Soltek SL75DRV2

anyone have any links to detailed reviews on this mobo? Tom's Hardware said it was a crazy overclocker. but i'm not sure...i've never heard of Soltek. anyone have this board? what do you guys think?

Tom's Hardware Review of Soltek SL75DRV2

Don't know about the board, but Soltek is good and Tom knows his stuff--he's always been an unbiased tester and just reports the facts.

1SQ said:

Tom knows his stuff--he's always been an unbiased tester and just reports the facts.

Click to expand...

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!

::clutches his stomach so its doesn't explode from laughing so hard::

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Good one, damn that was funny

http://www.soltek.com.tw/

http://www.lostcircuits.com/motherboard/sl_75drv2/

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q4/011126/kt266a_nforce-10.html

The reason you can't find it on pricewatch etc is because it isnt sold in the USA, or so I'm told. Mine is in the mail right now from NCIX.com, its a Canadian site. I'll let you know how everything turns out in a few days.

Ok, so I see you're a Tom basher --for those confused, Tom is supposedly anti-Intel, read here:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q3/0008281/pentiumiii-02.html

or a better one is here:

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/03/02/intel_netburst/index.html

I don't really want to get this crapola started, but just remember that if you were a multi-gozilion dollar company, wouldn't you make sure you got a good test specimen to your tester and explain your "net-burst" claims better? Give the guy a break!

Um check NewEgg again. They are going to be selling it next week (12/22). Will I get one? No...only because I want RAID and I don't want to get a separate card for $100 and waste a PCI slot. We all know how twitchy the order of hardware in these PCI slots are? The fewer I use, the better!

I saw a place selling one in the U.S. if I find the site again again, I'll post the link.

When I was in Hong Kong last week a saw a SL75DRV3 version of the board, which appeared to be the exact same as the SL75DRV2, but with onboard RAID 1, 0, and 0+1. I am not sure If they sell them around here though. It seems to be a very hot board in Hong Kong; a couple places were sold out. Plus they were competivly priced, about 750 HKD (apox. $95).

Yeah the SL-ERV3+ looks pretty good I got a whole bunch of prmotional stuff on the boards Soltek is making, and I can tell you it reminds me of abit from abour 3 or 4 years ago. When they release their ERV3+ (kt266a, raid, etc...) I will be selling my Abit KR7A raid to switch it for a Soltek. They have AGP BIOS voltage adujustment, along with all other overclocking options. Look like VERY VERY nice boards..



Slick..

I have a SL75DRV2 (got mine from NCIX), and I love the board! I put an Athlon XP 1600+ in it and loaded up WinXP. I did not have to load a single driver! The thing is great. Perfectly stable so far, not a single lockup.

SK6 with 80mm fan keeps the noise down, and the temps comfortable at 43C.

Katana Man said:

I have a SL75DRV2 (got mine from NCIX), and I love the board! I put an Athlon XP 1600+ in it and loaded up WinXP. I did not have to load a single driver! The thing is great. Perfectly stable so far, not a single lockup.

SK6 with 80mm fan keeps the noise down, and the temps comfortable at 43C.

Click to expand...

Good news, good news. Mines coming tomorrow from there....fingers crossed etc.

Thought y'all out to be interested in this. Got one of these (SL-75DRV2) about a week ago. First the board would startup and then shutdown and then would not POST at all. NCIX issued an RMA and I sent it back last week. I'll let you know how it turns out in the Vendors forum.

Got mine two days back. Put in an XP 1500+, and 256 MB of Samsung DDR. The board is rock-stable, I did have to format the HD and reload 98SE on it, though.

Funny enough, I can't overclock the board even a tad. For now I'm putting it down to the RAM, the only brands available here are Samsung and Hynix (that too, with third party mounting).

Even in stock config, the combo is making a helluva difference! My temps are down from 47/48 with a Duron 750+Asus A7VL-VM, to about 45 at full load. The PC just seems to have lost about 20 pounds of flab, I haven't run Sandra but am planning to.

Oh, the onboard audio is giving me a few problems to install. I'm doing something about it and will get the thang to work tonight. Meantime, Merry Christmas.

Sang

You ought to find this interesting then. I sent an email to Soltek TS when I first got the board because it was really flaky (before it died) and NCIX TS told me that I couldn't run 2 modules of Micron memory at the same time which seemed stupid. (and unreasonable, I'm not going to go buy more memory I don't need unless I absolutely have to) After I sent the email to Soltek Taiwan TS I got _two_ seperate responses. Here's the first one:

______________________________
Hello Sir:
This is Vincent from Taipei Soltek.Regarding to your problem.Maybe you
could tried to change some BIOS setting.it could helps you to fix this
compatible problem.

Enter the BIOS setting and choose
"Advanced Chipset Features"
=Dram clock/Drive control
=Dram clock from By SPD to 133Mhz
=Dram timing from By SPD to manual

_________________________________
Here's the second:

If you use Crucial 256MB DDR, please try to change DIMM voltage from 2.5V(default) to 2.7V by JP1 and JP2.

If above solution is not help, then use one 512MB DDR is a better
solution than two 256MB DDR. I think that this is hardware design issue and can't be fixed at current PCB unless changed to new PCB version.

P.S. Don't use 512MB ram on WIN98.

Best Regards

SOLTEK/Liu Yung-fu
__________________________________

Interesting, eh?

if anyone who has this board doesn't mind, let me know if you figure out the o/c issue or if someone is o/c'd this board well. keep posting about anything else about this board too can't decide on new board for 1800 xp, radeon 8500.

