*** Official Soltek 75FRN-L/75FRN2-L (nForce2) Thread ***

[saddy]

i notice that the bios of the SL-75FRN2-L supports automatic turning on at a scheduled time. however, i wonder if there is a software that can configure/control that feature from windows?

why would i want that? well, i want my pc to be turned off for about an hour so that i can get some silence in my room long enough for me to fall asleep!

 

[Mem]

Overclockers.co.nz review of the Soltek's 75FRN2-LR ,another one to add to your long list .

I've achieved a maximum stable working frequency of 220MHz. We can also see from the screenshot above that the FRN2 surely comes with C1 stepping nF2 chipset.


Soltek FRN2-LR is one formidable contender in the socketA motherboard market. Therefore, we give Soltek FRN2-LR motherboard our OCNZ Recommended Award. Well done, Soltek!

 

[Daysleeper]

Text

well this makes me wonder => Note: It is recommended that users flash to the latest BIOS, D1.2L, in order to achieve a higher stable FSB. In addition, the board is less picky about the type of e ram used with the new BIOS.

well this is something that i must test right away........

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Daysleeper

Text

well this makes me wonder => Note: It is recommended that users flash to the latest BIOS, D1.2L, in order to achieve a higher stable FSB. In addition, the board is less picky about the type of e ram used with the new BIOS.

well this is something that i must test right away........

Looking forward to results so post them ASAP please

 

[crzyricn]

hey dapunisher i pmed you because i wanted to know what bios editing program to use to edit the sl-75frn-l bios, and where do i find it. I want to make the fsb go up to 250 like the 75frn2 board does is that possible????

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: crzyricn
hey dapunisher i pmed you because i wanted to know what bios editing program to use to edit the sl-75frn-l bios, and where do i find it. I want to make the fsb go up to 250 like the 75frn2 board does is that possible????

CPGeek responded to the question of what he used

- open xxxx.bin with modbin6.exe, modify what You wan't ( It ain't that much ) and save as a new file. I made both these bioses in about 15 mins. ( NOTE: modbin6 can be tricky in NT-machines, I luckily own a Pentium166 laptop w. Win98... )

I have hopefully always pointed out that these are not "CP's great mod's", they are more like "Slightly CP-Tweaked" bios files. Any1 can do this, but since I don't see them posted I post them. Simple, huh ? Another point is that I always test them, if I have a mobo for it, if I don't, then I ALWAYS say that in my post.

Notice he says he just unhid the settings that were there and the 250mhz isn't there to start with. I wonder if you knew how to mod the part of the bios from the FRN2 that deals with the FSB and put it in the FRN that it would be available but I have no idea how.

 

[Daysleeper]

Well i think that before i flash the new bios i should make a mod for the memories (hyperx).I think that they won't go higher fsb with 2,8V.....

 

[Daysleeper]

Well well well....i just noticed that there is new bios available => D1.3L....testing testing...

 

[aircooled]

Originally posted by: Daysleeper
Well well well....i just noticed that there is new bios available => D1.3L....testing testing...

I just flashed my BIOS to 1.3L and it's solid. My 2100+ will not run at 200FSB, but runs great at 166. I would be interested to hear from folks with true 2700+'s and higher (or lower) to know if they have good luck with 200FSB.

 

[NesuD]

my 2100+ with Corsair pc3200 XMS runs fine at up to 213 with the 1.1 bios cpu at 2130mhz. with 1.2 or 1.3 it is almost impossible for me to get it back to 200mhz and completely impossible for me to run my cpu over 2000mhz. Needless to say 1.2 and 1.3 were both a bust for me so i went back to 1.1 again.

 

[Daysleeper]

well my summerwacation isn't far away....7 hours......then i will test these new bioses and also my cousins new computer....1700+ and mobo soltek frn2-l of course....hyperx 2 x 256 pc-3000....

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I keep hearing to stick with D1.1 and that the only real benefit of the newer bios has been increased memory compatability but I suspect it's at the expense of performance to some extent and would like to see a thorough benchmarking comparison to confirm or refute the assertion.

