Epox vs Soltek

[Tea]

Epox vs SoltekDamn, I'm sure I answered this already, now I can't find the thread. Someone asked what I thought of the Soltek DDr Athlon board, seeing as they were going to buy an Epox but were alarmed at having heard that their friend had got two DOA 8HKA+ boards.

And I distinctly remember saying "funny you should ask that" because I'd just spent most of the previous night updating my incredibly out-of-date web page to comment on those very things. www.redhill.net.au/new.html is as good a place to start as any. The comments on the Epox and Soltek DDR boards are at www.redhill.net.au/hw-b-01.html near the bottom of the page.

One thing I didn't comment on was the failure rates of the boards. And that was because, so far (touch wood), I don't have a failure rate! We have gone through (roughly):

10 MSI
20 Epox
20 Soltek

in KT-266A boards, maybe a few more than that. Plus one ASUS Ali-chipset thing, three or four ASUS AMD-761 boards, and four or five massive great MSI AMD-761 boards. I'm still touching wood, because not one of these boards has failed yet.

 

[GMac]

It was me Tony Thanks for the info and the link. Up to now, I'd heard plenty of praise for the 8KHA+, and I've been running one of their KT133 boards in my system for 12+ months and been very happy with it (rock solid stability-wise). But two dead ducks out of two is a tad worrying, so I thought I'd better look at other alternatives. And I know you've built systems with the Soltek before, so I thought "I'll ask an expert"... :mrgrn:

Cheers

GM

 

[CougTek]

Here the Soltek SL-75DRV2 is 20$CDN cheaper than the comparable EPoX KT266A mobo. In the few reviews I read where both boards were compared, the Soltek was every bit as good as the EPoX and even sometimes slighty in front. The choice is therefore not very hard. The new Soltek SL-75DRV4 (with the VIA south bridge supporting ATA133) cost about the same as the EPoX motherboard too. Again, I would choose the Soltek because of its superior features.

Something I don't like about the EPoX motherboard is the integrated HighPoint controller. I simply don't trust HighPoint's products after having read so many horror stories about them.

 

[Tannin]

Maybe you are getting a RAID version of the board. I've never seen any of that Hightpoint rubbish on an Epox. Hmmm - just checked their web site, there doesn't seem to be a RAID version. It's a mystery. Right now I'm paying about A$30 less for the Epox, but that's because the SL-75DRV4 is only just out. My one and only bug with the Soltek is the hopelessly obscure labelling of the IDE connectors. As always, Epox are the best at this, much harder to get them on backwards on the Epox.

 

[CougTek]

Sorry, I got confused somewhere. It's their KT133A motherboard that has the HighPoint POS onboard, not their KT266A. I still prefer the Soltek though. Their ATX power connector is better placed.

 

[Tannin]

On the other hand, the Epox has much better placement of the LED and switch connectors. Still line ball.

Now the $64 question. Are all KT-266A boards this good, or is it just the Epox and the Soltek?

 

[CougTek]

I would say EPoX and Soltek are the two best values among the KT266A motherboards, along maybe with the much cheaper ECS K7VTA2 and K7VTA3 v.2, depending of the BIOS revision used. The ECS motherboards are great for no frills systems. They don't have many tweaking features, but they are as stable as the former two and they cost ~20% less here. However, with the first BIOS version of the K7TVA3 v.2 (the one from November), the performances of this board significantly lagged those of most other KT266A. It became much better with the January BIOS release.

I never tried the K7TVA2 (with the ATA133-capable VIA south bridge), but I don't see why it wouldn't be at least as good as the K7VTA3 v.2 with its latest BIOS version.

Abit and Asus are overpriced and no better than EPoX and Soltek. Microstar has some freakingly scary voltage variances, although no major problems have been reported resulting of it. But their KT266A motherboard doesn't overclock well and its BIOS is unoptimized compared to average. GigaByte's KT266A is a no frills motherboard comparable IMO to the ECS but costing more for nothing.

 

[Buck]

Soltek, Epox, Elitegroup O my!

As of late, they have all proven reliable, stable, and cost effective for me.

The SL-75DRV2 has been very enjoyable to use as a Socket-A solution. The ECS D6VAA has been very cost effective and stable as a dual PIII solution. For a bottom-of-the-barrel, low-cost solution, I've been tempted to try the ECS P6VEM2. With onboard Video, Lan, Audio, and an accompanying VIA C3 667Mhz CPU, I would get a cool running system that sells for less than a Intel D810EMO Flex style system. Just think of the range of users that I can satisfy with these three boards? -- at least enough for me!


