Socket 754 Roundup, Part 3: Asus, Soltek & DFI
by Wesley Fink on September 14, 2004 12:03 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Soltek K8AN2E-GR: Features and Layout
| Soltek K8AN2E-GR Motherboard Specifications | |
| CPU Interface | Socket 754 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | nVidia nForce3-250Gb |
| CPU Ratios | 4 to 20X in 1X increments |
| Bus Speeds | 200MHz to 250MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Auto, 66MHz to 100MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| HyperTransport | 1x-5x (200MHz to 1GHz) |
| Core Voltage | 0.8V-1.55V in .025V increments |
| DRAM Voltage | 2.6V to 2.8V in 0.1V increments |
| AGP Voltage | 1.5V to 1.8V in 0.1V increments |
| Chipset Voltage | 1.6V to 1.9V in 0.1V increments |
| Memory Slots | Two 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots Unbuffered Memory to 2GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | nVidia 2-Drive SATA by nF3-250 RAID 0, 1, JBOD PLUS 2 SATA by Promise PDC20579 RAID 0, 1, JBOD |
| Onboard IDE/RAID | Two nVidia ATA133/100/66 by nF3-250Gb (4 drives) RAID 0, 1, JBOD plus One Promise RAID IDE (2 drives) by PDC20579 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 8 USB 2.0 ports supported by nF3-250 No FireWire ports |
| Onboard LAN | Gigabit Ethernet by Cicada CIS8201 PHY |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC650 6-Channel with SPDIF |
| BIOS | Version 1.1 (9/02/2004) |
The Soltek is smaller than a standard ATX board. While it is clear that Soltek has designed the K8AN2E for value, like the Chaintech VNF3-250, it is interesting that Soltek decided to implement most of the unique features of the nF3-250 family by using the premium 250Gb chipset instead of the cheaper nF3-250. Vendors stocking the Soltek are selling it for less than $100, and the 250Gb brings you the nVidia on-chip LAN and Firewall/RAID capabilities of the Gb chipset.
It would have been an even better board if Soltek had fully implemented the nVidia SATA RAID capabilities, but you can see that the additional 2 SATA channels and an added IDE channel are provided by the Promise controller. Once again, this arrangement proved to limit overclocking capabilities with a SATA drive, though the board was still capable with an IDE hard drive.
The range of overclocking controls and options on the Soltek are quite good, as we have come to expect of Soltek boards. The memory voltage extends to 2.8V, better than the Asus K8N-E but still on the low side. There is also a useful range of chipset voltage adjustments missing from the Asus, and an HT range to 5X. The only puzzle here is the CPU range to just 250 with the latest BIOS. Our evaluation BIOS extended to 300, so we were surprised to see that Soltek cut the range on the latest BIOS. Frankly, 250 is not enough for an nForce3-250 board with working PCI/AGP lock, and we hope that Soltek can correct this with a new BIOS. The CPU voltage options to just 1.55V are also limited for a CPU rated at 1.5V.
All-in-all, Soltek makes fewer compromises than the Chaintech VNF3-250 in their effort to control price of the 754 board. The only real feature missing from the Soltek is IEE 1394 Firewire ports. So, if this is an important feature, look elsewhere or plan to use an accessory PCI Firewire controller. However, the Chaintech still succeeds better than almost any value 754 in the area of overclocking.
The Soltek is smaller than a full ATX size, but the layout is very good, better than you might expect in a smaller board. The main IDE connectors are located in the preferred upper right edge. The 24-pin ATX power and 4-pin 12V are both near board edges where they do not interfere with other components. The floppy location will be a concern to some with a lower right edge location, but this will not likely be a problem in the cases that are most likely to be combined with the value Soltek board. The Promise SATA and IDE connections are also located at the lower right.
Another departure from the usual for Soltek is the use of two DIMM connectors instead of the more common 3 connectors, which will be an issue to some end users. There is clearly room for 3 connectors; it even appears the board was designed for 3 dimm slots. However, Soltek uses just 2 dimm slots on the K8AN2E.
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thebluesgnr - Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - link
#28,have you tested any SiS board from ASRock? They claim their K8S8X locks AGP/PCI. I've seen good OC results with that board - including this one:
http://members.home.nl/ethanol/mem.JPG
Also, OCWorkBench has a review of the ASRock K8-Upgrade-760GX. They overclocked the FSB to 252MHz on this mATX board, so I can only assume it locks the AGP/PCI buses.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - link
#24 - justlyThere is actually another complaint about Sis. None of the Sis A64 cipsets I have tested, including the 939 Reference Board, have a working PCI/AGP lock. We sincerely hope this is fixed on the upcoming 939 chipset.
We liked the Sis chipset very much, but major manufacturers just wouldn't support it. If you recall we awarded the Refernece Board our Editors Choice - as did other web sites - then we all waited for the boards that never came.
I think Sis is an innovative chipset and we have reviewed all the Sis 754 boards we could find, including DFI and Foxconn. The people at Sis are also great to work with and we would personally love to see a significant win by Sis. Unfortunately, Sis is mainly seen in bargain boards. We agree it's a shame, but we also have to deal with reality in our testing.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - link
#24 and #26 - Justly -Thanks for the benefit of the doubt here. I always compare new drivers to earlier scores to see if there are substantive differences. Frankly if there are I normally stick with the old drivers for consistency.
