Unofficial Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR thread

[solarjetman]

After reading all kinds of horror stories about socket 939 nforce3's, followed by this thread, this board has moved to the top of my list. The nagging questions I still have are:

-What brand of RAM is best for dual channel use, if I'm not trying to overclock? I'd like to get two 512 sticks, and would rather not spend the extra $100 on high-end stuff like Crucial Ballistix unless I have to.
-Would the 380W, Antec True PSU that comes with the Sonata case (http://www.newegg.com/app/view...11-129-127&depa=0) be sufficient for this board, a Radeon 9600 and 4 hard drives?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: solarjetman
After reading all kinds of horror stories about socket 939 nforce3's, followed by this thread, this board has moved to the top of my list. The nagging questions I still have are:

-What brand of RAM is best for dual channel use, if I'm not trying to overclock? I'd like to get two 512 sticks, and would rather not spend the extra $100 on high-end stuff like Crucial Ballistix unless I have to.
-Would the 380W, Antec True PSU that comes with the Sonata case (http://www.newegg.com/app/view...11-129-127&depa=0) be sufficient for this board, a Radeon 9600 and 4 hard drives?

Thanks for the help.

solarjetman, despite the issue I've been posting about above, I love this board. Good call choosing it. Now you know that it's not a dual channel enabled board, right? You don't need the high end dual channel low latency stuff like you used to need on NF2 Ultra 400 boards. I use 2 x 512MB Geil Value Ultra PC3200 on mine and it is very fast.

Regarding the power supply, I have the same power supply and I have an X800 Pro and 2 HDDs, and 2 optical drives. I have power to spare, all my rails are stable and at setpoint. No need to buy another if you already have the True380.

Good luck.

 

[solarjetman]

Originally posted by: Megatomic

solarjetman, despite the issue I've been posting about above, I love this board. Good call choosing it. Now you know that it's not a dual channel enabled board, right? You don't need the high end dual channel low latency stuff like you used to need on NF2 Ultra 400 boards. I use 2 x 512MB Geil Value Ultra PC3200 on mine and it is very fast.

Regarding the power supply, I have the same power supply and I have an X800 Pro and 2 HDDs, and 2 optical drives. I have power to spare, all my rails are stable and at setpoint. No need to buy another if you already have the True380.

Good luck.

Okay, no wonder people aren't having problems. ;P

 

[Megatomic]

No problem, but I just wanted to clarify one thing: you can still use high end low latency memory on this board to get higher overclocks. You just don't have to use high end memory with extra tight settings to get excellent bandwidth from your RAM.

Now, can't I get anyone else who owns one of these boards to examine the above screenshots and let me know if their systems look the same way? Pretty please?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Now, can't I get anyone else who owns one of these boards to examine the above screenshots and let me know if their systems look the same way? Pretty please?

If you have SATA&gigabit from the chipset and it is off the pci bus then it is 250GB regardless of what software utilities say

Now, what's up with the latest review@newegg that claims there is a beta-bios that has 1.7v vcore in it? Tech support claimed 1.55v was a hardware limit? I haven't kept up so I'm curious...

 

[SPQQKY]

That's my review, bro. It would seem the fella I bought it from got this board directly from Soltek and is a special revision......that is why I asked in one of my above posts what rev everyone has. I may be the only lucky bastard to have one that delivers 1.7 vcore.

 

[SPQQKY]

Ditched the Abit and back with the Soltek. A little benching for stability was in order.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8254098

 

[Megatomic]

YGPM SPQQKY.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: SPQQKY
That's my review, bro. It would seem the fella I bought it from got this board directly from Soltek and is a special revision......that is why I asked in one of my above posts what rev everyone has. I may be the only lucky bastard to have one that delivers 1.7 vcore.

Schweet! The rest can get it with what looks to be a fairly simple volt mod but that is a PITA by comparison. I hope you are giving a copy to nuke dude to try out just in case the off the shelf boards support it with that bios despite tech support assurances to the contrary :beer:

 

[epik775]

I'm still trying to figure this out... any ideas what's going on?

Originally posted by: epik775
When I originally bought the board, I bought a pair of Corsair Value Select 512 MB DDR400 sticks. After setting up the computer, I tried to turn it on for the first time, and it wouldn't boot and gave a system beep patern for a memory error. We tried plugging my friend's Kingston HyperX 512 MB DDR333 sticks in, and it worked fine. The weird things was that the Corsair RAM worked fine in his board so to save the trouble of RMAing everything, we just traded. Now the reason why I'm confused is because I have read about people using the Value Select RAM in the mobo with no complications. Does this mean that something might be wrong with my mobo or could it just have been a freak coincidence? I'm just currious because I'm thinking of upgrading the RAM and don't want to deal with the same headache.