BR

 

[Sol]

Having used both the Soltek and Epox boards in question in my machine I can see very little difference excepting that; The Soltek boards onboard CPU temperature sensor is a bit unusual- it works fine but only with the program that came with the main board and only if you don't upset it by running another main board monitoring utility.
So if your in love with MBM then your out of luck. Otherwise the Soltek has AGP voltage selection, and uses dip switches to set the CPU multiplier and the voltage for the CPU and RAM. If your not a big overclocker you'll probably not notice any differences what so ever.
If it tells you anything, I'm running the Soltek because it wasn't worth the time to swap them over.

 

[Tannin]

If it tells you anything, I'm running the Soltek because it wasn't worth the time to swap them over.

Which is the exact same reason I'm still running the MSI! Guess I'll leave it in there till there is a sensible reason to step up. XP 2200? PC2600 RAM? We will see what turns up. You know, the only thing I dream about computer hardware wise these days is monitors.

 

[Tannin]

Well, I just got hold of a coupe of Elite motherboards. I sure hope they work, because my first impression is that they look really cheap and nasty. Well, they are cheap - $129 ex tax is a crazy low price - I just hope they work a lot better than they look.

 

[CougTek]

What model did you bought from ECS? My three favorites are the K7S5A (the SiS735) and the K7VTA2 & K7VTA3 v.2 (both KT266A-based, the former with the new VT8233A south bridge).

 

[Tannin]

K7S5A Coug. I'm glad you've had good experience with them because as soon as I opened the box I had that familiar sinking feeling. Just something indefinable about the look and feel, plus that super-thin circuit board.

Just for comparison:

ECS K7S5A: $129 ex
Epox KT266A: $179 ex
Soltek SL-75DRV4: $195 ex

I have my fingers crossesd.

 

[James]

I have an ECS K7S5A with an Athlon 1GHz in it, it cost me all of the equivalent of A$130 retail in Japan about 4 months ago. I got one with the onboard audio and LAN, I deactivated the audio portion but I do use the LAN port. It has been rock solid, some silliness with the drivers for my CMedia 8738 board under WinXP aside.

Let us know what you think, Tony.

 

[CougTek]

Just beware of not mixing Thunderbird at +1GHz with the ECS K7S5A and you won't have any problem with it. There is an issue between this motherboard and the +1GHz Thunderbird causing odd troubles. Some bcome unstable, others (like the one I had) need seveal attempts to power on, although it was rock-stable once booted.

You shouldn't have the same problem with +1GHz Duron.

I presume it's a problem related to the power circuit on the motherboard, but I don't remember exactly what it was.

ECS KT266A motherboards don't have any stability problem I heard of.

 

[Mercutio]

Just noticed that newegg.com has started carrying Soltek boards, for those of us in the US who haven't been able to get their stuff until now.

 

[Tannin]

Are you saying that I can only use the Elite's for Durons, CougTek? Or do I misunderstand? Bear in mind that the CPUs we currently carry are:

Duron 900
Duron 1200
Thunderbird 1400
Athlon XP 1700

Those we buy in bulk and keep in stock. Anything else is to special order. Which of those above are OK with the Elite board?

 

[CougTek]

The Athlon XP are fine with the ECS, there's only problems with Thunderbird clocked at >1Ghz. Of the three CPUs you mentioned, only the Athlon 1.4GHz would have to be avoid when paired to an ECS K7S5A.

 

[Tannin]

Ahh, thanks Coug. I can live with that. We are phasing the T-Birds out soon anyway.

 

[LiamC]

Problems with EPoX 8KHA and GeForce 4 cards

Saw this link on The Tech Report

http://www.hardocp.com/articles/visiontek/epoxvtti4600.html

Apparently (according to the [H]ard guys, any GeForce 4 (real one, not the bastardised MX) card that follows the reference design won't fit into the AGP slot on the 8KHA/8KHA+ because the EPoX board has capacitors near tht AGP slot that aren't within spec.

If true, I can see apotential headache coming on. Can anybody confirm? I was ready to hand over some hard earned for the 8KHA+, but I do want a GeForce 4 as well....

 

[GMac]

Returning to the subject line, one of the two problematic 8KHA+ boards was fixed with a bios update , but the other one AND it's replacement have proved rather less co-operative. It may be that the new PSU supplied with it is faulty (as two boards going in the same system is somewhat suspicious) - I'll know more after my friend returns the parts to the reseller tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I see Elite have released a mobo based around the SiS745 chipset (the K7S6A) - anybody used/come across this one yet?

