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LOSTCIRCUITS		SHORTCUTS: Top Page At One Glance Features Layout VRM Jumpers, ABS II Woes Connectors BIOS, Test Configuration Integrated Graphics Sandra Memory I/O Performance Winstones Gaming Performance Overclocking, Conclusion Your comments? Soltek Mainboards Online
Soltek SL-75MRN L    Batteries not included
(Review by MS, April 10, 2003)

The probably best budget gaming solution currently available is using the IGP version of the nForce2 with its integrated GeForce4 MX graphics core. Dual channel memory controllers, a new low-latency arbiter and integrated sound and LAN capabilities make this chipset a "Jack of All Trades". There is really no point in adding a ton of features to a budget board, pimp it up with gold flitter and bright yellow slots, leave the legacy MIDI and game port on and see who bites. This is exactly what Soltek has done with the SL-75MRN L.

So far, so good, what about overclocking and quality. Or stability in general. To be honest, we never had a problem in that department but that's not the full story either.

Amongst the underdogs or rather under-canaries in the current mainboard scene are the boards manufactured by Soltek, regardless of whether it is the P4 or else the Athlon platform. Changes in the ownership of the different Doing Business As SoltekUSA" have led to a rollercoaster ride on the American market over the last few years, sometimes going periods of time without any distributor. This is all about to change now with a strong committment from the current supplier.

The latest Soltek board we were looking at was the SL-75FRN L based on nVidia's nForce2 chipset and the board, equipped with the SPP and MCP (sans-T) delivered admirable performance and stability even under highly overclocked conditions. A very much functional Anti Burn Shield II as CPU overheat protection but a fairly primitive VRM compared to today's standards were among the features we either liked or not but in the end, the performance delivered by the SL-75FRN L prevailed.

Overall a budget board for the budget gamer, the SL-75FRN L has since established its own fan club of potato-beetle lovers. After the triumphant victory of the SPP-based nForce2 chipset, the new IGP-2 (Crush 18G) versions started to roll out from a variety of manufacturers, we have covered that one already in the case of the Shuttle SN41G2 so we don't have to go into all the gory detail anymore. What we have at hand here today is Soltek's version of the IGP-2-based nForce2 dubbed SL-75MRN L where the "L" stands for LAN or integrated network controller and the missing "R" means that we don't have the SATA RAID option either on this particular specimen.

The Different Versions At One Glance

Briefly, the IGP-2 contains the same graphics core as the GeForce4 MX, which is essentially a GeForce2 on steroids with a few extra features. The most important improvement is probably the hardware support for hidden surface removal (HSR), boosting performance to up to twice the frame rates of the original IGP.

Like the SL-75FRN L, the graphics enabled-sister board features the standard MCP meaning that there is no SoundStorm and no secondary Ethernet controller either that would allow to use the board as a residential gateway / communication center out of the box. But we are stepping ahead of ourselves, ever tried to jump over your own shadow?

Time to face the facts, or was that specs?

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