X-bit labs

Soltek SL-KT880E-RL Mainboard on VIA KT880 Chipset Review (page 7)

Category: Mainboards

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 05/23/2004 | 01:01 PM ]

Performance

The outcome of our tests is predictable. Soltek couldn’t make a faster KT880-based mainboard than ASUS. That’s why the ASUS A7V880 is nearly everywhere a little faster than the new board from Soltek. Of course, the Soltek SL-KT880E-RL is also slower than the nForce2-based product and our words about the nForce2 Ultra 400 being the fastest dual-channel chipset for the Socket A platform are still true. The intelligent DASP preprocessor employed by NVIDIA in the nForce2 family chipsets is a highly efficient thing – you can’t beat that.

Conclusion

We have met another mainboard on the VIA KT880 and can now talk with more knowledge about the consumer qualities of this chipset. We are now perfectly sure that the KT880 is not faster than Socket A chipsets from NVIDIA. Moreover, now that we’re looking forward to mainboards on the nForce2 with new enhanced-functionality and cheaper South Bridges, the problem of the best chipset for the Socket A platform remains urgent. Of course, the KT880 has certain advantages, among which its high stability at overclocking is important, but so far, there are no real overclocker models of KT880-based mainboards in the market. For example, the Soltek SL-KT880E-RL we have reviewed today cannot clock the AGP and PCI busses asynchronously and this becomes a serious obstacle to speeding the system up.

On the other hand, the Soltek SL-KT880E-RL will suit well as an inexpensive Socket A platform for a mainstream computer system. As far as we know, this mainboard is going to sell for about $70 and this price will make it a good buy for economical users as it has every necessary function a modern PC must have. Still, I wouldn’t recommend this product to overclockers and experimenters.

Highs:

• Low price for a mainboard with a dual-channel memory subsystem;
• Up-to-date capabilities (10/100Mb network, six-channel audio, SATA RAID, eight USB ports);
• Support of the CPU-integrated thermal diode.

Lows:

• Low performance;
• Instability in the single-channel mode;
• Cannot lock the AGP/PCI frequencies at their defaults;
• Only two DDR DIMM slots;
• Issues with the PCB design.