Soltek NV400-L64: Purple, Practical, AND Performance!
by Wesley Fink on August 11, 2003 10:26 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
When NVIDIA announced they would be introducing a single-channel version of their newest nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset, it was clear that NVIDIA wanted a lower-priced offering to compete with VIA’s KT600 chipset. Since NVIDIA’s explosive growth in the Athlon chipset market, VIA has been fighting back with lower prices on their current and new chipsets. The nForce2 400, then, would be a lower-cost Northbridge, combined with the lower-end MCP Southbridge, to fight VIA without compromising NVIDIA’s top-line nForce2 Ultra 400/MCP-T offering.
This was all logical enough, and seemed like a good strategy for NVIDIA. The nForce2 400 would be a cheaper, entry-level chipset with lower single-channel performance - or so we thought! Imagine our surprise when early looks at the single-channel nForce2 400 chipset were reporting that the single-channel version was actually FASTER than the dual-channel nForce2 Ultra 400 in many situations. We had not planned for more than a news report of this "value" chipset, but with what we were hearing about the nForce2 400, we wanted to take a closer look ourselves at what all the fuss was about.
The name that was mentioned wherever we saw reports of the nForce2 400 chipset was Soltek, a name many of you may not know. While Soltek appears to be first to market with a single-channel nForce2 board, we have recently learned that Asus and Chaintech now have nForce2 400 offerings, and other companies may also be producing single-channel nForce2 boards in the near future.
Soltek is a name that is well-known to many in Asian markets. There, they have built a solid following and a reputation for building high-performance motherboards at reasonable prices. Soltek is less known in the US market, and this has been compounded by the ongoing reports of Soltek entering the US market and then withdrawing from the US market. Even with this confusion about US market presence, there have been several retailers who have consistently offered Soltek products in the US; so, they are available, but you have to search a bit to find them. Soltek was kind enough to provide AnandTech with their NV400-L64 motherboard, which was shipped to us from Taiwan.
While this is the first Soltek motherboard that we have evaluated at AnandTech, we are familiar with some of their products — particularly those produced for the Athlon CPU. Soltek was one of the first to market with an nForce2 Ultra 400 board called the SL-75FRN2. The Ultra 400 Soltek is bright yellow and called the "Golden Flame". This is typical of Soltek boards, which feature unusual colors and themes to stand out from the others in the market. More important than the appearance, however, the 75FRN2 series have developed a reputation as very good NF2 performers with excellent overclocking options and very good performance — even when overclocked.
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Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
#13 - The VIA KT600 board tests were earlier tests already completed by Evan Lieb with the 4.47 VIA Hyperion drivers . We reported what was used in those tests. The Hyperion drivers do not have any relevance to THIS review of the nForce 400.Turnip - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
This is the least fair benchmark I ever remember having seen on AnandTech!To quote the last paragraph of the review, "It's hard not to get excited about a board that sells for about $70 and outperforms the majority of Athlon boards in gaming."
You're comparing 3D-based benchmarks using different graphics cards! Of course the benchmarks using the brand new whizzy cards are faster than the older benchmarks with old cards!
Regardless of whether you're updating this article with the new results now or not, this article should never have appeared in a publication of AnandTech's standing in this appalling condition in the first place!
- A long-time reader of AnandTech, who has never before seen such an unfair review.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
Wesley-Just a little curious why you used all the updated drivers available except the Via Hyperion 4.48 drivers?
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
Jeff7181 -In our tests at AnandTech, the performance of the nForce2 and nForce2 Ultra 400 is virtually the same at the same settings. The difference is that the Ultra 400 officially supports the 200FSB AMD processors, and they generally overclock better as a result.
As stated in #10 above, we have completed a retest of recent reviews with our new ATI 9800 PRO video card standard, and those will be posted in this review later today. Since the difference in nForce2 and nForce2 Ultra 400 is 200 CPU/bus support and overclocking, we did not retest the older nForce2 chipset boards.
Jeff7181 - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
This review is lacking... where's the benchmarks for the popular motherboards like the A7N8X Deluxe, NF7-S, and 8RDA+ ?!?!? I don't care if a new nForce2 400 Ultra whatever the hell they call it now is faster than a KT600 chipset... I want to know if it's faster than the previous generation of nForce2 motherboards. Quit slackin off Anand.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
All of our benchmarks have been updated using the ATI 9800 as the reference video card, and you will see updates in this article very shortly. The text changes will go up first, so bear with us until all the updates are up.Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
Stability? Sound? Are you joking?You can also get an Epox 8RDA+ with those same features for $15 more and it'll come with Serial ATA, nForce sound (much better than any VIA sound), better overclocking potential, and most likely better drivers. Push comes to shove, who would any sane person choose, VIA or NVIDIA? LOL, as if I should have to answer that.
Face it, KT600 motherboards are worthless unless you're a VIA whore.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
I have an Asus A7N8X-X, and this mobo has a nForce2 400 chipset, with single chanel memory. Processor, XP2600(fsb333) and 1GB DDR333. If it is faster than nForce2 ultra 400 (dual chanel), or not... that I don't know. But I was surprised with the speed of my system.Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
Lets See what issues this chipset brings,For 15$ more KT600 With integrated SATA &
better sound (& probably stability) is a better
choice without a doubt.
Btw..What is it with you guys & Corsair...Looks
Like you have a "Nice" setup with them huh ..
Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
#2 what are you talking about? Why would anyone choose a KT600 motherboard that is slower and overclocks poorly for more money just because you can get onboard SATA that does absolutely nothing for performance? Puhlease.