Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL Review

[Mikki]

Prometheus' Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL review is up, if anyone wishes to comment on or discuss this board or the review, this is the place to do it! :beer: :D

Read the review here (http://www.bleedinedge.com/reviews/soltek_sl-75frn2-rl/soltek_sl-75frn2-rl_pg1.html)....;)

[noah]

I like the clean layout and simple relevant information. Looking forward to more reviews!

[caffeinated]

Good review.

Gave me an idea of what I might be able to do with my Asus A7N8X rev2.0 board.

[RotorHead]

Great review there Prometheus !!

Definitely bang for the buck, and looks good too.

How much further do you think it would go with a WC Rig :?:

RH

[DAPUNISHER]

Excellent review! I have setup 4 Golden Flame series boards and love these things :D Unfortunately it's getting darned near impossible to find one since Soltek U.S.A. ceased operations :( Even Newegg doesn't seem to be restocking and they have the Asian connection. I'm just hoping they are waiting on the new boards Soltek anounced to replace the older models.EDIT: I just read that Newegg will have a new shippment in on the 28th woohoo!

[prometheus]

http://www.misrcorps.com/ in Florida is a Soltek distributor, sell direct, and are set-up for secure web shopping. They almost always have the boards in stock and prices are OK.

[DAPUNISHER]

Yep, that's Amr Metwally he hangs out at AMDMB in the Soltek forum. The only reason I haven't bought from him yet is he's in Fl. with me so after tax&shipping Newegg is a better deal for me. However, if Newegg don't get 'em in on time and they bump the price up at all I'm going to deal with Amr anyways.

[Mikki]

Hehe...prometheus' review made the Inquirer...:) Linky (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9634)

[SupermanCK]

:beer:

Very nice review...

[raceware]

FWIW, I just assembled an Asus A7N8X Deluxe with a 2500+ Barton, Corsair Twin 256 LL PC3200, a Radeon 7500, and Maxtor Atlas 15K as a Biz everyday PC. I've been running a burn-in/stability test for the past 36 hours by looping Content Creation 2003. I am running the system at all DEFAULT settings other than setting the FSB to 200 MHz, i.e. as an AMD 3200+ would run stock.

My results mirror the Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL review as it is 100% rock stable AND has an impressive 41.8 Content Creation score as configured with very conservative settings and a modest Radeon 7500 graphic card. Since this PC is for Biz, stability is more important to me than a few frame rates as we don't do games. Nonetheless the 2500+ Barton really delivers a Helleva performance bang for the buck and is irresistible at current prices. I think AMD still has a few surprises left for Intel with the Barton core. Stay tuned!

[Ozzie]

If it wasn't for the holes missing around the heatsink I would've put my order in today...what a bummer they would do that.

Great review though - sure makes it look tempting... :yummy:

[Skully]

Originally posted by Ozzie
If it wasn't for the holes missing around the heatsink I would've put my order in today...what a bummer they would do that.

Great review though - sure makes it look tempting... :yummy: Hey Ozzie, yea need those holes for H2o! Good review Prometheus! :beer:

[prometheus]

Thanks for the kudos. I DID notice the holes were missing and should have made a mention of it in the review. It is also an issue for some of the better AIR cooling solutions as well as h2o rigs. I agree that with the holes there the Golden Flame would have been a near perfect Athlon board.

[DAPUNISHER]

You can water cool with the Golden Flame (http://pichosting.pcthike.com/DAPUNISHER/s2) Of course if you already have a setup and it's the bolt on it's not cost effective but for those looking to water cool like myself there are alternatives to allow this board to get it done.

[Ozzie]

Yup - I have been thinking of doing that as well...I have a couple DD Maze3's that clamp on to my Asus dually and they work just fine.

Maybe I should give it a go - waterblocks never seem to go to waste...:cool:

[Skully]

Originally posted by Ozzie
Yup - I have been thinking of doing that as well...I have a couple DD Maze3's that clamp on to my Asus dually and they work just fine.

Maybe I should give it a go - waterblocks never seem to go to waste...:cool: Yea I hear that, I'm still messing with Maze2 water blocks! :D

[JayisunJ]

Isn't the review dealing more with the fact that the Barton 2500+ can be overclocked to a 3200+ using this motherboard rather than a review of the motherboard itself? Sweet review anyway I guess I was just wondering about some of the features of the board such as on-board audio. I know it doesn't have Soundstorm, but can anyone tell me what it does have? Off topic: Newegg has this board cheaper than the 75FRN2-L right now which is totally strange considering this overclocks just as well and has SATA to boot. :confused:

[obvious]

Hi all. Great review btw!

Was wondering if anyone has found this board or variants available to the UK or in the UK?