Looking forward to your results Daysleeper :beer:

 

[NesuD]

well puzzled out my problem with the 1.2/1.3 bios. Apparently with these bios versions i have to set the T(ras) to 8 instead of 6 with my corsair xms. benchmarks just as fast maybe a tad quicker with these settings. will have to beat up on it more tomorrow to be sure.

 

[Daysleeper]

Well i just tested my cousing computer and it went 218fsb...(5-2-2-2)...the bios was D1L....1700+ went 1433@2000 with default voltages and 1433@2400 with max vcore (1,85V).....not bad soltek!!!.......pifast 3.3 just under 26sec

 

[Sepen]

I just picked up one of these, 1 week old, bought it here. I get no video at all. Evrything spins up etc, but notta. I have tried two cpus, AMD1200 and an XP2400, differewnt ddr ram, different video cards, etc. I have tried the video, memory and cpus in another of my computers using a MSI motherboard and everything works perfectly. Any ideas on what to try?

I have done the cmos, and goofed with the fsb jumper already.

thanks....

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Sepen
I just picked up one of these, 1 week old, bought it here. I get no video at all. Evrything spins up etc, but notta. I have tried two cpus, AMD1200 and an XP2400, differewnt ddr ram, different video cards, etc. I have tried the video, memory and cpus in another of my computers using a MSI motherboard and everything works perfectly. Any ideas on what to try?

I have done the cmos, and goofed with the fsb jumper already.

thanks....

Did you try holding the insert key down while powering up? What ram are you using? I had a similar issue when I first tried 3200DDR and had to use Crucial 2700 to set the timings manually before it would boot with the 3200DDR.

 

[Sepen]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: Sepen
I just picked up one of these, 1 week old, bought it here. I get no video at all. Evrything spins up etc, but notta. I have tried two cpus, AMD1200 and an XP2400, differewnt ddr ram, different video cards, etc. I have tried the video, memory and cpus in another of my computers using a MSI motherboard and everything works perfectly. Any ideas on what to try?

I have done the cmos, and goofed with the fsb jumper already.

thanks....

Did you try holding the insert key down while powering up? What ram are you using? I had a similar issue when I first tried 3200DDR and had to use Crucial 2700 to set the timings manually before it would boot with the 3200DDR.

Yes, tried it. Using Crucial 2700 and tried Mushkin 2100 as well. Nothing.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Looks like it's time to RMA your board.

 

[joshg]

DAPUNISHER,

Something that you posted in another thread has sparked an interest within me...

The Abit suggested is a awesome board and definitely grab it if you would like Soundstorm and the other kicka$$ features the MCP-T brings to the table. However if you don't need/want the extras get the Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL for 95$ shipped from Newegg as it is also an excellent overclocker and has the Promise SATA controller which can be flashed to a full Fasttrak S150 TX2plus RAID controller which sells for 75$+ all by itself instead of the silicon Image the Asus and Abit use that's having problems with data corruption for many people, though since you aren't looking to upgrade to SATA for some time yet the issues should be completely resolved by then.

I guess I'll just start rolling with the questions...

I'm looking for a board that has pretty good onboard audio. I know that Soltek doesn't use the MCP-T and they are using their own controller to handle the 6-ch sound. In light of that, how is the quality of the sound? In particular, how is it compared to a known standard like SB Live 5.1? Also, if I had 3 mini plugs, one for Front R/L, one for Rear R/L, and one for Center/Bass, would this board's onboard sound allow me to plug in each of these three and give me 6 channel sound?

Also, the RAID controller... I've heard a lot of stories about the SATA RAID controllers on these nF2 boards to cause data corruption and disk error problems. Does that same problem exist with the Promise controller found on the SL-75FRN2-RL ?

And, if I got another 40GB 7200rpm PATA hard drive to match mine, and 2 SATA -> PATA adapters, would I be able to have a PATA RAID using this controller? If so I'd probably run this for a few months until I could shell out for 2x SATA RAPTOR hard drives...

Also, the board on Newegg's site doesn't say anything about 400FSB support, however if you go to the Soltek site for SL-75FRN2-RL, they clearly state several times that the board has support for these chips.