 

[CougTek]

The SiS745 chipset is barely faster than the SiS735. I wouldn't buy it. If you want a cheap mobo, buy the SiS735, if you want something with higher performances, go for a KT266A with the VT8233A south bridge or a KT333 or the Asus K7N266 (nForce 420 chipset).

 

[CNN Sport]

Tried out one of theose ECS boards yesterday. Standard system, Athlon XP 1700, Legend DDR RAM, Samsung 40GB, Gforce II MX-200, Mitsubushi CD burner, A-Open case and power supply. Installed Windows 98SE and got a GPF near the end of the install. Changed the RAM, formatted C: and installed again. Another crash, in a different place.

Only one board, but it's not exactly a good start. Specially when they come from a known bad supplier and look so cheap and crappy.

I'm going to use these two with Duron 900s and hope that they cope better with a 200MHz front side than they do with 266MHz. We'll try the other one as well with an XP 1700, but I doubt I'll buy any more of them.

 

[Tannin]

Damn it Tea, can you at least try to get your handle right? Don't know why I trust you at the keyboard at all, really.

 

[Buck]

Pretty boring monologue for CCN Sport.

Either way, I have not tried that board yet. However, I did have an easy time with the ECS D6VAA - dual socket 370 board (PIII 933EB), ATI Xpert 2000, 512 MB PC-133 RAM, Creative Labs 52X CD-ROM, Tekram SCSI Card, WD45FN drive, and a WD PHD1000 drive. Windows 2000 installed like a champion on the SCSI drive. Ironically it is in a used Adtronics case with an AMD badge.

 

[CougTek]

Tried out one of theose ECS boards yesterday. Standard system, Athlon XP 1700, Legend DDR RAM, Samsung 40GB, Gforce II MX-200, Mitsubushi CD burner, A-Open case and power supply. Installed Windows 98SE and got a GPF near the end of the install. Changed the RAM, formatted C: and installed again. Another crash, in a different place.

If I was Mercutio, I would say that it's probably the fault of the NVIDIA card ;-)

I can't speak for the ECS K7S6A (the one with the SiS745 chipset), but I only have good words for the ECS K7S5A (the SiS 735 one). Do you have the latest BIOS and SiS AGP driver? I think their AGP driver is version 1.09 (or is it their IDE?).

 

[Mercutio]

That's cheap shot CougTek. Of course the nvidia card is a problem, but in that circumstance I'd be far more likely to check the RAM and the motherboard before I went ahead and did what comes naturally with nvidia cards.

... playing with the bits of my dremel tool that I never use while laughing the same maniacal laugh I use when I type DELTREE C:\WINDOWS...

 

[Tannin]

Buck, that wasn't CNN Sport, it was Tea. I don't know what she was doing with CNN's password, but I've spoken severely to her and she promises to never, ever, do it again.

Cougtek, when Tea is allowed to post again, if she's allowed to post again, she will no doubt say that she used the drivers that came with the motherboard. As a general rule, if the drivers that come with the product don't work, the product is not worth selling. Sooner or later, the user will reinstall and need the drivers, and when the poduct doesn't work, we will have to fix it. This sort of stuff looses us money and costs perfectly good surfing time.

If pushed to guess, I'd imagine that it was either incompatibility with our RAM (only one brand of DDR in stock right now) or just a bad quality motherboard. The K7S5A is thin as tissue paper and if it wasn't for your good experience with them I'd just declare it guilty without further investigation. Guess I'll have to find the time to download newer drivers and order some different DDR.

Sigh

 

[GMac]

From what I've seen and heard on my travels, the K7S5A is rather tempremental when it comes to DDRAM (but not as much with SDRAM - lord knows why) - some brands boot without problems whereas it won't boot at all with other types ( e.g Samsung). Very odd...

GM

 

[GMac]

Returning to the subject line, one of the two problematic 8KHA+ boards was fixed with a bios update , but the other one AND it's replacement have proved rather less co-operative. It may be that the new PSU supplied with it is faulty (as two boards going in the same system is somewhat suspicious) - I'll know more after my friend returns the parts to the reseller tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I see Elite have released a mobo based around the SiS745 chipset (the K7S6A) - anybody used/come across this one yet?

Just to update everyone on this one - the PSU was indeed the culprit, so it seems my worries about the 8KHA+ were unfounded The unit killed the A7A board (known to be good) that the 8KHA+ was due to replace, in addition to the two boards already mentioned, after the supplier returned it but failed to test it properly . Not surprisingly my friend is less than happy and Trading Standards may become involved. I'll keep you all posted as to what develops.

GM