Soltek EQ3901A - A Top Barebone for Athlon 64

Conclusions

Soltek EQ3901A is noway a revolutionary new kit, it's a typical sequel to the successful Qbic series, but with some minor shortcomings of its predecessors fixed. But the capacity to reach high performance with its standard top Athlon 64 FX or a cheaper Athlon 64 in overclocked mode guarantees noticeable interest to this model. Add the time-proven and new functionality of the Soltek Qbic series (unique in many respects), and you'll get an undoubtedly attractive product, which will disappoint its potential owners only by its relatively high price (about 300 USD at the moment the article was written).

In conclusion we'll publish a short list of the most typical pros and cons of the barebone-kit under review.

Pros:

• Stylish design, the front panel retains its appearance even after the installation of storage devices
• Convenient assembling/disassembling
• Capacity to install two 5.25" drives
• Support for high-profile AGP and PCI cards (PCI – only short or low-profile)
• Support for USB 2.0
• Support for FireWire
• Support for SATA [RAID]
• Support for Gigabit LAN
• Optical S/PDIF Out
• The model is ready to support future processors and offers the highest performance
• Low noise level of the cooling system combined with enough efficiency
• Powerful and efficient power supply unit
• Good CPU cooler shipped in the bundle
• "Narrow" cables included into the bundle
• (?) Rich overclocking features

Cons:

• No integrated video
• The cooler comes shipped inside the PC case and may be left unattached.
• Rather high price for this barebone-kit

This model on the official site of the manufacturer.

Sergei Pikalov (peek@ixbt.com) January 17, 2005