Soltek NV400-L64: Purple, Practical, AND Performance!
by Wesley Fink on August 11, 2003 10:26 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
The Soltek NV400-L64 is a bargain-priced, single-channel nForce2 400 board whose primary reason for being is to compete with the VIA KT600 with a lower-cost NVIDIA chipset, and to provide compelling value for mainstream users. It meets both of these goals very well, and has to be considered a roaring success.The surprising performance of the single-channel nForce2 400, however, also makes the NV400-L64 the ideal board in situations that you might not have considered. Its top-notch gaming performance makes it an ideal choice for a top-performing gaming rig, and its low price will save the gamer some money, to be spent on a better video card, for example. While the gaming performance of the Soltek is excellent, it is not a knock-out punch, as its performance is very close to the gaming performance of top Ultra 400 boards.
For mainstream use in multimedia creation and general office work, the NV400-L64 is also a competent performer. If you are working on a limited budget and/or desire an excellent price point, you won’t be making any performance sacrifices with this Soltek. In fact, you may also save money buying memory. Top performance can be achieved on the NV400-L64 with just one stick of memory, compared to nForce2 Ultra 400 boards that need a matched pair of DIMMs for best performance.
Despite these positive remarks, there are some weaknesses in the nForce2 400 chipset. Applications like SpecViewperf 7.0 show that there are trade-offs with the single-channel solution. In truly demanding workstation applications, the Soltek NV400-L64 is no substitute for a top nForce2 Ultra 400 dual-channel solution.
It’s hard not to get excited about a board that sells for about $70 and outperforms the majority of Athlon boards in gaming. It’s easy to recommend the Soltek for a top-notch gaming rig, as well as a mainstream system that provides top-performance with few frills at a value price. It is not, however, the board that beats the nForce2 Ultra 400 in demanding applications.
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Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
#13 - The VIA KT600 board tests were earlier tests already completed by Evan Lieb with the 4.47 VIA Hyperion drivers . We reported what was used in those tests. The Hyperion drivers do not have any relevance to THIS review of the nForce 400.Turnip - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
This is the least fair benchmark I ever remember having seen on AnandTech!To quote the last paragraph of the review, "It's hard not to get excited about a board that sells for about $70 and outperforms the majority of Athlon boards in gaming."
You're comparing 3D-based benchmarks using different graphics cards! Of course the benchmarks using the brand new whizzy cards are faster than the older benchmarks with old cards!
Regardless of whether you're updating this article with the new results now or not, this article should never have appeared in a publication of AnandTech's standing in this appalling condition in the first place!
- A long-time reader of AnandTech, who has never before seen such an unfair review.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
Wesley-Just a little curious why you used all the updated drivers available except the Via Hyperion 4.48 drivers?
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
Jeff7181 -In our tests at AnandTech, the performance of the nForce2 and nForce2 Ultra 400 is virtually the same at the same settings. The difference is that the Ultra 400 officially supports the 200FSB AMD processors, and they generally overclock better as a result.
As stated in #10 above, we have completed a retest of recent reviews with our new ATI 9800 PRO video card standard, and those will be posted in this review later today. Since the difference in nForce2 and nForce2 Ultra 400 is 200 CPU/bus support and overclocking, we did not retest the older nForce2 chipset boards.
Jeff7181 - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
This review is lacking... where's the benchmarks for the popular motherboards like the A7N8X Deluxe, NF7-S, and 8RDA+ ?!?!? I don't care if a new nForce2 400 Ultra whatever the hell they call it now is faster than a KT600 chipset... I want to know if it's faster than the previous generation of nForce2 motherboards. Quit slackin off Anand.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
All of our benchmarks have been updated using the ATI 9800 as the reference video card, and you will see updates in this article very shortly. The text changes will go up first, so bear with us until all the updates are up.Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
Stability? Sound? Are you joking?You can also get an Epox 8RDA+ with those same features for $15 more and it'll come with Serial ATA, nForce sound (much better than any VIA sound), better overclocking potential, and most likely better drivers. Push comes to shove, who would any sane person choose, VIA or NVIDIA? LOL, as if I should have to answer that.
Face it, KT600 motherboards are worthless unless you're a VIA whore.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
I have an Asus A7N8X-X, and this mobo has a nForce2 400 chipset, with single chanel memory. Processor, XP2600(fsb333) and 1GB DDR333. If it is faster than nForce2 ultra 400 (dual chanel), or not... that I don't know. But I was surprised with the speed of my system.Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
Lets See what issues this chipset brings,For 15$ more KT600 With integrated SATA &
better sound (& probably stability) is a better
choice without a doubt.
Btw..What is it with you guys & Corsair...Looks
Like you have a "Nice" setup with them huh ..
Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - link
#2 what are you talking about? Why would anyone choose a KT600 motherboard that is slower and overclocks poorly for more money just because you can get onboard SATA that does absolutely nothing for performance? Puhlease.