So, which one is right?

Also, in the picutres at Newegg, it shows an active cooling solution for the NB, whereas the picture at Soltek's website shows a passive HS only. I am guessing that the one pictured at Soltek is not the SL-75FRN2-RL, but instead is the SL-75FRN2-L ?

If I order this board from Newegg, will I be getting one with 400FSB support?

Basically I'm looking to upgrade to something like this:

Barton 2500+ w/ SK-7 and YS-Tech Variable 80mm
nF2 Mobo (right now I'm leaning towards SL-75FRN2-RL, tomorrow it could be something different!)
1GB (2x512) PC3200 - not sure what brand, any idea what I should go with specifically for problems that may have come up with the Soltek boards?


... And I'll be aiming for at least 200FSB O/C.

I am assuming that I will need to add at least a passive HS to the SB in order to acheive this safely? Is there any place I can look to see a suggested list of the little HS's that I can use for this, and maybe other possible mods (such as modding the Promise controller like you said in that other thread) for these boards?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Naruto]

Soltek just released 2.05 nforce drivers. Might not be the same old 2.03 nforce drivers repackaged either.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hey joshg OK lets get you some answers now.

1.The 75FRN2-RL uses the Realtek 6channel sound with AC97 codec and though I haven't done it you can remap the mic and line ports to make the board capable of 5.1 surround sound. The Realtek A3.44 drivers work great with this board and the link to download them is in the first post setup and install guide.

2. The Promise controller does not suffer from the problems the Silicon Image one does and works great. The RAID options are 1 or 2 drives in RAID 0 or 2 drives in RAID 1.

3.The SL-75FRN2 series all ship with the Ultra400 A1/C1 chipset so support for 200mhz FSB is garanteed by Soltek.

4. The northbridge on every Golden Flame series board I've had, seen, or heard of shipped with the active cooler on it. I definitely recommend southbridge cooling and this Vantec Iceberg kit here is awesonme for the money and the provided 3M thermal tape is excellent.

5. Looking at your intended hardware choices 400DDR synchronous mode will be gravy :beer: I'd suggest OCZ, TwinMos, or Corsair 3200-3700DDR as users are blowing up with it! Some even reaching 240fsb synch!!! :Q

6. Don't use any of the modded RAID bios available unless you find the onboard insufficient to your needs which I doubt will be a problem as it's always risky when flashing a bios and like they say "if it ain't broke don't fix it"

Hope this answers all your questions and I can tell you there's very few Soltek users who don't love their boards. The problem it has are all generic NF2 chipset issues and if you follow the setup and install guide 99% of those will never affect you

 

[joshg]

Ok.. Well like I said if I get 2x SATA to PATA adapters can I run RAID 0 out of the box? Also, do I need to use the Soltek adapter, or can any of them work?

Thanks again!

 

[joshg]

Also would an Antec or Fortron 300W PSU be able to handle the load of the following:

Barton 2500+ @ 11x200+ cooled by YS Tech 80mm Variable
SL-75FRN2-RL
1GB Corsair XMS 3200 (probably won't get LL because too much $$ ! )
40GB WD 40BB
ATI R9500 Pro
24x Lite-on CDRW
16x Lite-on DVD
Floppy

.. and that's probably all that I'm gonna run!

.. or would I need a bigger PSU ? I know the Antec and Fortron hold much better on the rails than something that's even rated at 500W+ ...

 

[dminimal]

Quick question, as Southbridge cooling was mentioned: how high should I dare to take the FSB without a heatsink on the Southbridge chip?

 

[Huntress]

If anyone would like to help me out with a no post problem on a SL-75FRN-L please check this thread.. Warning... very long post and concerns more than the Soltek itself.

Also, how do I tell what revision of the board I have... not very clear to me, either Soltek doesn't label it on the PCB, or I am just not seeing it.

Any help would be appreciated, I have wanted this board for so long, and this no post issue is so depressing.

Thanks!

Diana

PS... this is the first board I ever got that actually has a NEW BOARD smell.... LMAO