Soltek SL-77KV AMD K7
Athlon VIA KX133 mainboard
Thursday, April 27, 2000
The performance tests results
All tests were all performed under Windows98.
The system setup was as following:
Motherboard: Soltek SL-77KV
Motherboard revision: M5
BIOS: REV L2
CPU: AMD Athlon 800Mhz
Memory: 128Mbb Transcend PC133 SDram
Primary IDE Port Controller Master: Quantum Fireball KA 9.1gig ATA66
Secondary IDE port Controller Master: Quantum Fireball 3.2 Gig ATA33
Secondary IDE port Controller Slave: Kenwood 52X True X CD-ROM
AGP Port: GeForce 256
Graphics card driver revision: Nvidia 4.11.01.0368
OS: Win98 built 4.10
DirectX 7.0a
GlSetup 1.0.0.110 Beta
Winstone99 - Winbench99
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Ziff Davis Winstone99 - Winbench99
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Winbench CPUmark99
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68.4
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Business Winstone99
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29.37
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Video sub-system tests
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Quake2 version 3.20 @800Mhz
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800 X 600 X 75Hz
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175.1 FPS
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Quake2 version 3.20 @900Mhz
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800 X 600 X 75Hz
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178 FPS
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Disk sub-system tests
Overall Quality Evaluation
The evaluation table below shows both the strong and weak points of the tested motherboard. No need to remind you that performance is not the sole purchasing criteria in a motherboard. Most of today's motherboards exhibit performance very close to each other, so we need additional information in order to help us distinguish the real advantages of a motherboard compared to its competitors. This is exactly where this evaluation table comes in handy.
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Soltek SL-77KV AMD K7 Athlon VIA KX133
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Feature
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Evaluation
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Design Originality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Circuit Board Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Component Layout
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Capacitiors
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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CPU Retention Mechanism
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Amounts of Expansion Slots
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Amount of Memory sockets
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Ease of installation
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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BIOS Setup Design
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Performance
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Overclockability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Stability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Bundled Software
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Bundled Hardware
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Users Manual Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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3
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Packing Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Features supported
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ATA66
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PC133
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Wake On LAN
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Modem ring
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Pwr Fail Res
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5
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Features supported (suite)
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SB-Link
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AMR
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Mouse Pwr On
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Susp. to RAM
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Susp. to Disk
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3
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Features supported (suite)
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IRDA
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SCSI
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Keyb. Pwr On
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Hardw. mon.
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Vcore adj.
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3
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Features supported (suite)
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RAID
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Alarm
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Jumperless
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L2 lat. adj.
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IRQ assign.
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2
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Total Score obtainned for this motherboard
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88 point out of 100
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Features color codes: Blue = supported, Red = optional, Black = not supported
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The weak points
The SL-77KV's weak points are few, and far between. Those that it does suffer from include a short list of possible bus frequencies, an overly wordy user's manual, the lack of a feature for adjusting the processor's core voltage, and the inability to assign an IRQ to any particular PCI slot.
The strong points
The SL-77KV's strong points are its great simplicity of installation, and use, its excellent performance, a rich selection of features, a nice versatility in memory support, the inclusion of a connector for the thermal sensor, and a nice software bundle.
Conclusions
Gifted as they are with a wide ranging set of features, Soltek's motherboards are a real pleasure to buy, and use. Their software bundles are always interesting, and the fact that Soltek nearly always includes a thermal sensor with their products really sets them apart from the competition. The SL-77KV not only follows the traditions set by earlier Soltek boards, but it also manages to be fast, and easy to use. The only real regret we had was the lack of a function for adjusting the CPU's core voltage. Still, since most Athlon Overclockers prefer to use a Goldfinger device, and many such devices can adjust the CPU's core voltage, the loss is not major, or irreversible. In short, we can do nothing less than heartily recommend the SL-77KV to any, and all takers.
For more information, visit Soltek
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