Soltek K8TPro-939: Moving A64 to 939
by Wesley Fink on October 28, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
BIOS: Soltek K8TPro-939
Soltek uses Phoenix-Award BIOS, which will be a familiar interface for most users.
Most of the options of interest to overclockers are contained in the Frequency/Voltage Control menu. This includes CPU speed, AGP Asynchronous (Fixed) select, CPU ratios, and CPU/DIMM/AGP/VDD (2.5V) voltage.
The enthusiast settings not found in Frequency/Voltage Control can be found in Advanced Chipset Featrures. HT ratios to 1 GHz are available in the LDT & PCI Bus Control submenu.
The DRAM Configuration submenu contains a full range of memory settings. The shipping K8TPro-939 BIOS had adjustments for just CAS timings, while the 10/26 Beta BIOS added a complete selection of memory adjustments.
The CPU can be adjusted over an adequate, if not exciting, speed range from 200MHz to 300MHz in 1MHz increments. We prefer a wider range on Athlon 64 boards, since the A64 allows choosing lower CPU ratios. However, as you will see in overclocking, the adjustment range is a moot point in the current Soltek design.
The Asynchronous AGP/PCI Clock can be set to Enabled (fixed 66 AGP/PCI frequency) or Disabled. Unfortunately, as you will see in the OC pages, this function does not appear to work in the Soltek BIOS that we tested.
Memory Voltage can be adjusted to 2.8V, which is OK. A range to 3.0V to 3.2V would have been much more useful for those who push the performance of their system.
The other part of high FSB clocking is CPU ratios or multipliers. The Soltek provides a wide range of 4X to 20X, with adjustments in whole multipliers only. Keep in mind that while all Athlon 64 chips can be downclocked with lower ratios, only the FX chips are completely unlocked and can be set to higher than stock ratios. We confirmed that the ratios do work as they should on the K8TPro-939 board.
vCore can be widely adjusted from 0.8V to 1.7V. This should satisfy all, but the most aggressive phase-change overclockers.
VDD voltage can be adjusted from the default 2.5V up to 2.8V.
With all of the integrated features of the K8TPro-939, you will spend a lot of time in the Integrated Peripherals menu.
Soltek calls their PC Health function SmartDoc Anti-Burn Shield. Here, you can monitor fan speeds and voltages. For those interested in the AMD K8 Cool'n'Quiet, the adjustments can be found in the Power Management Setup menu.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
21 Comments
View All Comments
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.