Soltek K8TPro-939: Moving A64 to 939
by Wesley Fink on October 28, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Features: Soltek K8TPro-939
| Soltek SL-K8TPro-939 Motherboard Specifications | |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | VIA K8T800 Pro/VT8237 |
| Bus Speeds | 200MHz to 300MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Asynchronous (Fixed) or Float |
| Core Voltage | 0.8V to 1.7V, 0.025V increments to 1.5V, 0.05V increments 1.5V to 1.7V |
| DRAM Voltage | Default, 2.6V to 2.8V in 0.1V increments |
| AGP Voltage | Default, 1.5V-1.8V in 0.1V increments |
| 2.5V (VDD) Voltage | Default, 2.5V-2.8V in 0.1V increments |
| Hyper Transport Ratios | 1x to 5x in 1X increments |
| CPU Ratios | Auto, 4x to 20x in 1X increments |
| DRAM Speeds | Auto, 100, 133, 166, 200 |
| Memory Command Rate | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered Non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots |
| Onboard SATA | 2-Drive SATA by VIA VT8237 PLUS 2-Drive SATA by PDC20579 |
| Onboard IDE | Two Standard VIA ATA133/100/66 (4 drives) Promise PDC20579 (2 Drives) |
| SATA/IDE RAID | 2-Drive VIA SATA RAID plus 2-Drive Promise SATA RAID plus 2-Drive Promise IDE RAID. RAID 0, 1, JBOD |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 8 USB 2.0 ports supported VIA VT8237 2 1394A FireWire ports by VIA VT6307 |
| Onboard LAN | 1 Gigabit Ethernet by VIA VT6122 |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC850 AC'97 2.3 8-Channel with UAJ, SPDIF optical in and out |
| BIOS | Award K8939FAE Beta 10/26/2004 |
The K8TPro-939 is powered by VIA's dual chip K8T800 Pro North Bridge and the VIA VT8237 South Bridge. For more information on this chipset, you can refer to our launch article for the chipset:
VIA K8T800 PRO: PCI/AGP Lock and 1000 HyperTransport for Athlon 64
The K8T800 Pro is targeted at both Socket 939 and Socket 754, and it provides 1000 HT speed to all current Athlon 64 sockets. This contrasts to nVidia's nForce3-250 family, which has both 800 HT and 1000 HT versions depending on the target board.
The Soltek SL-K8TPro-939 includes:
- One round purple IDE cable color-coded to the black Soltek motherboard with purple slots
- Two matching purple flat IDE cables
- One matching purple flat floppy cable
- Four Serial ATA data cables
- Two Serial ATA power splitters supporting 4 SATA power connectors
- One USB bracket with 2 ports
- Quick Start Installation Guide
- Manuals for both the Motherboard and System Utilites
- Two CDs with Motherboard Drivers and Bonus CD with PC-Cillin 2004, Virtual Drive 7, RestoreIT! 3 Lite, Partition Magic 6.0 SE, and DriveImage 4.0
- Promise PDC20579 Driver diskette
- I/O shield
The Realtek ALC850 7.1 audio chip is appearing on many recent motherboards. This 8-channel audio codec is fully AC '97 2.3 compliant and features 16-bit 8-channel audio and auto-jack sensing with support for a full range of analog and digital IO. The ALC850 includes both Optical SPDIF in and out connectors on the rear IO panel.
The ALC850 Codec provides four pairs of stereo outputs, with 5-Bit volume controls and multiple stereo and mono inputs, along with flexible mixing, and gain and mute functions. Two 50mW/20ohm headset audio amplifiers are integrated at Front-Out and Surround-Out, and both amplifiers are selectable for Front-Out, Line-In and Mic-In as a Universal Audio Jack.
The real question here is why Soltek chose the Realtek codec instead of the excellent VIA Envy codec. We suspect that the answer has to do with the cost difference between the VIA and Realtek solutions.
You can find more information on the recently released ALC850 at Realtek.
Soltek provides a full selection of rear I/O ports. These include 6 programmable audio mini jacks plus optical SPDIF in and out connectors to support the Realtek ALC850. The back panel also includes PS2 mouse and keyboard, parallel, 1 serial, 1 standard Firewire (IEEE1394a), 4 USB, and a Gigabit Ethernet. There is no rear port for a Parallel Printer, but there is an onboard header for an optional parallel printer add-on cable.
The K8TPro-939 supports two SATA connectors driven by the VIA Southbridge. These 2 ports can be combined in Raid.
Soltek also supplies a Promise controller that supports two additional SATA drives and 2 more IDE drives. Drives can be configured as RAID on the Promise, but they cannot be combined in a RAID with the VIA drives.
Gigabit LAN is provided by the VIA VT6122. While the LAN is specified as 1 Gigabit, it is controlled by the PCI bus, which can limit throughput severely in some situations. Internet users will not see a slow-down, and generally, this will not make much (if any) difference in real-world performance. However, file transfers and gaming over a 1 Gigabit LAN will likely be slower on a Gigabit LAN on the PCI bus.
Four DIMM slots support up to 4GB of up to DDR400 memory in a Dual-Channel memory configuration. Dual-Channel 1 is DIMMs 1 and 2, and Dual-Channel 2 is DIMMs 3 and 4. Soltek also states that a single DIMM in slots 2 or 4, or a pair of DIMMs in 2+4 are non-bootable memory configurations.
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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.