Now let's check what's inside:

Soltek EQ2000M system is based on a special SL-B8A-F mainboard. Although it is of pretty small dimensions, there is a Socket478, two DIMM slots for DDR333/DDR266, one PCI slot and an AGP 4x slot for the possible upgrade of the integrated graphics subsystem. It is really unbelievable, but this small board equipped with an i845GE chipset and ICH4 South Bridge also features Realtek 8100B network controller, Agere FW323-05 Firewire controller and Realtek ALC 650 AC’97 codec. Thanks to this rich set of onboard chips the system supports 6 USB 2.0 ports, LAN and three IEEE1394 ports. All in all, this is a very solid looking set of features. Add SerialATA and the system will be close to perfect.

As for the overclocking-friendly options, the BIOS Setup of this mainboard does have some trumps to boast. In particular, you can adjust the FSB frequency from 100MHz to 200MHz with 1MHz increment. This could be a great attraction for overclocking fans, but unfortunately, the mainboard used in Soltek EQ2000M doesn’t allow changing the processor Vcore and setting AGP/PCI buses frequencies. So, we can say that Soltek EQ2000M boasts limited overclocking options. Maybe it is the complicated CPU cooling inside the SFF PC case that pushed Soltek to these limitations.

The power supply unit, which we found inside Soltek EQ2000M appeared the same small 200W pulse solution from Achme, like the one we saw in Shuttle SB51G. This way, there remain two power supply cables left after we have connected all the devices to it. They will be really handy if you decide to install some additional equipment requiring extra power.

Unlike Shuttle, Soltek engineers decided not to work on any specific cooling solutions for their barebone system. The cooling inside Soltek EQ2000M is arranged in almost the same way as in any other large PC case. There is a standard 800mm fan rotating at 2500rpm and blowing the air outside the case, which is fastened to the rear panel of the system. The small fan inside the power supply unit is too weak to blow enough air through the case that is why there is an extra fan in Soltek EQ2000M. Soltek suggests using common processor coolers, such as a standard boxed version, which fits ideally inside the system. Moreover, Soltek EQ2000M features active chipset cooling. It’s really hard to say whether this measure makes much sense, because Shuttle SB51G system managed to work stably without active cooling of the same chipset North Bridge. As a result, Soltek EQ2000M features 4 fans altogether which definitely tells on the noise level of the entire system. As you remember, Shuttle managed to do with only two fans inside its cube. However, it is still too early to draw any conclusions as the noise level tests are to come later in this article.

Soltek EQ2000M barebone system is very successfully built up and looks similar to Shuttle SB51 from the inside. The large graphics cards and full-size PCI cards will fit into Soltek EQ2000M without any problems. However, having placed its AGP slot very close to the side of the case, Soltek deprived you of the possibility to use graphics solutions equipped with big coolers (like the ones of GeForce FX based cards). Moreover, there are quite a lot of connectors close to the other side of the AGP slot, which may cause some problems even if you use a CGA card of the regular size. For example, when we installed ATI RADEON 9700 PRO into our Soltek EQ2000M system, the cables plugged into those connectors were about to block the graphics card cooler every now and then. But, you know, if you manage to curve the cables successfully and forget about this problem, the cables placement inside Soltek EQ2000M will look more reasonable than by Shuttle’s solution. When you assemble the system, all cables lie down naturally by themselves. Although we would also suggest using aerodynamic round cables in Soltek EQ2000M, we wish the company shipped them.