Also, what's the fastest RAM I can install. I know that the manual calls for a max of PC3200, but I was seeing if I could stretch it to PC3500, PC3700, or even PC4000? Thanks for the help.

 

[solarjetman]

All my components came in the mail including this board, and I've put together a minimum configuration (this board, the 3000+ CPU, Rosewill Radeon 9600 video card, 2 sticks of 512MB Crucial RAM put in 1 at a time, IDE hard drive and floppy) and it doesn't post. I've also got some old PC2700 RAM that I could test, but since I tried both sticks of Crucial together, and one at a time in each slot, with no effects, I presume my problem isn't the RAM. Is there any way of figuring out whether I got a bad board, a bad CPU or a bad video card? Any ideas (besides flipping the RAM around, clearing the CMOS, and disconnecting anything inessentiall) for coaxing it to life?

I bought this board, based on this thread, SPECIFICALLY so that I wouldn't have problems like this installing it.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: solarjetman
All my components came in the mail including this board, and I've put together a minimum configuration (this board, the 3000+ CPU, Rosewill Radeon 9600 video card, 2 sticks of 512MB Crucial RAM put in 1 at a time, IDE hard drive and floppy) and it doesn't post. I've also got some old PC2700 RAM that I could test, but since I tried both sticks of Crucial together, and one at a time in each slot, with no effects, I presume my problem isn't the RAM. Is there any way of figuring out whether I got a bad board, a bad CPU or a bad video card? Any ideas (besides flipping the RAM around, clearing the CMOS, and disconnecting anything inessentiall) for coaxing it to life?

I bought this board, based on this thread, SPECIFICALLY so that I wouldn't have problems like this installing it.

well it might not be the board... have you tried another video card? how about trying to power it up outside the case? maybe it's a grounding/shorting problem. I picked up mine and it powered up the first time right away.. all the Soltek boards I've owned have been super easy to setup and reliable as hell.. I really doubt this is the mobo's fault..

 

[solarjetman]

Originally posted by: CraigRT

Originally posted by: solarjetman
All my components came in the mail including this board, and I've put together a minimum configuration (this board, the 3000+ CPU, Rosewill Radeon 9600 video card, 2 sticks of 512MB Crucial RAM put in 1 at a time, IDE hard drive and floppy) and it doesn't post. I've also got some old PC2700 RAM that I could test, but since I tried both sticks of Crucial together, and one at a time in each slot, with no effects, I presume my problem isn't the RAM. Is there any way of figuring out whether I got a bad board, a bad CPU or a bad video card? Any ideas (besides flipping the RAM around, clearing the CMOS, and disconnecting anything inessentiall) for coaxing it to life?

I bought this board, based on this thread, SPECIFICALLY so that I wouldn't have problems like this installing it.

well it might not be the board... have you tried another video card? how about trying to power it up outside the case? maybe it's a grounding/shorting problem. I picked up mine and it powered up the first time right away.. all the Soltek boards I've owned have been super easy to setup and reliable as hell.. I really doubt this is the mobo's fault..

The board came with a sticker on the AGP slot that says, "Do not use AGP 2x cards or risk motherboard damage"; my only other cards are really old, an original Geforce2 MX and a Geforce2 Pro, and I'm pretty sure those are AGP2x; so I can't test any other video cards at the moment.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: solarjetman

Originally posted by: CraigRT

Originally posted by: solarjetman
All my components came in the mail including this board, and I've put together a minimum configuration (this board, the 3000+ CPU, Rosewill Radeon 9600 video card, 2 sticks of 512MB Crucial RAM put in 1 at a time, IDE hard drive and floppy) and it doesn't post. I've also got some old PC2700 RAM that I could test, but since I tried both sticks of Crucial together, and one at a time in each slot, with no effects, I presume my problem isn't the RAM. Is there any way of figuring out whether I got a bad board, a bad CPU or a bad video card? Any ideas (besides flipping the RAM around, clearing the CMOS, and disconnecting anything inessentiall) for coaxing it to life?

