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Soltek SL-865Pro-775 (Hybrid) 'ProSeries' Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Thursday, August 12, 2004
Conclusion
As I mentioned before the Soltek SL-865Pro-775 motherboard is designed with a dual purpose in mind that will span two distinct markets. The hybrid design allows hardware enthusiasts and OEM suppliers an easy way to take advantage of the 775 Prescott without the need to completely replace their current hardware. The design also makes upgrading easy while helping to promote the new Prescott line.
Soltek has been using the i865PE chipset as one of their mainstream motherboard offerings ever since its initial release in early 2003. Over time the board has gone though a good number of changes based around the Soltek marketing engine and current technological breakthroughs. One of their first boards, the SL865PE-L, claimed to be the first board to support 1200Mhz FSB. Provided that you used a "unlocked" Pentium 4 processor the 1200Mhz FSB mark was easily attainable but also ment that any degree of FSB overclocking could be reached with retail CPUs. These purple PCB motherboards were eventually replaced with the "Black Thunder" line and featured more onboard goodies and better overclocking support. The "Black Thunder" color scheme has since stayed while Soltek has taken performance and features to another level with their ProSeries line as seen in this review.
Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things. 
The Good Things
Pentium 4 775pin Prescott Support
Pro Series Performance
Onboard SerialATA Raid
GigaLan Onboard
Firewire support
Excellent BIOS Overclocking controls
Thick multi layered PCB
Black Thunder Styling
Pro Series Performance
Onboard SerialATA Raid
GigaLan Onboard
Firewire support
Excellent BIOS Overclocking controls
Thick multi layered PCB
Black Thunder Styling
The Bad Things
No active cooling on Northbridge
Limited space to remove memory with video card installed
Buggy MBA feature
Limited space to remove memory with video card installed
Buggy MBA feature
Ninjalane Rating
I would like to thank Soltek for helping to make this review possible.
