Overclocking
I
had identical overclocking experience with the ERV that I did with the earlier
SL-75DRV2. I reached 155 MHz FSB with the Athlon XP 1800+ which features a 133
MHz FSB. What made it more enjoyable with the ERV was that I did it all from BIOS
and there was no need to mess with onboard jumpers. Hurrah - let's hope that those
jumpers don't reappear on any future Soltek motherboards. Included in the box
is a thermistor to attach to your CPU for more accurate CPU monitoring.
Software
Nothing
has changed in the software dept. - which is not to say that this is bad. Here's
a clip straight from the original review of the SL75DRV and which was previously
reprinted in the SL-75DRV2 review: "Motherboard manufacturers are learning
that their products have to do more than perform - they have to be useful. Thats
where a good software bundle comes in. Included on the driver disk for the motherboard
is ITE Smart Guardian which is a program that monitors your CPU and mainboard
temps as well as the voltages for several components on the motherboard. It even
monitors fan speeds for fans that are hooked up to the motherboard."
"Soltek
includes a second CD which is packed with the full versions of PC-cillin
2000, Virtual Drive, Drive Image 4.0, and Partition Magic 6.0. That is a very
impressive software bundle as it not only includes the now almost mandatory anti-virus
program but also has a HD partitioner and copier." Nothing new to add to
that great bundle so no new comments.
Conclusions
The
SL-75ERV is a significant improvement over the earlier SL-75DRV2 which also featured
the KT266A chipset. The improved layouts goes miles to show that Soltek is listening
to reviews such as this and to the customers. The addition of the sixth PCI slot
and the addition of ATA133 support are worthy additions to the boards that have
preceded it.
The board has
been very stable thoughout testing and offers many of the improvements we've been
asking Soltek from Soltek for months. The only things I would change would be
to move the fan power point that is currently by the ATX connector closer to the
CPU socket and to remove the now vestigial jumpers from the motherboard. I also
noticed that the board had placements for additional IDE connectors and I think
that would be very a worthy addition to this interesting board.
Victor
Oshiro April 21, 2002
