Soltek SL-K8TPro-939 Review

The ATX Connector on the SL-K8Tpro-939 is by far one of the most unique designs I have seen in quite awhile. Most of the connections are sound related with support for 2 optical connections and enough analog jacks for 8-channel sound. Other connections include 4x USB, 1x Firewire, 1x GigaLAN and 1x serial port. The parallel port is located at the bottom of the board directly under the last PCI slot. Personally I find this location to be by far one of the worst places for any onboard component. Not only does the attached cable restrict airflow but once the board is installed there is really no way to access the area without removing the board.

I've long complained about how Albatron loved to put their floppy connectors in a similar location and I still remember a time when Soltek placed a set of overclocking DIPswitches under the last PCI slot. Speaking of ill placed items you'll find the floppy connector at the very bottom of the SL-K8TPro-939 as well.

In the past Soltek boards only came with the essentials needed to get a basic system running, normally this included a single ATA66/100 cable, floppy, ATX backplate and manuals. Soltek has come a long way since then. Strangely enough this motherboard comes with extra USB ports (that has typically been an "extra") there is no connector for the parallel port.

Over the years Soltek has been known to have some of the coolest packages and the new Pro Series boards are no exception. While the actual boxes are no longer printed with the Soltek graphics the "wrapper" box does and even comes with an extra flap for marketing stuff.