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Soltek 86SPE-L (i865PE)



This board has a twin based on the i865G chipset and comes with an integrated video core - Soltek 86MP-L.

Accessories:

  • Package of the standard design;
  • Documentation: user manual and s/w guide in English, brief installation manual in 9 languages; 
  • Cables: 2 Serial ATA (without power supply adapters), 1 ATA66/100/133 and FDD;
  • I/O Shield;
  • 2 CDs with:
    • drivers;
    • several system monitoring utilities;
    • Adobe Acrobat Reader;
    • PC-cillin 2002;
    • VirtualDrive 7;
    • RestoreIT! 3 Lite;
    • Partition Magic 6.0 SE;
    • Drive Image 4.0.

The PCB layout is standard; among its weak points is positions of the FDD connectors behind the PCI slots and of the audio ones in front of them. Another disadvantage is crowded connectors around the memory modules (which make difficult to access the memory especially when a video card is installed). It can be difficult to reach some jumpers when the board is already installed. Their description is provided on the PCB.

The 3-phase switching voltage regulator incorporates 9 capacitors of 2200 uF and several less capacious ones. There are also voltage regulators of the AGP bus (2 capacitors of 1000 uF and several less capacious ones) and of the memory (4 of 1000 uF).

Integrated controllers: 

  • audio controller based on the chipset and Avance Logic ALC650 AC'97 codec; 5.1 audio system supported, front audio outputs and S/PDIF connectors provided
  • network controller based on the Realtek RTL8100B chip supporting 10/100Base-T  (Fast Ethernet).

+5 V supplied in the StandBy mode is indicated with the red LED. 

A connector for the second COM port wasn't integrated though the space for  it is left. 

System monitoring is supported by Winbond W83627HF-AW chip. It controls: 

  • processor, AGP bus voltages, +3.3, +5 and +-12 V, VBAT and +5 V Standby
  • rotation speed of 3 fans; 
  • temperatures of the processor (built-in sensor) and the board (built-in sensor).

There are 2 connectors for regulated and 2 for unregulated connection of fans (one of them is connected to a fan on the north bridge's heatsink). 

Summary: memory slots - 4 DDR SDRAM; expansion slots - AGP/ 6 PCI; I/O ports - 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 8 USB 2.0; dimensions - 305x245 mm.



Settings: 

jumpers and switches CMOS clear jumper  
Jumper for starting up computer from PS/2 devices  
Jumpers setting the basic CPU clock Auto, 100/133/200 MHz
Jumper getting the network controller on/off  
BIOS based on AMI v2.51 Setup of memory timings + CAS Latency, RAS Precharge, RAS to CAS Delay, Precharge Delay, Burst Length
Setup of memory frequency + Auto, 266, 320, 400 MHz (with FSB 800 MHz)
Setup of AGP bus -  
Setup of PCI bus -  
AGP/PCI frequency setup + AGP/PCI frequency lock on/off
PCI IRQ manual assignment -  
FSB frequency setup + 100-350 MHz in 1MHz steps
CPU clock ratio + x8-x255
CPU voltage control + 1.1-1.85 V in 0.025V steps
DIMM voltage control + 2.5-2.8 V in 0.1V steps
NB voltage control -  
AGP voltage control + 1.5-1.8 V in 0.1V steps

We used the BIOS AM1L as the latest available version. 

The board of the budget functionality and low price can attract only with its good overclocking capabilities and high-quality voltage regulators of all components.

Test results: 



Dmitry Mayorov (destrax@ixbt.com)

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