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

[BentValve]

Originally posted by: LastRide
I have 2 sticks of OCZ PC3500EL Dual Channel memory that top out at 476 and 474DDR,not stable.I should squeeze 450DDR from them.

Is that all? I would be disapointed if that is all that ram can dish out. How much voltage are you applying to it?
I am having a tough time finding some ram that can do 250mhz. I am probably going to try some Winbond PC3700 but I have my doubts.

 

[LastRide]

My PC3700EL OCZ does the same so how can that be bad?.Show me some ram that will do 500DDR and I will buy it.I never seen anyone hit that mark.Nobody in the forum is getting 500DDR out of any ram.Yes,there are some good sticks of PC2700 I heard people get 450DDR out of it,but thats a few lucky sticks.250MHz is 500DDR.You won't find any ram that will do that unless you get hand picked sticks like some of the reviews I read.When you buy it it doesn't even come close to that.The Winbond PC3700 won't get you 500DDR.I know a couple guys that bought it and got the same or less than I was getting with my OCZ.I had to use 2.8V for 476DDR.Maybe the Geil PC3700 Golden Series Ram might.I never read anything on it as of yet.Why don't you try it .The reason you don't get big overclocks with PC3700 is because there is nothing rated higher where PC2700 you have higher rated ram so they use chips that could be used for PC3200 or PC3500.The reason I bought PC3700 was I knew I could get 470DDR out if it.I didn't want to chance something else and find out it wouldn't get me that high.I am running my 2.53GHz @ 3.42GHz (180FSB) 4:5 ratio for DDR451.Thas why I went with the PC3700.

 

[Mem]

Soltek SL-75FRN2-L review at HardOCP .

Combined with stellar performance, great overclocking potential, and a very unique appearance, the Golden Flame nForce2 series from Soltek is sure to capture one?s attention. Quite simply, Soltek brings together flagship level performance and mainstream pricing with the SL-75FRN2-L.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

That was an excellent review! The info on audio quality and CPU utilization, boot times, and LAN performance were nice to see coverage of as well :beer:

 

[BentValve]

Maybe the Geil PC3700 Golden Series Ram might.I never read anything on it as of yet.Why don't you try it

Nah, I dont care for Geil or OCZ for that matter. My bout with esoteric ram ended with my last 2 sticks of Mushkin ram.
I am sticking with cheap , ugly no-ramsink stuff from here on out.

 

[LastRide]

I am just going to wait until someone makes some ram that will do 500 or over.Best value right now is PC2700 or 3200 if you can find some that will clock high.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Pic of the NB on the MRN

 

[BentValve]

I have big news and as far as I know it has not been mentioned here or at any of the other big hardware sites.

I was having problems with the audio and Nascar 2003 and so I bought an Audigy 2 ..the Audigy 2 was ok but @ $140
I felt ripped off. Today I found an OEM verison for $58 ... i ordered it this morning and returned the overpriced one.
Damn..now I wish I had not purchased it because I have a solution to my problem...not only do I have a solution but
I now have Sound Effects, a 10 band EQ and overall way better drivers......not to mention my bizarre Nascar 2003
problems are solved.

Apparantly Realtek's ALC 650 drivers work with this Nforce 2 SB (which makes sence because it uses AC97 Codec already)
The latest drivers are the A3.42s located HERE

All you have to do is download the file , unzip it to your temp directory and run the set-up in the wdm folder.
No need to uninstall anything. I got this info from a Nascar forum , the problem I have is not very wide spread
so it took a long time to find a solution. Nascar 2003 sounds perfect now and I have a better software package.

I am very happy!
( BTW I may keep the Audigy 2 but I doubt it because I think the onboard sound is quite good and I would
rather keep my PCI slots free to keep my video card cool plus I have a mirror under my 9800 so I can admire its underside
once in awhile. )

 

[BentValve]

When you get it installed and open up the Realtek sound effects manager in the system tray , under the general tab will be the following:

Audio Driver Version- 5.10.0.5170
Audio Controller- nVidia audio controller
AC97 Codec- ALC650

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Nice find! I'll have to test it out and see if it goes well. I wonder if that A3 for the driver indicates the SB rev. it's for? I have the A2 so I guess I'll find out :evil:

