Soltek SL-75FRN2 mobo. How good is it?

[calmhorizons]

Hi people. Just found TechIMO a few days ago and I must say it's great as are all the people here. I just ordered new parts to build my 1st system. My question is: How well does the Soltek SL-75FRN2-L perform and are there any know issues with this mobo? Also, how well does this board OC? Any users with this particular board have any advice for setup and such? Here is a list of everything I ordered:

Mainboard: Solteck SL-75FRN2 NForce 2
Cpu: AthlonXP 2500
System Memory: 512mb Kingston pc-3200 cl 2.5
Video Card: Chaintech FX5600 128mb DDR
Hard Drive: Western Digital Special Edition 80gb 8mb Buffer

I hope this is a good 1st time system and everything works well together. Tom's Harware did a review on NForce2 boards and the I noticed the Soltek mobo did quite well compared to most other boards. Any opinions and suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Calmhorizons

[Telexen]

Soltek's rarely perform very well...they're meant to be budget boards.

[Bullion]

Telexen, where did you pull that "nugget" of information from?? Soltek are a 2nd tier motherboard manufacturer,
as in they do not ship as many boards as asus, gigabyte or ECS.
Thier boards have all the usual overclocking options. If they were designed to be "bugdet" as you say, why would they manufacturer boards with asthetic appeal rather than plain brown/green PCB. That being said they are no Abit. THeir kt266A based board was one of the fastest boards around and overclocked extreemly well. The kt333 board was not as good compared to the competition, but was still functional (I have a 2100tbred B @ 2400mhz (185*13)on the kt333 board (sl75drv5) which considering the age of the board and its absence of a pci lock is quite respectable. From what i have read the FRN2 is a good board but if you want pure overclocking power id recommend an epox.

[Telexen]

Look at benchmarks..they DO NOT match up with other manufacturers like MSI, Abit, or Asus...not even close.

[calmhorizons]

Not sure where you're getting your info from Telexen. Practically every NForce2 mobo review I've seen has Soltek out-performing Abit in most benchmarks and MSI and Asus others.

3DMark 2001SE 1024x768x32
--------------------------------------
Soltek Sl-75FRN2 Score:13636
MSI K7N2 Score: 12870
Asus A7N8X Score: 12687
Abit NF7-S Score: 12572

Divx 5.02 / Xmpeg 4.5 MPEG-4 Encoding
--------------------------------------------------
MSI K7N2 Score:83
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:87
Abit NF7-S Score:89
Asus A7N8X Score:89
(in seconds, less is better)

WinACE 2.2 File Compression
-------------------------------------
MSI K7N2 Score:171
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:180
Abit NF7-S Score:181
Asus A7N8X Score:184
(in seconds, less is better)

SYSMark 2003
------------------
MSI K7N2 Score: 293
Asus A7N8X Score:287
Abit NF7-S Score:284
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score: 283

PC Mark 2002 Memory Benchmark
------------------------------------------
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:4839
MSI K7N2 Score:4620
Asus A7N8X Score:4569
Abit NF7-S Score:4369

SPECviewperf 7.0 3D Studio Max
-----------------------------------------
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:11.21
MSI K7N2 Score:9.497
Asus A7N8X Score:9.266
Abit NF7-S Score:8.984

SPECviewperf 7.0 Design Review
-----------------------------------------
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:52.66
MSI K7N2 Score:51.36
Asus A7N8X Score:49.6
Abit NF7-S Score:47.56

SPECviewperf 7.0 Data Explorer
----------------------------------------
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:59.65
MSI K7N2 Score:59.02
Asus A7N8X Score:57.47
Abit NF7-S Score:54.2

SPECviewperf 7.0 Lightscape
------------------------------------
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:14.87
MSI K7N2 Score:14.43
Asus A7N8X Score:14.23
Abit NF7-S Score:12.97

SPECviewperf 7.0 Pro Engineer
---------------------------------------
MSI K7N2 Score:10.51
Asus A7N8X Score:10.24
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:9.929
Abit NF7-S Score9.882

SPECviewperf 7.0 UGS-01
--------------------------------
MSI K7N2 Score4.101
Soltek SL-74FRN2 Score:4.017
Asus A7N8X Score:3.985
Abit NF7-S Score:3.698

Lame 3.92 MP3 Encoding
-------------------------------
Soltek SL-75FRN2 Score:126
MSI K7N2 Score:126
Abit NF7-S Score:126
Asus A7N8X Score:126
(seconds, less is better)

As you can see, the Soltek SL-75FRN2 handily beat out the Abit NF7-S in all benchmarks EXCEPT SYSMark 2003 and out of 12 different benchmarks, it beat out the Asus A7N8X in 10 of them.

To call the Soltek SL-75FRN2 a "budget board" would hardly be fair. These reviews are from Tom's Hardware . I have read 3 other
reviews on these NForce2 chipsets with similair results. Also, IMO the Soltek mobo is the best looking mobo out of all of them. The only gripe I have with this board it that it does'nt include many extras, although it comes with an excellent software bundle. All these benchmarks aside, what I really would like to know is how well the mobo will OC. Anyone out there have any answers?

Calmhorizons

[Bullion]

look at amdmd.com they have a soltek forum, with many posts regarding the frn2

[calmhorizons]

Thanks Bullion. Every single review I could get my hands on clearly put the Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL in the lead from all the
other similiar nforce 2 mobo's. I've read tons of info lately about this board. It's supposed to be THE BEST oc'er out of the the
latest nforce2 boards and has already won numerous awards.
Looks like Soltek has a winner here and I can't wait til mine arrives. Has anyone seen the mobo's? They look awesome in their gold pcb and perform even better than they look. I'll repost
later after I get mine up and running and let everyone know how it works out.

Calmhorizons

[ragtop]

Originally posted by Telexen
Soltek's rarely perform very well...they're meant to be budget boards.

This is simply untrue as a general statement. I don't have experience with the particular board you're looking at, but I have worked with other Soltek boards and have found them to be high quality and good overclockers (if you're into that). Not sure if they still do but in the past, they've also had a better warantee than the big names (two years vs one year)

The only negative I found is that their tech support website and BIOS support, etc. isn't as good as some.