Soltek K8TPro-939: Moving A64 to 939
by Wesley Fink on October 28, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
FSB Overclocking: Soltek K8TPro-939
While Soltek is best known for delivering good value, part of that value equation has always been the outstanding overclocking capabilities of Soltek boards. For that reason, we expected a lot from the Soltek overclocking tests. As you will see, we had very mixed results.Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | |
| Default Voltage | |
| Processor: | Athlon 64 FX53 2.4GHz |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.5V (default) |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Heatsink/Fan |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520W |
| Memory: | OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev. 2 OR Geil PC3200 Ultra X |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 120MB PATA (IDE) 8MB Cache |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
204x13 220x12 2651MHz (+10.5%) |
| Maximum FSB: (Lower Ratio) |
228 x 9,10,or 11 (2508MHz) (1:1 Memory, 2 DIMMs in DC mode) |
The Soltek did a good job with Standard Ratio overclocking, reaching our highest previous overclock at 220x12 or 2651MHz. However, no matter what lower ratio we chose, the highest CPU clock setting that we could achieve with stability was 228. SATA was not an issue here, since our test bed was running an IDE Hard Drive. All tests were run with the Asynchronous PCI/AGP set to Enabled to fix the frequency.
To try to find the answer to these low clock frequencies, we decided to try to run the K8TPro-939 with the Asynchronous PCI/AGP disabled. Without a PCI/AGP lock, we reached the same 228 frequency as our top stable setting. We can only conclude that the AGP/PCI lock is not working on this Soltek board. Since we have tested several recent VIA K8T800 Pro motherboards that definitely have working AGP/PCI locks, we suspect that the problem is with the Soltek BIOS or design.
It is very disappointing to find such limited frequency capabilities on the Soltek board. With other Socket 939 motherboards reaching 275 to 290 with the Athlon 64, 228 is a very poor performance. The Soltek is, otherwise, a very capable overclocker, matching the best that we have seen with this CPU at stock frequencies.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
21 Comments
View All Comments
manno - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
Son of a $@#!Any way what the heck is up with the Halo #'s? Is this so shady under the table stuff between MS, or Bungie, and nvidia? If so that sucks, and I hope that we don't see anymore of it in the future. Any info on that?
-manno
manno - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
bob661 - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
> In fact the majority of PC users are not> overclockers.
Very true. And the majority of PC users have no idea who Anand is. Online reviews are mostly read by PC users in the know or those that want to be in the know. The average PC user has no clue about these review websites and heads down Best Buy when it's time to purchase a new computer.
PrinceGaz - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
Last page, second paragraph- "With 2.6GHz as a target, it is easy to see that we would need a 289 setting for the 3500+,"...That should be 3000+. The rest of that sentence is correct.
Myrandex - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
typo: We suspect that the answer has to do with the cist difference between the VIA and Realtek solutionsAlso, on the first page a picture doesn't load.
Omega215D - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
I know I posted this before but why is there no news on the Elitegroup's Dual PCIe (for graphics) with an AGP Express port on the bottom? This should appeal to those into "future-proofing" by including both old and new. Of course it'll be on a 915 chipset.....Boonesmi - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
hopefully they will have quick bios update that fixes the agp/pci lock (i dont really care about 4 dimms)... if they get it fixed quick it will probably be my next board :)newegg has an eta of 11/8/2004 which is about when ill be buying, so make sure you update this review if the agp/pci lock gets fixed
Beenthere - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
While a BIOS upgrade will likely fix the AGP lock and (4) DIMM 2T issues, I doubt either is a BIG issue for most PC users. Yes overclockers may have an issue with the AGP lock and no doubt it will be corrected, but not everyone is an overcloker. In fact the majority of PC users are not overclockers. It's OK to point out the AGP lock and (4) DIMM issues for those who care, but it ain't worth getting an ulcer over. From the review it sounds like these are life or death features, which they are not.In regards to PCI-e Mobo reviews, the results are going to mirror AGP Mobos as the nF4 chipset is just an nF3 with PCI-e instead of AGP graphics. The only PCI-e Mobos that will show any major difference from a similar nF3 or K8T800 PRO Mobo are the SLI dual graphics card versions. If you're looking for one of these you better have real deep pockets and be willing to wait awhile.
MDE - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
Why do you guys keep whining about floppy port location? Honestly I think the bottom of the board is a pretty good location, especially since I almost never use a floppy drive (just for RAID drivers). It's easy to get at when you do need a floppy drive plugged in and doesn't interfere with anything else, helping to avoid the tangle of cables around the right side of the board that's so common with "properly" laid out boards.Gnoad - Thursday, October 28, 2004 - link
Alot of us still want AGP. I'm sick and tired of mobos being manufactured without the most important part functional: the agp lock. Nforce3 150 pissed me off, and we have it here again. I really don't want to use the k8n neo, so this is a big dissapointment to me.