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Soltek SL-865-GR 'Black Thunder' Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Monday, November 24, 2003
Bios Features
Soltek is using the American Megatrends BIOS on the SL-865-GR and not much has really changed between this and the previous Soltek Springdale motherboard. All of the BIOS features are grouped together in logical menus. This is a nice feature but also requires a little more hunting to find the feature that you are after.
The memory controller on the 865-GR has a special feature that is triggered by the enabling and disabling of the MBA jumper. The default setting shows a standard set of dividers. When the MBA feature is enabled a new menu is shown with a new set of clock frequencies with a maximum setting of 533Mhz. This is a very aggressive memory setting that not many memory modules are able to handle.
FSB is adjustable up to 350Mhz with a standard set of voltage adjustments. The SL-865-GR has a maximum vCore of 1.60 volts. While many motherboards have the ability to run higher than this I've found that more often than not 1.6v is enough to attain a stable overclock.
