Soltek SL-75DRV4
Stephen Cooper, March 21st, 2002
..:: Package ::..
The SL-75DRV4 brings with it a very nice software package, one of the best I have seen. Soltek has included a thermal probe which you can use to monitor your CPU temperatures. This is a feature that I have only seen Soltek partake in. Some may prefer their handy external thermal probes, but for the general user, this is a great idea.
The programs included are: PC-cillin 2000, Virtual Drive, Partition Magic 6.0 SE, and Drive Image 4.0. This is a very useful and high quality software selection. PC-cillin 2000 is anti-virus software, Virtual Drive allows you to "copy" the contents of a CD to a "virtual drive," meaning you don't actually need the CD to play a game or something of that nature. Partition Magic 6.0 SE allows you to re-partition a drive that has already been partitioned, and finally, Drive Image is a backup program much like that of Norton Ghost. Other included items are the usual IDE cable, Floppy Cable, Mainboard User Guide, and the Driver CD.
..:: Special Features ::..
What special features does the SL-75DRV4 offer? Well, the main feature offered is one that Soltek is well known for, that being RedStorm Overclocking. Some of you possibly know everything there is about RedStorm Overclocking while others are thinking "RedStorm Huh? What is he talking about?" RedStorm Overclocking is a program executed in the CMOS Setup. Basically, it will slowly raise the Front Side Bus of your system until it reaches a maximum level. Once it reaches the highest point of overclocking, the program will either freeze, or reboot your computer at a setting slightly below the highest achievable speed. This is a great feature...if you can get it to work. I attempted to get it to work with a locked AthlonXP, locked 1GHz Duron, and an unlocked 1GHz Duron, but to no avail. Each time it would freeze at the highest setting possible, I would restart the computer, and blip dead. If you take a look at the picture above, it will show you what happened when I tried to access the CMOS Setup Program. Nice blue line eh? It didn't bother getting past POST either. I'd reccomend overclocking with this board the old fashioned way, manually.
Soltek's SmartDoc. Anti-Burn Shield is just another name for the now typical hardware monitoring. You have the ability to set a warning temperature, and shutdown temperature for the CPU. Once it reaches unsafe levels, the user will be warned by a series of beeps. The same occurs when the CPU fan drops below the safe level of RPM's which you also select. Although it comes with a nice name for marketing purposes, this feature offers nothing special over other manufacturers who use a nearly identical system for CPU protection.
The last "Special Feature" of the motherboard would have to come from the "Purple Ray" name. Yes, the board is indeed purple, but if you ask me, my sample looked to be more of a maroon color under normal lighting conditions. When pictures were taken it turned to a darker purple, but otherwise, it was maroon. I was hoping for a nice deep purple like the picture but alas, pictures rarely accurately reflect real life. Next thing you know I'll be complaining about how a blue PCB looks to be more of a Periwinkle...am I as frightened as you on this one? Heh, Anyway, let's take a look at the motherboard design.
Previous Page Next Page
|
