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Soltek SL-85DR-C Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Friday, March 29, 2002
Conclusion
Conclusion
While I was doing this review kept looking back at the scores from my SL-85DRS2 review and was
simply in awe over how similar and yet how completely different that board was when compared to the SL-85DR-C.
The 85DR-C pulled ahead in just about every synthetic benchmark except for memory where the DDR333 enabled 85DRS2 pulled ahead clearly showing that the P4 can benefit from more memory bandwidth.
As for real world benchmarks the 85DR-C is the winner in gaming performance and proved to be equal in the Winstone tests. I can't speak on overclocking performance on behalf of the 85DRS2 since I was unable to access those features but I can say that the 85DR-C is an awesome overclocker showing an easy 500MHz+ overclock without much tweaking at all. I'm actually planning on some water cooler action in the near future for the 85DR-C and see how much further it can be pushed.
So to sum up here is my list of Good things and Bad things.
The 85DR-C pulled ahead in just about every synthetic benchmark except for memory where the DDR333 enabled 85DRS2 pulled ahead clearly showing that the P4 can benefit from more memory bandwidth.
As for real world benchmarks the 85DR-C is the winner in gaming performance and proved to be equal in the Winstone tests. I can't speak on overclocking performance on behalf of the 85DRS2 since I was unable to access those features but I can say that the 85DR-C is an awesome overclocker showing an easy 500MHz+ overclock without much tweaking at all. I'm actually planning on some water cooler action in the near future for the 85DR-C and see how much further it can be pushed.
So to sum up here is my list of Good things and Bad things.
The Good Things
Intel Chipset for an Intel processor
Large passive Northbridge heatsink
Heatsink Mount with backing plate
Sexy Red PCB
Full Version Software
A wide variety of overclocking controls
Large passive Northbridge heatsink
Heatsink Mount with backing plate
Sexy Red PCB
Full Version Software
A wide variety of overclocking controls
The Bad Things
Modem riser CNR slot
Would have liked to see onboard RAID as standard
AGP Pro for usage of higher end video cards
Would have liked to see onboard RAID as standard
AGP Pro for usage of higher end video cards
Ninjalane Rating
