After careful consideration I have decided to transfer all hardware review activities to a new domain. I purchased Hardwareasylum.com in 2012 and have been working hard to build a new and improved Ninjalane on that domain. If you are reading this you have reached one of the archived articles, news, projects and/or reviews that were left behind during the site migration.
Please update your bookmarks and be sure to visit the new and improved Ninjalane at Hardwareasylum.com
Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 Review w/ PCI Express
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Board Layout and Features
The SL-K890Pro-939 comes equipped with a very well designed 3-phase power supply. I mention this for a couple reasons, 1) With the linear placement of the power MOSFETS the avid overclocker can easily add additional heatsinks without having to do many modifications.. 2) This is one of the first motherboards we have seen that will accept oversized heatsinks like our monster Alpha PAL8150 since there is typically a capacitor or coil in the way. While using a heatsink this big is a little overkill it is the overall package that reflects well on the practical design of this motherboard.
It is not uncommon to see extra items silk screened on motherboards these days and as the photo shows it would appear that this board was originally designed to have a 4 gang of dipswitches. The Southbridge is the same one found on the K8T800 Pro chipset so you can expect to see similar features and performance.
Removing the passive heat sink reveals the VIA K8T890 Pro Northbridge and the center piece of this motherboard. As the photos show Soltek has used plenty of white thermal paste to complement a good heat transfer. As many Ninjalane readers will remember we always replace this with Arctic Silver to get the most from what is provided.