I've found the 75FRN2-L here (http://www.web-systems.co.uk/?page=Products&pid=685) for £72 but wonder if it can be had for less? I'm putting a system together for a friend on a VERY tight budget. Was thinking of getting an XP1700+ (JIUHB = overclock) to go with it :D

I guess some TwinMos PC2700 (also a great overclocker) would be the icing on the cake?

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by JayisunJ
Isn't the review dealing more with the fact that the Barton 2500+ can be overclocked to a 3200+ using this motherboard rather than a review of the motherboard itself? Sweet review anyway I guess I was just wondering about some of the features of the board such as on-board audio. I know it doesn't have Soundstorm, but can anyone tell me what it does have? Off topic: Newegg has this board cheaper than the 75FRN2-L right now which is totally strange considering this overclocks just as well and has SATA to boot. :confused: The Solteks are definitely no frills boards. Except for the SATA which is Promise and not that flakey silicon image one, it just has 6 channel ALC650. Where it's feature rich is for overclocking, vdd adjustment 1.6v-1.8v, completely unlocks t-bred B and Barton, tweaks for all settings and there's a voltage mod for getting over 1.85v if you are an extreme overclocker like the guy who's pic I linked. It's perfect for users like myself who don't want all the extras like soundstorm, dual LAN, and firewire but if you want "leather bucket seats" so to speak it ain't for you.

[JayisunJ]

Hey, thanks alot Dapunisher! I guess my brother's 680's will probably work fine on it then with the 6 channel audio. I guess it is definately the motherboard I am looking for to replace his old VIA chipset Albatron. Super cheap and fairly feature rich.

[DAPUNISHER]

No problemo :) BTW, [H] used the 680's when testing the audio on the FRN2 check it out linkage (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDY4LDM=) Almost forgot, use the Realtek A3.44's Audio drivers as they work great with this board and include a 10 band equalizer and enviromental sound effects the download page is Here (http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlac97-2.aspx?lineid=5&famid=12&series=8&Software=True)

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by DAPUNISHER
The Solteks are definitely no frills boards. Except for the SATA which is Promise and not that flakey silicon image one

It's funny that you mention that because I went with the miserable Asus A7N8x (miserable because the stupid thing died after doing a bios upgrade :mad: ) because it did not have the Promise controller on it. :rolleyes: I got better ATTO scores on the SI controller than what I did on the ICH5R on my Canterwood board. I don't quite understand that one.

BTW: The week that the A7N8x Deluxe rev 2.0 worked, I easily oc'ed the XP2500 to XP3200. I was shocked how easy it was and I was even using default vcore with the retail HSF and even the thermal pad that was on the HSF! Since I have to RMA this board I don't know what to expect when I get it back.

[DAPUNISHER]

I'm sorry to hear that :( I hate it when a board I like goes belly up! Hopefully the next one will be even better for you. As to the SI controller , you may have gotten great performance but some have had data corruption issues that still haven't been completely worked out

[pointreyes]

Originally posted by DAPUNISHER
I'm sorry to hear that :( I hate it when a board I like goes belly up! Hopefully the next one will be even better for you. As to the SI controller , you may have gotten great performance but some have had data corruption issues that still haven't been completely worked out

I only used the controller for a week; however, I did not have any data corruption occur. I solved the problem with the Asus board, it was the video card.

[Blu72]

Hi friens, sorry me for bad english....
I have a soltek sl-75fr2-rl, i have many problems about SATA controller....
After installig XPsp1 and mobo drivers is all OK.
The problem is when i start the machine cold.....
The HDD is not recognised or i have mutch problem with system files....
Windows start chdisk and reboot....
Did you have the same problem?
Thanks

[DAPUNISHER]

I have some questions for you :)

1. You have jumper JP4 on 1-2 to enable it, correct?

2.then did you use ctrl-F to get in the fastbuild utility?

3.Then did you follow directions in section 5.2.1 of the manual to install the drivers for XP/2000? or did you use the installing drivers to exisitng XP/2000 installation?

If you followed the directions properly and you are still having trouble I'd start by making certain you have the latest fasttrack drivers and install them. Next, would be updating the bios if needed, and then I'd troubleshoot for a faulty SATA cable. If none of that helps you prbably have a corrupted boot record or MBR you need to fix.

[Blu72]

Dear friend, about the sata driver i had tryed the version 1.00.0.13 and version 1.00.1.29..... no results
In the bios of controller is all ok, tehe array has been automaticaly assigned and the hd is correctly recognised.... in a Maxtor 80GB SATA...
The mobo's bios has been upgraded to version 1.7
After all upgrades ... no results
Thanks for your help

[DAPUNISHER]

Good luck and post back if you find a solution :)