Soltek NV400-L64: Purple, Practical, AND Performance!
by Wesley Fink on August 11, 2003 10:26 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Performance Test Configuration
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (400MHz FSB) |
| RAM: | 2 x 256MB Corsair PC3200 TwinX LL (v1.1 or v1.2) Modules |
| Hard Drive(s): | WMaxtor 120GB 7200 RPM (8MB Buffer) Western Digital 120GB 7200 RPM Special Edition (8MB Buffer) |
| Bus Master Drivers: | NVIDIA nForce version 2.03 (January 30, 2003) VIA 4in1 Hyperion 4.47 (May 20, 2003) |
| Video Card(s): | ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB (AGP 8X) |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 3.6 |
| Operation System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | Soltek NV400-L64 (nForce2 400 SC) @ 200.5MHz FSB DFI NFII Ultra LanParty (nForce2 Ultra 400) @ 201.35 MHz FSB Gigabyte 7VT600 1394 (KT600) @ 202.78MHz FSB Gigabyte 7NNXP (nForce2 Ultra 400) @ 202.77MHz FSB Epox 8KRA2+ (KT600) @ 202.44MHz FSB |
All performance tests that ran on nForce2 400 (SC)/nForce2 Ultra 400 (DC) motherboards utilized two 256MB Corsair TwinX LL PC3200 (v1.1 or v1.2) modules set to SPD timings in DDR400 mode. Dual-channel mode was used on nForce2 Ultra 400 boards, and two DIMMs working as single-channel were used on the nForce2 400 Soltek NV400-L64 board.
All performance tests that ran on the KT600-based motherboards used two 256MB Corsair TwinX LL PC3200 (v1.1 or v1.2) Corsair modules in DDR400 mode. KT600 memory timings did vary slightly among the motherboards, with the Asus A7V600 requiring a Ras-to-Cas of 3 for stable operation and other KT600 boards requiring a Ras-to-Cas setting of 2. 4-bank interleave and the highest available timing option (Turbo or Ultra) was used.
Performance tests were run using the ATI 9800 PRO 128MB video card, with AGP Aperture set to 128MB with Fast Write enabled. The ATI 9800 PRO is the new Anandtech video card standard for reviews.
Additions to Performance Tests
Benchmark testing is dynamic, and we have added several new benchmarks to our standard Test Suite.1) ZD Labs Internet Content Creation 2003 – This benchmark has just been updated by ZD Labs and includes many new features in the Benchmark Suite, such as Media Encoding. It also uses the most up-to-date versions of Multimedia Creation software, which is rapidly changing as new software tools are released.
2) ZD Labs Business Winstone 2002 – ZD Labs Business Winstone has been around for many years and is a widely quoted Benchmark for measuring system performance. It basically provides a similar benchmarking suite to Sysmark 2002 Office Productivity.
3) Gun Metal DirectX Benchmark 2 – This demo/benchmark from Yeti Labs is one of the first DX9 game-based benchmarks available. Unlike some older benchmarks, such as Quake 3, that generate insane FPS ratings in the 300’s, we see performance numbers in the 30 to 40FPS range with current DX9 cards.
To give AnandTech readers a feel for how some of the newer benchmarks compare to the more familiar benchmarks used in past reviews, we have posted results for both of these new benchmarks and Sysmark 2002, as well as all the games that have been a part of our standard benchmark suite.
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Anonymous User - Saturday, October 25, 2003 - link
Hello All!!!I've been buying components last 6 months one at a time, and the Soltek Nv400L was my last purchace.
System Specs:
430 Watt Antec Power Supply
Athlon XP 2500 cpu
512 Corsair Xms c2pt memory-single stick
Ati 9500 pro 128 video card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card
1 80 gig Western Digital 8meg cache hard drive
1 80 gig Maxtor 8meg cache hard drive
Liteon 522446s Cd writer
Liteon 165h Dvd rom
Philips Brilliance 107p monitor
Windows XP professional
I don' need serial ata, my special editions are plenty fast for the dollars spent, serial needs to mature also. I had a Kt3ultra2, with pc2100 Infineon 512 stick, and a XP2000.
I was concerned about this upgrade, I don't trust cheap boards. Had real bad time with a ECS pos last year.
Let me tell you, my system right now, is THE best bang for the buck. I am so impressed. All I needed was the lan, and it too kills my pci network card. This Soltek mobo should not be understated, to say the very, very least. I also like the fact of just having my one stick of corsair, ranther than having 2 dual sticks. If you need all the "features", pass on it. If you want amazing speed, ultra reliability, and great overclocking (Soltek has O/C bios at request, FULL ram tweaking), grab this board.
I can't believe something this cheap is so damn fast, reliable.............
Don't be fooled people. Ya, I have no bragging rights, but I have a great little purple mobo on crack, HIGHLY SUGGESTED.
THIS IS THE MOST UNDERATED MOBO ON THE MARKET RIGHT NOW. ABSOLUTELEY. You don't hear much about it cause Nvidia etc. etc. is not getting rich off it. Its a gem.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
Can't see the benchmarks, too. Using Netscape7 on Linux.Anonymous User - Monday, August 25, 2003 - link
Uhh... Did something happened to the benchmark pics? (They are not showing up) Anyone else experiencing this? or Is my browser acting up?Maybe another ongoing article update perhaps?
Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - link
To the author,PCI bus speed runs at a fixed frequency for nForce2. It isn't half of the AGP bus speed. Please use a IOSS RD2 Pro PC Geiger PCI Bus Multifunction Analyzer to verify.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 19, 2003 - link
Jeff, stop posting, it's already known fact that Gigabyte's nForce2 U400 and other U400 motherboards perform exactly the same as Epox and ASUS's boards. Your argument request is useless, waste's Anandtech's time, and is getting old frankly.Anonymous User - Sunday, August 17, 2003 - link
I'm really surprised by the figures you guys obtained - I had an ASUS A7N8X-X (non-ultra) and it was crap! I could only get 8,000 in 3Dmark01, upon changing to the ASUS Ultra (deluxe) and keeping everything the same I got 13,500!!!!Also, my A7V8X-X was way faster (12,000 3DMark01) - Don't know why, maybe the A7N8X-X was not working correctly(?).
Jeff7181 - Sunday, August 17, 2003 - link
Again I ask... where the hell is the popular boards like the A7N8X Deluxe and 8RDA+?Anonymous User - Sunday, August 17, 2003 - link
is a7n8x-x anygood?Anonymous User - Saturday, August 16, 2003 - link
I am awaiting further testing on other nForce2 400/Ultra motherboard, e.g. chaintech 7njl3 or 7njl4 or gigabyte counterparts which are also very competitive in the market.wesley, hear my voice?!
Anonymous User - Saturday, August 16, 2003 - link
And one last question - is it not possible that the 'Auto' setting for memory speed actually runs the memory in sync with FSB? I just want to be sure.