Soltek SL-K890 dead Need a replacement

[timecop67]

With my Soltek motherboard sent back because of a defect.... I need a replacement. Checked on Pricewatch and there isn't any Soltek K890 Via 939 motherboards to be found. Nothing on Newegg either. Is the Albatron 890 a good board? Doesn't look like too many takers on that board though. I like the Via solution for the chipset coolness but have been looking at the Nforce 4 boards also. I want something up to date without a lot of problems, stable, cool running and not looking to overclock or SLI it. Any ideas on a good board?

 

[render]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813170145

Albatron K8X890 ProII Socket 939 VIA K8T890
4 phase power
Evny24PT
gigabit lan

It looks good. (I don't own it though)

 

[timecop67]

Anybody using the Albatron K890 board? I kind of like the Foxconn board also even though the video card is suppose to be in the way of the chipset fan. I understand the Foxconn stuff is made by the Leadtek people? Used leadtek stuff in the past and liked them.

 

[IEC]

Foxconn stuff has the same PCB layouts and uses "Winfast" as a name for several of its products, so I think Foxconn does = Leadtek. Decent company.

 

[furballi]

Sold my Soltek 890. Went with the Abit AX8.

 

[render]

I heard foxconn has the worst customer support. (no frequent bios updats, very slow email response...etc)

 

[timecop67]

Furballi how do you like your Abit AX8? I've been looking at that one also. Reasons for going with the AX8? The Japanese caps on it are good. Looks like the ATX connector is 20 pins like the Soltek. I bought a 24 pin to 20 pin adapter so I should be good to go. Anything I should be aware of on this board? Looks like the specs on the gaming and stuff isn't too shabby. Heard at one time the Abit company wasn't doing so hot but maybe today they are pulling themselves out.

Albatron has the good Envy chip for sound, 4 phase power and has a few more features but maybe the Abit would be the better choice? Heard it is also hard to get through to Abit if you do need them. I really enjoyed Solteks customer support. In fact they answered my emails within 30 minutes. That is something I've never experienced before in customer service.

The only other motherboard that has caught my eye is the Gigabyte K8N Ultra 9. But have learned from reviews that the chipset runs pretty hot, and I might have keyboard problems with a PS/2 connector.

 

[furballi]

1).Board's layout. The IDE connectors are flat on the board. The power connectors are at the back. Too bad the molex pin to provide extra juice for the PCI-E card is at the bottom of the board. The Soltek 890 does not have this feature. The connector for the floppy is very close to the floppy bay. Four fan headers with two controlled by the motherboard (8V to 12V range).

2).All Rubycon capacitors.

3).3 yr warranty.

4).Printer port.

5).OC Guru to tweak on the fly in windows.

It's best to use the supplied floppy when you install WXP with a SATA hard drive. Hit F6 when windows ask you for additional drivers. Then install ALL three drivers from the floppy at the pop up screen. Be sure to reset CMOS when you boot the board for the first time. Connect only the video card, floppy, and the hard drive. You can add other PCI devices later. You may also want to update the BIOS 811 FIRST if you have a Venice core.

http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/uk/downloa...N_SCREEN=AX8&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket%20939



I have no problem overclocking my 3000 winchester to 262FSB x 9 with LDT at 4x. Course the CPU will run HOT since we're pumping 1.55Vcore into the processor. Peak temp in Prime95 is 60C. I have the Zalman 7700 cooler running at 1400 rpm. Could probably hit 270FSB if I crank up the voltage and fan rpm.

Currently, the system is running at 251FSB with 1.425Vcore. Peak temp in Prime95...CPU 49C, SYS 37C, and PWM 32C. Idle with Cool n Quiet...CPU 31C, SYS 36C, and PWM 28C. Also disable ALL beep functions.

The audio section is very good with very low CPU load. I haven't encountered any problem with the MOSFET circuit on this motherboard.

Abit's tech support is BAD. Gotta use the phone if you need help. Soltek's e-mail support is EXCELLENT!

Oh yeah, I also lap the blue heatsink on the northbridge chip for maximum heat transfer. The surface isn't very smooth. Arctic Silver 5 is used afterward. The Zalman 7700Cu cooler is already pre-polished so no rework here. Definitely go with a good CPU cooler if you're serious about overclocking. The extra molex power connector on the motherboard should also keep those high-end PCI-E cards purring.

I use value RAM, so I set DDR to 333. With faster RAM, you should be able to run at DDR400 or 1:1. You may still need to drop LDT to 4x since 250FSB x 5 would result in 1250. The goal, of course, is to keep it around 1000.

 

[timecop67]

Went ahead and purchased the Abit AX8. Hopefully I'll have good luck with this board. This computer build has been a long wait. For the Venice to come out and then the Soltek board not working right. Hopefully they will eventually get all the bugs worked out on these AMD motherboards. For my past Intel-Asus build... it was put together is less than a day and has worked for 4 years straight but for the Amd boards you have to be very selective it looks like.

Found a link to the Via 8251 southbridge chipset that is due out pretty soon. Looks like Gigabyte might be the first one to implement it in a motherboard. Wonder if Via will keep their Northbridge and Southbridge on separate chips? Or maybe they will put it in one chip like the NForce 4. If they keep reducing the chip die maybe they can passively cool the chip and not have to use any noisey fans like the Nf4.