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Soltek SL-865-GR 'Black Thunder' Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Monday, November 24, 2003
Board Layout and Features Cont.
Dual Channel memory slots, ParallelATA and power connections are all located high on the motherboard as to stay out of the way and not obstruct airflow. Nothing really special about the CPU socket, the Soltek SL-865-GR supports standard Northwood processors up to 800Mhz FSB. Note the silkscreen label next to the ZIP lever.
Northbridge cooling has always been a heated issue between what the chipset manufacturers record in their documentation and what the end user perceives to be acceptable. Overclockers are even more critical of this since Northbridge heat often becomes a limiting factor in system stability as the FSB increases. This can vary from system to system and in the case of the 865-GR no heat related issues were reported.
The ATX connector has 4 available USB ports along with the onboard GigaLAN Ethernet, the rest of the stuff you should be able to recognize.
As always documentation is plentiful, the motherboard comes with a user's manual, quick start manual, driver disk and full version software. The SL-865-GR also comes with a wide variety of cables including 4 SerialATA power and data cables, purple ATA133 and floppy cables, an extra ATA133 cable, and ATX backplate cover.
