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Soltek 77KV KX133 Motherboard Review
Soltek 77KV KX133 Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
Optical High anticipation was the tone prior to the release of AMD's Pentium X killer, the Athlon processor. An exciting time for AMD fans in particular who finally saw their dreams come to fruition as AMD finally surpassed long time rival Intel with regard to high performance microprocessors.
 83% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Soltek Jun 20 2000   P. Masrani  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Soltek 77KV

BIOS Options



Soltek's 77KV offers an extremely flexible BIOS which exhibits a number of features which are now seen more commonly on various motherboards today. That is to say that the 77KV's BIOS does possess an ample of amount of options for just about any user. Starting with core voltage, you have an option of applying a varying amount of potential difference to your Athlon between 1.5V - 2.0V. The Vcore option allows you to deviate from default voltage by a predefined amount from the official 1.6V of the AMD Athlon. These values result in the following options which are available: 1.5V, 1.55V, 1.6V, 1.65V, 1.7V, 1.8V, 1.9V and 2.0V.

FSB speeds can be altered manually either through DIP switches or through the BIOS itself. Supported FSB's are 66, 83, 100, 110, 115, 122, 124, 129 and 133MHz. Knowing the popularity of motherboards which sport MHz increments of 1, it would have been perfect to see this option implemented in the 77KV, but we will discuss this point a bit later.

What clearly stands out as attractive is the sheer amount of options to manipulate memory settings. Under the Advanced BIOS Options, you will find an opportunity to set the DRAM clock speed at either HSTCLK + 33MHz, HSTCLK -33MHz or at FSB. For example, you are running your FSB at 110MHz, then you have the option of running your memory at either 110MHz (HSTCLK), 76MHz (HSTCLK - 33MHz), or 143MHz (HSTCLK + 33MHz). The greatest benefit of this is the sheer flexibility in system configuration. In case you have 66MHz SDRAM left over, there will be not problems in making use of it here.

DRAM Timing settings are also among the options available. Each of the three DRAM banks (0/1, 2/3, 4/5) can be set independently to SDRAM 8ns, SDRAM 10ns, Normal, Medium, Fast and Turbo. Depending on RAM quality, these settings can be changed accordingly for each bank.

A particular feature that we first witnessed on the Soltek 67KV was the ability to alert the user of their SDRAM CAS setting. If your memory is capable of running at CAS latency of 2, you will receive a message telling you so while the computer is POSTing.

Like all motherboards these days, the 67KV does provide support for comprehensive power management. ACPI functions are present, but in order to take advantage on this feature, your operating system must have support for it. Windows 98 and Windows 2000 does. The normal WOL (Wake-on-LAN) and modem ring-in features are present as well. In order to use WOL, your ATX power supply must be capable of providing at least 5V/720mA of standby power. Most ATX power supplies do comply to that rating so it shouldn't be a problem really.

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Contents of Article: Soltek 77KV
 Pg 1.  Soltek 77KV KX133 Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  First Impressions
 Pg 3.  — BIOS Options
 Pg 4.  Test Bed setup
 Pg 5.  Overclocking and Stability

 
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