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Soltek SL-75MRN-L Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Monday, March 31, 2003
Conclusion
Conclusion
The SL-75MRN-L has a lot of things going for it including excellent performance and very unique "golden" PCB that, believe it or not, has started to grow on me. Not sure if its because there are now two "golden flame" motherboards in the lab, or if its really not that bad. 
Normally I, like most gamers, tend to shy away from motherboards with integrated video since there is really no reason to spend money for a feature that we'd never really use to begin with. I suppose that some gamers might consider this board as a low cost alternative while they save up for that NV35 or Radeon 9800, though on the same account many "real" gamers have a few extra video cards lying around just for that purpose.
From the system integrator/builders standpoint the 75MRN might be a dream come true, though with the lack of dual video outs this boards usage could be somewhat limited in the professional development workplace. I say limited since many workstations now days almost always need a second monitor requiring either a video card with dual video plugs or an extra PCI video card. So, really a dual video option would be icing on the cake.
From the system integrator/builders standpoint the 75MRN might be a dream come true, though with the lack of dual video outs this boards usage could be somewhat limited in the professional development workplace. I say limited since many workstations now days almost always need a second monitor requiring either a video card with dual video plugs or an extra PCI video card. So, really a dual video option would be icing on the cake.
Overclocking got easier and more difficult at the same time with the MRN, you can now set the multiplier manually in the bios but you can't make any quick jumps in the bios settings without having to reset the CMOS. Something else that was a little annoying was that after attaining a 200Mhz FSB overclock and playing around for a few hours I shut the system down for the night. It sat that way for a couple days but when I came back to it the system wouldn't boot requiring that the CMOS be reset. Testing at 166Mhz didn't exhibit these problems so I'm guessing that this is another BIOS related issue.
Now for my list of The Good Things and The Bad Things.
The Good Things
"Golden Flame" PCB
AGP 8x
On-Board Video (GFMX4 Class)
Dual Channel DDR400 memory controller
Full Version Software
No Modem Riser slot!
Active Northbridge cooling
Optional RAID version
A wide variety of overclocking controls
AGP 8x
On-Board Video (GFMX4 Class)
Dual Channel DDR400 memory controller
Full Version Software
No Modem Riser slot!
Active Northbridge cooling
Optional RAID version
A wide variety of overclocking controls
The Bad Things
Strange Overclocking
Cables for extra functionallity missing
Only 1 video out
Typically Buggy nForce2 Bios
No heatsink mounting holes
Cables for extra functionallity missing
Only 1 video out
Typically Buggy nForce2 Bios
No heatsink mounting holes
Ninjalane Rating