That is the reason you have not seen us using Divx 5.2, for instance, in place of 5.1.1. When we tested 5.2 the performance differences from 5.1.1 were significant. Eventually we will replace 5.1.1 with the latest Divx when it fits the schedule to do retesting.
The performance differences I found cannot be explained with 4.8 vs. 4.5 ATI drivers. I suspect BIOS tweaks DO have something to do with it however, which, as you are suggesting, probably means the earlier boards with later BIOS' are probably also faster.
There is always the trade off between changing driver versions for testing and keeping drivers up-to-date. I can only say AnandTech is very cautious about driver versions - particularly in ongoing test/database areas like motherboards.
You will soon be seeing a new General Performance Benchmark at AnandTech, since Veritest and PC Magazine have discontinued support for Winstones (and they don't work well with SP2). We will be talking more about this in an upcoming review.
justly - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - link
#25 – I understand the delay involved in retesting. I am not trying to say that retesting is required for comparison, but if the scores where just copied then it would be nice to see it pointed out on the test configuration or in the final words that more than one video driver was used.Actually a while back (around the time of “the real slim shady” article) I noticed identical systems being retested (using identical software/drivers) where the scores fluctuated more than the difference I suspect this article might have. So I am really giving Wesley a lot of credit (although it may not sound like it) for being able to set up systems months apart with such consistency.
Really the only complaint I have (other than leaving out SiS) is that if he did what I suspect, then it should have been mentioned in the article. Then again if what I suspect is true it might have been better to leave out the whole first paragraph on the final word page.
TrogdorJW - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - link
#24 - I understand the desire to see comparable scores, but retesting on old hardware with new drivers would probably add a week or two of work. I certainly wouldn't want to do it! Then there are BIOS revisions that need to be updated as well. Yuck. :pI think it's relatively safe to say that performance with most of the other Nforce3-250 boards is going to be about the same as these, and the only remaining factor tends to be overclocking and features. I'm perfectly happy with my MSI K8N Neo Platinum. Were I buying a new S754 board today, it would still be a tough call between the DFI and the MSI board. I don't like the Asus look (or lack of certain features), and the same goes for the Soltek.
Really, I think I would still stick with my MSI board. It would probably end up coming down to what else was included with the motherboard - nice rounded IDE cables would be great, as would a rounded floppy cable (because I still use a floppy drive on occasion). Just one man's opinion, of course.
justly - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - link
Wesley, first off I would like to say that I think your articles are some of the best on Anandtech. The thing is I still see a few things in your articles that “ever so slightly” annoy me.One is this quote “If overclocking is not particularly important to you, then one of the first generation boards based on the VIA chipset might also meet your needs at a lower price.” WELL WHAT ABOUT SiS. It seems that Anandtech has amnesia when it comes to SiS chipsets. Other than the very first SiS based socket 754 motherboard (the ECS 755-A) all Anandtech reviews seem to have only one main complaint about the SiS chipset, it overclocking abilities. So why don’t you mention it?
The other thing is that by looking through the Generation 2 Socket 754 Roundup it appears that the Generation 2 motherboard results where copied not retested. I think it would be fine to do (for comparison sake) if everything was the same but in the Generation 2 Socket 754 Roundup it shows a different video driver than what is listed for the Socket 754 Roundup, Part 3. So I have to ask is there absolutely no performance difference between the cat 4.5 and cat 4.8 drivers, or could the reason that the 3rd generation boards seem slightly faster have something to do with the video driver being used?
I realize that my concerns are very trivial and probably have no effect on the outcome of the article, but to be fair to the other chipset and motherboard manufactures I still think they are valid questions, trivial yes but still valid.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - link
#21 and #22 - The full implementation of nF3-250Gb is 4 SATA ports that can be combined in any way in RAID with the IDE ports. Asus implemented 2 nVidia SATA ports plus 4 Silicon Image SATA ports.The problem is ports 1 and 2 on nVidia are coupled with the PHY Gigabit LAN and generally will not overclock very well. Ports 3 and 4 generally perform as well as regular IDE on the nF3-250Gb chipset.
jediknight - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - link
OK... I'm confused here. I thought Asus added an *extra* RAID controller in addition to the one provided in the stock 250gb implementation. Am I wrong here?Zebo - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - link
"The decision by Asus to use Silicon Image SATA instead is really a drawback in overclocking."Instead of what?
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - link
#18 -Quite a few users are reporting success using the Mobile Athlon 64 chips with the DFI LANParty UT. Many are stating the DFI recognizes the mobiles just fine and sets the correct settings for the mobile chips. In fact you will see this combination as an alternate in an upcoming OC Guide.
The biggest issue with the 754 mobiles on a desktop, once the board compatability is fine, is the HSF. Most won't make good contact with the mobile that does not use a heatshield. I am hearing decent things about the Thermalright XP-90 sink with mobiles on a K8.