I bought this board, based on this thread, SPECIFICALLY so that I wouldn't have problems like this installing it.

well it might not be the board... have you tried another video card? how about trying to power it up outside the case? maybe it's a grounding/shorting problem. I picked up mine and it powered up the first time right away.. all the Soltek boards I've owned have been super easy to setup and reliable as hell.. I really doubt this is the mobo's fault..

The board came with a sticker on the AGP slot that says, "Do not use AGP 2x cards or risk motherboard damage"; my only other cards are really old, an original Geforce2 MX and a Geforce2 Pro, and I'm pretty sure those are AGP2x; so I can't test any other video cards at the moment.

Looks like your GF2 Pro or maybe even the MX is a 4x card. the GTS used in the tests is the same as a Pro, except lesser clock IIRC.

http://www.hardwarecentral.com...entral/reviews/1817/9/

 

[solarjetman]

Well, I just plugged in both of them, and got the same results.

 

[imported_Einstein]

I Used to have Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL mobo, runned with Athlon 2600+, it was perfect. 2 days ago got my brand new SL-K8AN2E-GR and deffinately from now on I am a Soltek fan. Got it a little overclocked, still run perfectly.

 

[LordPhoenix]

Anyone know if ZALMAN CNPS7000A AlCu is compatible with this board?

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: SPQQKY
Ditched the Abit and back with the Soltek. A little benching for stability was in order.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8254098

Curious why you ended up going with the Abit... Ditching the Soltek to some poor guy?

 

[Fuzn]

Originally posted by: LordPhoenix
Anyone know if ZALMAN CNPS7000A AlCu is compatible with this board?

Yes, I've been using it with no problems. You just gotta replace the backplate with the one the heatsink comes with. It's also a TAD tricky to get the sata cables in behind it if you have the video card plugged in.

 

[mgsvr]

Anyone here who have a soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR (Socket 754) mobo, and successfully install the Zalman Alcu? I'm running a stock HFS/fan right now with Arctic Silver 5, and the soltek HM show that mine is run at 45c idle (same one on the BIOS). Speedfans show that mine is 37c idle. I don't know which to trust though. I even try to use Everest or Aida32, but both of them don't list my CPU temp.

Anyone, I'm not going to Overclock my CPU. So should I live with the fact that the CPu run at mid 40s, or should I get a better cooling? Thanks

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: mgsvr

Anyone, I'm not going to Overclock my CPU. So should I live with the fact that the CPu run at mid 40s, or should I get a better cooling? Thanks

Stock cooling is fine even for some mild OCing, so if you are not OCing at all, IMO no point in upgrading the CPU cooler, unless you want a bling-piece..

 

[epik775]

So I've been trying to OC my comp for a while with minimal results (I can only get the FSB to run stable at 217), and I'm wondering what RAM would be best for a high stable OC on this board. Right now, I'm running Kingston HyperX DDR PC2700 and a 3400+ processor with 1MB Cache. Any RAM suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking for whatever RAM would give me the biggest boost. I ask this primarily because I don't know what the limits are for this board (i.e. can it take PC4400 or is it limited to PC3200?). I really appreciate the help. Thanks.

 

[Megatomic]

The guy I bought my board from had it running at 265MHz though I don't know if he used dividers or if his memory was able to run 1:1 with it. I'd say you can get the fastest memory you can afford to buy and install it no problems. PC3200 is the "official" upper limit but through overclocking you can run much higher.

 

[Brule]

Okay, another question involving RAM. I'm getting this board soon. I currently have 2x512 pc2700 Kingston (VR), which worked fine when not touching the FSB. I plan on upgrading to 2x512 pc3200 (or faster). Would I get better performance with 1x512 pc3200 or 2x512 pc2700 for typical gaming such as COD?

What seems to be the real world impact of a different divider compared to a 1:1 setup? I'm still new to the entire A64 line but this thread has helped a bunch.

proposed setup
Mobo um, this one (with extra punch up to 1.7v for OC'ing)
3200+ clawhammer
BBA 9800pro
X-connect 500w PSU
everything else prett basic, no SATA or RAID right now

 

[mgsvr]

What do I need to change in the BIOS in order to make my system more effective for gaming?

BFG 6800nu OC
1 gig pc3200 with cas 2.5
3400 Clawhammer

I know some setting in the Advance section that have AGP Aperture Size, or Cas# Latecy, Ras# active time, or DRAM that are on default as Auto. Which one do I need to change? Thanks