Soltek nforce2 motherboard?

Guys, I'm going to upgrade my mobo soon (guess MSI KT3 Ultra just doesn't cut it anymore .. i need more bus power .. ) ..

and I love this GOLD COLORED mobo
Soltek Golden Flame SL-75FRN L
since it would go right w/ my new case project (windowed, using yellow cathode, so it will be all gold and shiny ... love that color!!).

But I cannot find a single review on how this board perform ... anybody already using it?? comments??

i like the looks of it too. i just want a revew...

~Will

I looked at the specs, and it doesnt look like it has much overclocking options. It looks cool though

Gremlin255 said:

I looked at the specs, and it doesnt look like it has much overclocking options. It looks cool though

Click to expand...

really?? it's brother for pentium 4 processor runs the 2nd fastest board and most overclockable mobo among 16 boards (based on tomshardware's review) .. but i'm also waiting for this nforce2 review ..

Gremlin255 said:

I looked at the specs, and it doesnt look like it has much overclocking options. It looks cool though

Click to expand...

really?? it's brother for pentium 4 processor runs the 2nd fastest board and most overclockable mobo among 16 boards (based on tomshardware's review) .. but i'm also waiting for this nforce2 review ..

ya....please someone review this. i emailed mwave about them but i dont think they give stuff away at all.

~Will

According to the guys on amdforums.com it's a pretty good board with stellar performance. Ninjalane said they should have a review up this week if I'm not mistaken also.

Looking at the user manual for this mobo, Chapter 4 states the CPU fsb choices are only 100,133,166 in the bios.
Theres also a thing called "RedStorm Overclocking (Optional)"
I wonder what that may be?


http://www.soltekusa.com/download/showdownload.php?downloadid=1043808273

Gremlin255 said:

Looking at the user manual for this mobo, Chapter 4 states the CPU fsb choices are only 100,133,166 in the bios.
Theres also a thing called "RedStorm Overclocking (Optional)"
I wonder what that may be?


http://www.soltekusa.com/download/showdownload.php?downloadid=1043808273

Click to expand...

"Redstorm OC" in my guess would be the "Expert" mode on the BIOS where we can set the OC settings ... finally another low-cost high-end nforce2 board to choose (alternative to 8RDA+) ..

Heres a review:
"http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=solteknf2&page=1&bhcp=1"

bios overclock options do not have the best choices
stats:
"FSB Alteration from 200 MHz to 400 MHz FSB (1 MHz incriments)
Memory Frequency Alteration up to 200% of FSB Speed (Up to 800 MHz)
Full Memory Timing Options (CAS, CAS-to-RAS, RAS)
CPU Core Voltage Adjustment from 1.1V to 1.85V
AGP Voltage Adjustment from 1.5V to 1.8V
DIMM Voltage Adjustment from 2.5V to 2.8V"
I still prefer the Epox RDA+.

The layout of the board has another problem. There is a coil object right next the cpu socket, that will be trouble when installing big heatsinks.

a friend of mine used to have a soltek board. it was really stable, here is what redstorm overclocking is. basicly it testings the fsb settings and finds your max. its gay and it sucks. its newbie overclocking.

~Will

I have a Soltek SL-75DRV5 it's nice but you just gotta get used to it. The redstorm is plain stupid because I have been able to run stably w/o corrupting anything or putting anything out of spec and going higher than it thought I could go.

DRV4 Soltek

Ive got a DRV4 based on the via 266a chipset. And it is a fast old board. They are quick and made well but dont expect to much extras or anything else for that manner Soltek in the UK are cheap and cheerful you dont get the goodies as with and Asus board but you also dont get the price tag (BTW im talking 266a days). Also beware of the colour !!! mine was the purple ray board and it well isnt as purple as its shown on the website.

