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Soltek SL-75MRN-L Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Monday, March 31, 2003
Introduction
The nForce2 chipset from nVidia has been gaining a lot of traction in the enthusiast market, not only because it supports dual channel DDR400 but also for its amazing overclocking ability. Although unlike other chipsets the nForce2 comes in a variety of configurations that can be mixed and matched to suit just about any need.
The SL-75MRN-L is actually very similar to the SL-75FRN-L in many aspects except for one. This board features the nVidia IGP Northbridge for integrated on-board video. The video processor is basically a GeForce4 MX so you can still play your favorite games but as with most motherboards like this a chunk of system memory is allocated for video purposes. Our tests show that this does decrease overall system performance but not so much that the end user will notice.
The SL-75MRN-L is actually very similar to the SL-75FRN-L in many aspects except for one. This board features the nVidia IGP Northbridge for integrated on-board video. The video processor is basically a GeForce4 MX so you can still play your favorite games but as with most motherboards like this a chunk of system memory is allocated for video purposes. Our tests show that this does decrease overall system performance but not so much that the end user will notice.
Board Features Include
nVidia nForce2 IGP Northbridge
nVidia nForce MCP Southbridge
Socket 462 AMD processor support
AGP 8x
Dual Channel DDR 333/266 with enhanced DDR400 support
ATA133
10/100 Ethernet
USB 1.1 and 2.0
6-channel audio
5 PCI slots
3 DDR memory slots
Optional Serial ATA Raid
nVidia nForce MCP Southbridge
Socket 462 AMD processor support
AGP 8x
Dual Channel DDR 333/266 with enhanced DDR400 support
ATA133
10/100 Ethernet
USB 1.1 and 2.0
6-channel audio
5 PCI slots
3 DDR memory slots
Optional Serial ATA Raid
Motherboard Layout
As you can see the motherboard has a metallic gold finish while the expansion slots are made from a yellow plastic. The only exception is the secondary memory slot that is normally not used in Dual Channel memory configurations.
