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Soltek SL-75KAV SocketA
Motherboard
We recently took a look at the
Soltek
SL-75DRV SocketA DDR Motherboard and were very impressed. When DDR memory
was first released it was quite expensive but due to recent market trends
it has become very affordable. What about users who aren't interested in upgrading
to DDR at this time but still want to use a 266 MHz FSB Athlon CPU? VIA has
had the KT133A chipset on the market for a few months and there are several
boards based on this chipset available for purchase. Soltek also makes the
KT133A based SL-75KAV that shares many of the features of the SL-75DRV I reviewed
previously. Misr Corp was kind enough
to once again send us the evaluation unit.
|
Features |
The
Board |
- Socket A AMD
CPU support
- PC133 SDRAM support
- VIA KT133A
- ATA-33,66,100
Support
- 1 AGP, 5 PCI,
1 ISA
- 3 PC133 Dimm
slots
- 3D PCI sound
on board
- 220mm x 305mm
- Support for up
to 4 USB ports
|
|
First
Impressions
The layout of the SL-75KAV is
very similar to its SL-75DRV big brother. I'm not sure if Soltek is reading
the opinions of reviewer's but it would seem that they've taken to heart some
of my criticisms of other manufacturers' boards. The first thing that jumped
out at me was that this board features an ISA slot. I won't rehash my argument
against CNR/AMR slots again since I'm sure I'll bore you readers to tears
yet again but needless to say it is nice to see a slot that is still of use
to the vast majority of users out there.
Once again Soltek has placed
the capacitors for the CPU away from the CPU - all but one are above the CPU
socket. What is very nice about this layout is that they placed a small gap
between two of them to facilitate installation and removal of the clip that
holds down a HSF. Very nice touch. I easily fit the massive Big
MoFoHO heatsink/fan unit that 1CoolPC sent for review on this board.
The more things stay the same
the more they actually change. While the SL-75KAV still features Soltek's
signature horizontal IDE ribbon cable connectors the floppy IDE connector
is now vertical and on the edge close to the memory sockets. The extra space
between the two IDE cable connectors is much appreciated. The
one thing that really stands out as different about this board is the inclusion
of a second COM port on the motherboard surface just above the AGP slot. We've
come across other boards that only featured one COM port but apparently Soltek
decided they'd engineer some way to let people have a second COM port even
if the layout/design of their motherboard didn't readily facilitate it being
on the back I/O panel.