I've gone upto 150 FSB with some stability problems when playing games etc. Not a very high speed, but I'm OK with it. I could run at 140 all day, and for a fairly long bit at 145.

Trick is to back off the RAM and PCI settings. Very agressive timings set as default, I think. I have two sticks of Samsung 128 MB DDR RAM installed. I guess good memory would OC better.

Sang

OK, here's the update. Got the board up to 150 FSB running Folding for four hours, not a single crash. Still can't game at that speed, but can be on the 'net and play chess and stuff like that along with running Folding.

All memory timings are backed right off: CAS is at 2.5, Command rate is at 2T, Interleaving disabled, Queue depth is at 2. The CPU is multiplier locked. I'm not about to attempt an unlock, ever.

The CPU shows up as an Athlon XP 1800+ and it took me about seven hours to finish one WU of folding yesterday, at stock speed.

At 1500 Mhz (1800+) speed, it was on about three hours and it's already finished about 45% of one WU. Looks very promising. Specially with no RAM sinks, and a mid-range cooler at best (ThermalTake Volcano II, .74 c/w), I think this is a decent OC. RAM/CPU/AGP voltages are at stock.

I guess with quality RAM, cooling and some Active RAM cooling, it would go even higher. I'm gonna be trying out 155 FSB in a few days' time, after everything 'beds' in nicely, with what I've got, since none of the above stuff is easy to come by in this place.

Check back in a week...

Sang

I posted as to the status on the RMA's but let us merely say that NCIX is slow as dirt so I ordered a new one from SoltekUSA and got it three days later. (2Day UPS my butt...anyway)

I've got a 1700+ in it, using a home grown watercool rig, I did boost the DIMM voltage to 2.7 per their suggestion and kept the memory timing tame.

I was able to go to 150, which puts the CPU at a rock-solid 1665MHz. (Well, I haven't torture tested it yet, but it put up with 3 straight hours of Max Payne on high detail levels.) I'll fire up the dnetc OGR cracker tonight and see what she does.

I've Just order one from NCIX.com with a duron 1000. I'll let you know how well it does.

Soltek with XP (AMD and WIN) problem?

My friend and I are trying to put together his new system featuring this motherboard and lots of problems.

Soltek SL-75DRV2 (purple ray) with Krev4 BIOS (out of box/no flash)
256 MB Crucial DDR 2100 (CAS 2.5)
AMD 1600+XP Retail (with stock fan)
TEAC CD-RW (CDW524E/B OEM) 24X10X40X
Maxtor 40GB 7200 ATA100
Leadtek GF3Ti200 64MB DDR
Enhance ENP 0730 300watt power supply (AMD approved)

EVERYTHING is brand new. NO Overclocking. ALL default settings except PNP OS to TRUE.

Assembly went fine, initial boot indicates jumpers,etc. all set properly and CPU, RAM all detected properly.

1) Tried to install WIN XP (OEM) over old stuff on older Maxtor 6GB drive (this wasn't new but read on...). Error at end of format indicates problem with drive. Bad install. but drive always worked before (scratch head?)...

2) After two more tries with XP switch to Win98SE (OEM). HDD wiped clean. Win 98 installs, run scandisk full and says there is no problem with disk. So install driver CD for Soltek (starts with VIA 4-in-1) and whole installation corrupted. Two more tries and conclude 6 GB HDD is bad?

3) Go out and buy BRAND NEW 40GB Maxtor listed in specs above. Try install WIN XP fresh. Again says HDD is bad at end of format. Odds of a brand new HDD and an old one (which scandisks fine) both being bad very slim. This would seem to indicate a problem with Win XP but knowledge base turns up nothing.

4) Now try Win 98SE on new drive. Format and install work. System seems to work so install motherboard CD drivers. So far so good. (No applications testes at this time). Next install Nvidia drivers from Leadtek CD. Computer starts to have lock up problems. These occurs randomly during any activity but always when accessing CD or when trying to open Explorer or open directory on harddrive. Can't install anything cause of CD trouble, can't even have CD in drive on boot or hang.

5) Try reinstalls again and still same problem. Internet searches turn up rumors of board problems and theories about everything but most indicators seem to point to motherboard problem even thought these have supposedly been fixed (this board shipped with "latest" BIOS).

We can't figure out what is happening. Drives all check out fine ( I am testing them on my totally different system). I seriously doubt there is a problem with the installation CDs (though I suspect Win XP might suck). All hardware has been verified one way or another except motherboard. This includes swapping out cables in case bad cable is causing drive troubles.

Does anyone know?

Could the CPU be damaged and show random lock ups or would it just not work(the force required to attach heat sink/fan was more than I was comfortable with but was an AMD unit so...) ?

Is there a problem with this motherboard and windows XP or AMD XP?

I would suspect video drivers but the installation/format errors couldn't be caused by that, since that happens way before any video drivers are installed.

Anyone heard bad stuff about the PSU we are using since I have heard a noncertified PSU might cause random unexplained lockups? This PSU is AMD approved though...

Anyone have any idea what might be happening or had similar problems installing an OS with this board or CPU?

ANY assistance would be appreciated. We are going to RMA the motherboard for an Iwill XP333 (same price/newegg) but I am afraid if that doesn't work...

UPDATE: Tried the voltage adjustments mentioned above for no change . Problems sound so similar to other forum posts all over net for earlier verions of boards I think quality with this brand is a crap shoot unfortunately. Still would like others thoughts on this.