SOLTEK "SL-K8TPro-939" VIA K8T800 - PCI/AGP Lock?

[Sinicism]

Folks,

I read a review of this Soltek board, written several months back, indicating that the PCI/AGP lock didn't work.

Does anyone know if that is still the case, or has it been corrected?

I'm trying to decide between this board and an Asus A8V Deluxe Rev 2.0.

(I'm limiting my choices to these due to my existing stock of PATA drives).

Thanks,
S.

[Edited to correct chipset...]

[Yawgm0th]

Re: SOLTEK "SL-K8TPro-939" VIA K8T800 - PCI/AGP Lock?

(I'm limiting my choices to these due to my existing stock of PATA drives).

Well that makes absolutely no sense, so if you'd care to explain, it'd be nice.

As for the board, if it uses the K8T800 chipset it's impossible for the lock to work as its a chipset limitation. The same applies with nForce 3 150.

As for the Asus A8V Deluxe, it's a great board, though I'd rather have an MSI K8 Neo2 Platinum, personally. The MSI overclocks a little better and has a few more features (dual GbE and three IE1394). The ASUS performs marginally better in some games at stock speed (overclocking will fix that), while the MSI performs marginally better in more CPU-intensive applications. In any case, both are very good boards and any enthusiast would be happy with either.

However, if you aren't going to be using an existing video card in this system, you should be getting a board based on the nForce 4 Ultra chipset, such as the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra (assuming you're in the U.S.). This would give you PCI-E support, which will provide much greater upgradability. You will also get more bang-for-buck out of a PCI-E video card, in most cases (assuming you play games or do any sort of 3D rendering, since it doesn't matter otherwise) as they tend to be cheaper/better than their AGP versions/price equivelents.

[Sinicism]

Re: SOLTEK "SL-K8TPro-939" VIA K8T800 - PCI/AGP Lock?

Yawgm0th -

Thanks for the detailed reply, as always.

Here are my thoughts:

Well that makes absolutely no sense, so if you'd care to explain, it'd be nice.

I'm doing an upgrade of MOBO / memory / processor:

A64 3000 90 nm Winchester core
1G Corsair VS
A8V Deluxe (at this point)

I have 2 optical drives, 6 PATA drives.
Two identical 200s will go in a RAID 0 PATA array.
Two identical 120s will go in a RAID 0 SATA array via SATA <> PATA translation.
Two other random PATA drives on the 3rd PATA connector.

As for the board, if it uses the K8T800 chipset it's impossible for the lock to work as its a chipset limitation.

Over-aggressive cut-and-paste, it's the VIA K8T800 PRO chipset.

As for the Asus A8V Deluxe, it's a great board, though I'd rather have an MSI K8 Neo2 Platinum, personally. The MSI overclocks a little better and has a few more features (dual GbE and three IE1394). The ASUS performs marginally better in some games at stock speed (overclocking will fix that), while the MSI performs marginally better in more CPU-intensive applications. In any case, both are very good boards and any enthusiast would be happy with either.

Thanks, that was my sense.

The MSI offers features I don't need (dual GbE, +1 FW port), while it lacks features on the A8V I need (PATA RAID, 6 PATA drives).

The Soltek feature set is almost identical to that of the A8V, but for about $15 - $20 less. Though, the more I think about it, I'd rather have the A8V and KNOW what the scoop is re: OC'ing, memory compatibility, etc.

However, if you aren't going to be using an existing video card in this system, you should be getting a board based on the nForce 4 Ultra chipset, such as the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra (assuming you're in the U.S.). This would give you PCI-E support, which will provide much greater upgradability. You will also get more bang-for-buck out of a PCI-E video card, in most cases (assuming you play games or do any sort of 3D rendering, since it doesn't matter otherwise) as they tend to be cheaper/better than their AGP versions/price equivelents.

I am, I have a 9800PRO that is tiding me over for the time being.

I tend to stay a generation back from the bleeding edge, and upgrade aggressively from a schedule perspective.

I specifically chose Socket 939 so that a year from now, I can put an Athlon 64 4000+ in, in lieu of the 3000, for probably around what I pay for the 3000 now. :^) And two years out from now, I'll pick up a dual-core A64 and matching MOBO, with SLI / PCI-E...

S.