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Just installed them and they are great! Definite improvement in bass quality and enviromental sounds in Splinter Cell, Thanx Bentvavle! :beer:

 

[BentValve]

Also I found that Realtek 3.41 drivers were already located at Soltek's Taiwan site under the 75FRN, FRN2 and MRN,
if these had been listed at the USA site I would have save alot of time because I have lost many hours trying to
fix this issue.
We have the 3.42s installed which just came out on 4/08
FRN2
75MRN
75FRN

 

[BentValve]

I bet Nvidia just bundled some old as hell or stripped Realtek drivers with their Nforce 2 driver package.
I guess they skimped out on us guys without SoundStorm. In any case I find the audio
has improved across the board , as far as I am concerned this is a must have for anyone with
a Soltek FRN/MRN board that is using the onboard sound. You should add this to your
install instructions DAPUNISHER.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I added the info but not the links because the Realtek updated ones are the newest anyways.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

TTT

 

[BentValve]

Welp I dont have much new to ad other than that I ended up keeping my first Soltek board because the sale fell thru , I now have it installed in my secondary rig in leu of the Asus that was in it. So I now dual Soltek loving going on.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

New review of the75FRN2-L@Modsynergy

 

[BentValve]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
New review of the75FRN2-L@Modsynergy

"Here is overclocking with my locked AMD XP 1900+ in synch with the PC2100 ram. I hit 145FSB with no problems but the ram was the limiting factor."

Lol what a waste of a good motherboard.

 

[BentValve]

Ha ha , I am still laughing at that review. 145fsb OC ha ha ha, I consider that underclocking the 75FRN2!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: BentValve
Ha ha , I am still laughing at that review. 145fsb OC ha ha ha, I consider that underclocking the 75FRN2!

It's still not as bad as that AthlonXP review but it still boggles the mind how these guys can write for a hardware review site and use such cheapo stuff in the tests Maybe they're trying to write a review with the mentality that it's such a budget board that most buying it wouldn't even be able to upgrade to faster memory

 

[Mem]

New review of the Soltek SL-75FRN2-L @Legion Hardware .

Combine the excellent performance, stability, value, overclocking and appearance of the Soltek SL-75FRN2-L and you have one of the best all round motherboards available for $100 US.

 

[aircooled]

Just replaced my shuttle AK35GT2 with the Soltek SL-75FRN2-L. Used all my existing components, Samsung 2700 RAM, Athlon XP 2100, ATI AIW 9700 Pro.

This is one great mobo! So far my install as been flawless. I never touched the included driver CD, downloaded the latest.

My friend bought the same board and had to change the default memory settings in the BIOS from SPD to Auto for stabiulity, but I have not had any stability issues with my RAM at default BIOS specs.

This board really deserves an "Official" stickied thread.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: aircooled
Just replaced my shuttle AK35GT2 with the Soltek SL-75FRN2-L. Used all my existing components, Samsung 2700 RAM, Athlon XP 2100, ATI AIW 9700 Pro.

This is one great mobo! So far my install as been flawless. I never touched the included driver CD, downloaded the latest.

My friend bought the same board and had to change the default memory settings in the BIOS from SPD to Auto for stabiulity, but I have not had any stability issues with my RAM at default BIOS specs.

This board really deserves an "Official" stickied thread.

Schweet! planning to overclock? not that you need to that's a plenty fast setup you have there.

 

[CraigRT]

Is the 75FRN2 the newer stepping of the chipset over the 75FRN ?

I am probably going to order one tonight or tomorrow... I want the latest, probably the 75FRN2?

 

[aircooled]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: aircooled
Just replaced my shuttle AK35GT2 with the Soltek SL-75FRN2-L. Used all my existing components, Samsung 2700 RAM, Athlon XP 2100, ATI AIW 9700 Pro.

This is one great mobo! So far my install as been flawless. I never touched the included driver CD, downloaded the latest.

My friend bought the same board and had to change the default memory settings in the BIOS from SPD to Auto for stabiulity, but I have not had any stability issues with my RAM at default BIOS specs.

This board really deserves an "Official" stickied thread.

Schweet! planning to overclock? not that you need to that's a plenty fast setup you have there.

Yep. Already running at 2700+