member
Dec 11, 2004
361
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aeternitas:

You're being a downer again!

Yeah, go with the NF4 if it puts the wind in your sails. NF4 is a great chipset, too. Your points are valid.

I am just pointing out that the K8T890 chipset is truly a contender--on the right board, that is!

I am trumpeting Soltek more than anything. This little company deserves a lot of credit. Every mobo they have ever put out is top notch. Their engineers need a round of beer!
 
SunSamurai

SunSamurai

Diamond Member
Jan 16, 2005
3,914
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They need to match nvidia then work on the nf4s weak points, like audio. Im not being a downer, im beaing a realist.
 
J

Jim Bancroft

Senior member
Nov 9, 2004
212
2
81
I am trumpeting Soltek more than anything. This little company deserves a lot of credit. Every mobo they have ever put out is top notch. Their engineers need a round of beer!
Click to expand...

I'll second that one. Great motherboards, fine company and I hope they sell a bunch. I'll repeat; if I hadn't gotten a twitchy trigger finger and grabbed an MSI Neo4 last week, I'd be all over this board. Plus: a passive chipset cooler. My Neo's fan sounds like an Airbus in comparison.
 
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CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
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Originally posted by: Jim Bancroft
I am trumpeting Soltek more than anything. This little company deserves a lot of credit. Every mobo they have ever put out is top notch. Their engineers need a round of beer!
Click to expand...

I'll second that one. Great motherboards, fine company and I hope they sell a bunch. I'll repeat; if I hadn't gotten a twitchy trigger finger and grabbed an MSI Neo4 last week, I'd be all over this board. Plus: a passive chipset cooler. My Neo's fan sounds like an Airbus in comparison.
Click to expand...

Soltek is my favorite board manufacturer!

from my SL-75KAV, to my SL-K8AN2E-GR, Soltek mainboards have never let me down once!
 
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bradley

Diamond Member
Jan 9, 2000
3,671
2
81
After owning a VIA Socket A motherboard, I don't think I could ever trust them again. The word 'kludge' is still too fresh in my memory. And till this day, I have an adverse reaction whenever I see the phrase 4-n-1 driver. Perhaps in another decade or so. :)
 
M

MTSteel

Member
Jan 26, 2005
126
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0
Been out of the loop for so long, what was wrong with VIA's Socket A motherboards? I have the Soltek 75DRV2 Socket A board.
 
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timecop67

Member
Nov 24, 2004
151
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0
Got my Soltek 890 board in this week. Manual looks pretty straightforward and the board looks nice and put together well. Will see how she runs. Made in China not Taiwan. Going to have to buy a parallel port bracket cable and maybe a longer Sata cable to fit my Lian 2100.

Had one question though for anyone using the board. If your running only one drive... would you disable the promise Raid controller (jumper) SJP1 on the motherboard? I am guessing that the chip needs to be enabled to get Sata to work. Have heard that running the drive on the promise is better than on the VIA chip.

Also do you load any drivers at the Windows F6 boot? Again I'm guess the promise controller driver disk needs to be used here. Also heard it is better to use Seagates diskwizard for formating. Let me know any additional steps if you have them.
 
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ChineseDemocracyGNR

Senior member
Sep 11, 2004
920
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0
If you're only going to use a single SATA drive I would use on the VIA controller (black port) and disable the Promise one, though that's not required.

You don't need to load drivers at boot with the VT8237R southbridge according to a review of the ASUS board, but have a disk just in case. ;)
Again, if you use the VIA controller you can just ignore the Promise ports (orange SATA / yellow IDE) completely.

As for VIA socket A boards, they had good and bad days. I don't see why people are so hung up on it, it's not like the nForce is known for good reliable drivers, I've had my share of headache with them. Since the K8T800 (at least) things have been going really well with VIA's chipsets stability.
 
Zebo

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Show me 300HTT stable then it might be a contender. nV NF4 boards are 380+.. if you OC the lessor chips 3000's 3200's or simply want to run TCCD wide open with any chip this high HTT is of High importance.
 
Zebo

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Man It's got some weak OC options.

"Vcore is adjustable from 0.800V to 1.55V in 0.025V increments
DIMM voltage is adjustable from 2.6V to 2.75V in 0.05V increments "

Also uses cheap china OST caps.. no thanks. Stock or mild clocker only.. I'll wait for ABIT AX8 review.
 
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ChineseDemocracyGNR

Senior member
Sep 11, 2004
920
0
0
Soltek has a BIOS for 1.7V Vcore, though 1.55V is plenty for a Winchester in my opinion. I've seen NewCastle's die with 1.65V.

It's probably not the best platform for memory overclocking... but then again, I'd rather have some Value RAM and leave it at DDR400 anyway. To me memory overclocking is just not "fun" from a cost/performance point of view, plus there are all the reports of dying A64's from high Vdimm's. Most boards are limited to 2.8~2.85V these days.
 
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MTSteel

Member
Jan 26, 2005
126
0
0
Expect cheap OST caps to fail? I know I am looking for a board that will last me a very long time(they get handed down to wife/kids).
 
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