As more experience is gained with the new Intel 775 Socket T, it is clear that the processors and the Socket work just fine. They also offer performance advantages over the Prescott in Socket 478. The other advantage is the future, since the 560 (3.6GHz) and the coming faster processors will only be available in LGA 775.

Many users, however, have a tough time swallowing all that goes with the new 925X/PCI Express/DDR2 architecture, since it requires a new, hard to find video card for PCI Express plus brand new DDR2 memory. Some users would like to move to a new Intel LGA 775 processor, but they can't handle the requirement to upgrade almost everything in their system. That is exactly the user who will welcome the introduction of the Soltek SL-865Pro-775.


The Soltek 865-775 uses the new 775-pin Prescott socket, but it is driven by last generation's familiar Intel 865PE/ICH5 chipset. This means you can use your existing AGP 8X video card and DDR memory with a new Intel Prescott chip. This reduces the cost of entry to the new Socket T to the cost of the motherboard and CPU, something most users are much more willing to handle.

The question with any hybrid solution like this is how it performs? Are there performance penalties in combining the 865 with Socket 775? How does the Soltek 865Pro-775 compare in performance to a new 915 or 925X motherboard?
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  • Wonga - Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - link

    Sorry to be picky, but there is another mistake on the 'Test Setup' page, where it states it is going to be compared with an Athlon FX53, but that isn't in the review. Might wanna correct that. Like I say, sorry to be picky :)
  • matman326 - Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - link

    I know you guys are busy ,but man I hope you guys are planning an extreme overclocking review with this board... kind curious how fast the prescot can go.
  • RyanVM - Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - link

    #7 - No
  • Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - link

    #4 - "Return to Castle Wofenstein - Enemy Territory" is our updated OpenGL game that will eventually replace Quake 3 in our benches. Results for Q3 and RCW-ET are both included.
  • Brian23 - Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - link

    Isn't Doom 3 a DirectX game?
  • Spacecomber - Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - link

    I thought that I had read how the new Intel chipsets were optimized for the Prescott core (and vice versa) and that we could expect to see better performance out of the Prescotts on these new chipsets. Where is it? Or, is it the high latency DDR2 that's masking this?
  • Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - link

    I apologize for the post appearing while it was being created online. I am posting this on the fly while I am traveling home from Anand's wedding.

    This article was scheduled to go live at noon Monday, but that did not happen for technical reasons. I ended up recreating it from files and docs on my laptop.


  • nitromullet - Monday, August 16, 2004 - link

    Looks like they got that issue fixed. Next question, why didn't they replace Quake3 with Doom3 as the new OpenGL benchmark? I mean, these rigs run Quake3 at almost 450 FPS...
  • PMChris - Monday, August 16, 2004 - link

    Yeah, like #1 said, this publish attempt was really bad. It should've piqued an editor's attention when the product being reviewed fails to appear in any benchmark table.
  • Octunar99 - Monday, August 16, 2004 - link

    haha, I thought I was going crazy. I am glad I am not the only person not seeing this.

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