Soltek KT600-R: Fast & Promising

Soltek KT600-R: Stress Testing

We performed stress tests on the Soltek KT600-R in these areas and configurations:

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing, which was conducted by running the FSB at 212MHz; and
2. Memory stress testing, which was conducted by running RAM at 400MHz with 2 DIMM slots filled and at 400MHz with all 3 DIMM slots filled at the lowest memory timings possible.

Front Side Bus Stress Test Results:

As standard practice, we ran a full range of stress tests and benchmarks to ensure the Soltek KT600-R was absolutely stable at each overclocked FSB speed. These stress tests included Prime95 torture tests, which were run in the background for a total of 24 hours.

In addition, we ran several other tasks (data compression, various DX8 and DX9 games, and apps like Word and Excel) while Prime95 was running in the background. Finally, we ran our benchmark suite, which includes ZD Winstone suite, Unreal Tournament 2003, SPECViewperf 7.0, and Gun Metal Benchmark 2. While we were able to boot and run some tests at speeds as high as 217MHz FSB at default voltage on the KT600-R, 212MHz was the highest overclock that we were able to achieve with the Soltek at default voltage without encountering any reliability issues.

Memory Stress Test Results:

This memory stress test is very basic, as it simply tests the ability of the KT600-R to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR) at the lowest supported memory timings that our Corsair TwinX LL modules support:

Stable DDR400 Timings (2/3 banks populated)
Clock Speed:	200MHz
Timing Mode:	N/A
CAS Latency:	2.0
Bank Interleave:	4
RAS to CAS Delay:	(3)
RAS Precharge:	(2)
Precharge Delay:	(6)
Command Rate:	2T

Numbers in parentheses could not be set or read on the KT600-R. We checked the memory timings with SiSoft Sandra Max3. Timings were set to SPD and the reported timings are those actually used by the SPD. The Soltek KT600-R would not run with stability with a command rate of 1T. 2T was needed for stability. The same was true for 3 dimms. As we have seen in other looks at memory performance, slower memory timings do not always translate into poorer memory performance. Lowest memory timings is just one means of comparing motherboards, and it is most useful when comparing boards based on the same chipset. You will see in Performance tests how true this is with the KT600-R.

Filling all 3 available memory banks at DDR400 is more strenuous on the memory subsystem than testing 1 or 2 banks.

Stable DDR400 Timings (3/3 banks populated)
Clock Speed:	200MHz
Timing Mode:	N/A
CAS Latency:	2.0
Bank Interleave:	4
RAS to CAS Delay:	(3T)
RAS Precharge:	(6T)
Precharge Delay:	(2T)
Command Rate:	2T

We were pleased to see the Soltek handle the same memory timings with 3 Corsair DDR400 dimms installed as with 1 dimm installed. You can fill all 3 slots with confidence and run at the most aggressive settings your memory can handle. Please keep in mind that the real world performance difference between aggressive memory timings and more relaxed memory timings can be very small. SPD timings will work just fine 99% of the time.

We tested all these memory timings using several stress tests and general applications to guarantee stability. Prime95 torture tests were successfully run at the timings listed in the above charts. We also ran Sciencemark (memory tests only) and Super Pi. None of the three stress tests created stability problems for the Soltek KT600-R at these memory timings.