Soltek KT600-R: Fast & Promising

Final Words

The Soltek KT600-R is a value-priced KT600 board whose feature set is average among the KT600 boards. Most of the adjustment options that enthusiasts like to see are available on the KT600-R, except the ability to fully tweak memory timings. Because of this omission, we expected poorer than average performance.

Imagine our surprise when the Soltek KT600 benchmarked as the top performing KT600 we have tested! The Soltek was the top KT600 in every gaming benchmark. In almost every other benchmark run in this review, the Soltek is first or second among the KT600 boards. While the nForce2 is still the better performer, the difference between the best nForce2 Ultra 400 boards and the Soltek KT600-R is often very small.

Frankly, we are seeing much greater variation in the performance of VIA KT600 boards than we have seen with the nForce2 Ultra 400. Perhaps it is because the chipset is new, or maybe it is because it was relegated to the bargain bin by manufacturers before it was even launched. The top performing KT600 boards, like this Soltek KT600-R, give us hope that, with maturity, the KT600 can compete better with the nForce2 Ultra 400.

While Athlon64 and its variations are only a month away, the current Athlon Socket A will likely be a good seller at the low-end of the market for the next year or so. Unless poor sales cause the KT600 boards to be discontinued early by manufacturers, then the KT600 may continue to improve.

The KT600-R, like all KT600 boards we have tested, does not have a way to lock the PCI/AGP frequency. As a result, the FSB overclock is poorer than the nForce2 family. However, the multiplier options work well on recent Athlon chips, and we reached some of the highest overclocks that we have seen with the 2500+ used for testing.

There are KT600 motherboards available with more features than the Soltek KT600-R and RL. The Asus A7V600 is a good example of a great feature-set. However, if you insist on KT600, and performance is your goal, then the Soltek KT600-R is the best-performing KT600 that we have tested.