Soltek K8TPro-939: Moving A64 to 939

BIOS: Soltek K8TPro-939

Soltek uses Phoenix-Award BIOS, which will be a familiar interface for most users.

Most of the options of interest to overclockers are contained in the Frequency/Voltage Control menu. This includes CPU speed, AGP Asynchronous (Fixed) select, CPU ratios, and CPU/DIMM/AGP/VDD (2.5V) voltage.

The enthusiast settings not found in Frequency/Voltage Control can be found in Advanced Chipset Featrures. HT ratios to 1 GHz are available in the LDT & PCI Bus Control submenu.

The DRAM Configuration submenu contains a full range of memory settings. The shipping K8TPro-939 BIOS had adjustments for just CAS timings, while the 10/26 Beta BIOS added a complete selection of memory adjustments.

The CPU can be adjusted over an adequate, if not exciting, speed range from 200MHz to 300MHz in 1MHz increments. We prefer a wider range on Athlon 64 boards, since the A64 allows choosing lower CPU ratios. However, as you will see in overclocking, the adjustment range is a moot point in the current Soltek design.

The Asynchronous AGP/PCI Clock can be set to Enabled (fixed 66 AGP/PCI frequency) or Disabled. Unfortunately, as you will see in the OC pages, this function does not appear to work in the Soltek BIOS that we tested.

Memory Voltage can be adjusted to 2.8V, which is OK. A range to 3.0V to 3.2V would have been much more useful for those who push the performance of their system.

The other part of high FSB clocking is CPU ratios or multipliers. The Soltek provides a wide range of 4X to 20X, with adjustments in whole multipliers only. Keep in mind that while all Athlon 64 chips can be downclocked with lower ratios, only the FX chips are completely unlocked and can be set to higher than stock ratios. We confirmed that the ratios do work as they should on the K8TPro-939 board.

vCore can be widely adjusted from 0.8V to 1.7V. This should satisfy all, but the most aggressive phase-change overclockers.

VDD voltage can be adjusted from the default 2.5V up to 2.8V.

With all of the integrated features of the K8TPro-939, you will spend a lot of time in the Integrated Peripherals menu.

Soltek calls their PC Health function SmartDoc Anti-Burn Shield. Here, you can monitor fan speeds and voltages. For those interested in the AMD K8 Cool'n'Quiet, the adjustments can be found in the Power Management Setup menu.