Redstorm oc = Newbie click and go

You tell it to go it tests the fsb speed and stability 133,134.........................etc 145 and so on till it supposedly finds max possible stable speed (in my case it reaches about 158 and freezes, then i press reset and it is overclocked)

willlangford said:

a friend of mine used to have a soltek board. it was really stable, here is what redstorm overclocking is. basicly it testings the fsb settings and finds your max. its gay and it sucks. its newbie overclocking.

~Will

Click to expand...

its gay and sux! is a little to hard on it me'thinks, on mine it worked quite well and it gives you a ballpark number for speed but of course with a bit of careful tweaking you can improve on it!
Also if you are new to overclocking it is quick easy and simple and at stock voltages dosnt risk your components. It made my xp1800 run at 1.73ghz after redstorm which isnt bad seeing as i use a £6 coolmaster fan.

Basically if you like it go for it you wont be disapointed with the board itself!

I just found this review for soltek golden flame:
http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/motherboards/soltek/75FRN-L/index.htm

they say that soltek brings a 2700+ T-bred B to 200FSB with 1.75V!!! that is rock stable!! I'm so gonna get this board when my next paycheck comes ..

I found a couple more reviews:

http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/motherboards/soltek/75FRN-L/
http://www.lostcircuits.com/motherboard/soltek_sl75frnl/

There's also a new version out. It's the SL-75FRN-RL which has SATA RAID and 1 extra IDE port.

There were also new BIOS revisions released for both the -L and -RL models on 2/19/03. But I couldn't find any release notes anywhere. Maybe they increased the FSB limit past 200 mhz?

The one thing missing from this board is the MCP-T Soundstorm audio. Instead they use just regular MCP 6 channel which is a big drawback in my eyes. Not having to use a PCI sound card is a big advantage. No driver issues, less CPU utilization (in most cases) and having an extra PCI slot.

I am a big Soltek fan, but I'm going to have to pass on this board and go with an Asus A7N8X. Soltek is surely improving, but if they want to make a big name in the motherboard market, they have to start offering the same features as everyone else.

oh yess!! the new BIOS (1.3) supports fsb up to 211Mhz .. that's sweet!!

I use audigy 2 soundcard, so the onboard audio is pretty much useless to me ..

now I just have to wait for that RL version to come out in the US .. RAID .. sweet!!! my two maxtor 80gb 8mb cache would run like crazy on it

nut581 said:

I just found this review for soltek golden flame:
http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/motherboards/soltek/75FRN-L/index.htm

they say that soltek brings a 2700+ T-bred B to 200FSB with 1.75V!!! that is rock stable!! I'm so gonna get this board when my next paycheck comes ..

Click to expand...

It is good, locally where I live one pc store has the rights to importing Soltek and currently they have it on for $138 Canadian which is about $93 flat out a good deal!!

www.ncix.com sign up for their newsletter as they have a US side to their site and the newsletter gets you special pricing over what is listed on their site.

Reviews from owners say it is good but once guy I know through online association says between the 2 the Epox seems to be better for overclocking. Also bios support as Soltek is relatively young co.

Hope this helps ya

Cisco Kid

nut581 said:

really?? it's brother for pentium 4 processor runs the 2nd fastest board and most overclockable mobo among 16 boards (based on tomshardware's review) .. but i'm also waiting for this nforce2 review ..

Click to expand...

don't go by tom's alone is the usual sentiment here. i love my soltek however, but it doesnt offer as many options as other boards do.

www.ncix.com - i got my soltek from them and my service was good and my board is great.

nut581 said:

"Redstorm OC" in my guess would be the "Expert" mode on the BIOS where we can set the OC settings ... finally another low-cost high-end nforce2 board to choose (alternative to 8RDA+) ..

Click to expand...

red storm overclocking is not this. Red storm overclocking on the sl-75drv2 supposedly automatically overclocks your processor... all you do is hit enter, tell it yes you want to run RS oc'ing and then it starts flipping through the fsb's to find what is stable. I didn't think it would really work in the first place and it didnt for me - it probably does for someone but it still isnt necessary or better than doing it yourself.