Soltek KT600-R: Fast & Promising
by Wesley Fink on September 1, 2003 12:06 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Soltek KT600-R: Tech Support and RMA
For your reference, we will repost our support evaluation procedure here:
The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first, we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We allow the manufacturer up to 72 (business) hours to respond, and then we will report whether or not they responded within the time allotted, and if they were successful in fixing our problems. In case we don’t receive a response before the review is published, any future responses will be added to the review, including the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.
The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria upon which to base your motherboard purchasing decisions. As motherboards become more similar everyday, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews, so please do email us with your comments.
Soltek’s RMA policy could not be found by visiting their U.S. website. Soltek lists sales/support operations in Taiwan, Europe, and South America, but there are no listings for offices in the USA. We were told that all RMA requests should be directed toward the dealer who sold you the board. In the event of problems there, requests can be addressed to support@soltek.com.tw. The lack of an identifiable US presence from Soltek is of great concern, but in fairness to Soltek, our requests to their Taiwan headquarters were all answered promptly, and the Soltek staff was very helpful. FAQ’s, downloads, and product information are available at the main site — you will be linked to this main site if you visit www.soltekusa.com.
Technical Support is also available by email, which is listed under “Contacts” at the main site. Soltek's tech support response time was excellent. Soltek Taiwan's response came in just 20 clock hours after our original email. The reply from the technical support representative was a sincere attempt to solve our problem, and the advice given by the technical support representative was useful, helpful, and appropriate to the problem. In our last Soltek review, we were pleased with the speed, but not the quality of the reply to our tech support question. This time, the advice was very good. The fast response by Soltek and the appropriateness of the reply left a very positive impression of Soltek’s commitment to customer satisfaction. The giants in our industry should be embarrassed at how poorly they often treat customers in comparison to responses like we see from companies like Soltek.
Those who cannot find a local Soltek resource should send their Tech Support inquiries to the main site in Taiwan. If our experience is any indication, you will be pleased at the responsiveness you will find in your contacts with Soltek.
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Anonymous User - Sunday, October 5, 2003 - link
I agree, get rid of the flash.Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
As a system builder who has been using Soltek motherboard for around 18 months in new systems that we build, I recently found out that Soltek do not replace motherboards that fail under warranty. Instead they have to be sent back to the factory in Taiwan where Soltek repair them.This is obviously unacceptable, particularly for a business user who can't afford to be without a PC for a month. If you agree, please send email to donald@soltek.com.tw to tell them what you think
In fairness to Soltek, their motherboards are very reliable, so its never been an issure until just recently for us. As a connsequence, we now use another brand of motherboard in the PCs we build.
Please feel free to contact me on peter@ctsgrafton.com.au
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link
Nice review Wes. But I dont' like the flash either, seems like it doesn't always show up ???Anonymous User - Wednesday, September 3, 2003 - link
#10, you're stupid. Flash is used by any large web site nowadays. Get used to it.Anonymous User - Wednesday, September 3, 2003 - link
Ugh! Please get rid of the flash!Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 2, 2003 - link
No problems using three DIMM's here, even at 200MHz FSB/Memory operation. (above official specs) Not being able to go nuts on the timings doesn't really matter. Practical performance is not hurting noticeably.Wesley Fink - Monday, September 1, 2003 - link
As I have mentioned in my KT600 reviews, I have often needed to go to a Command Rate of 2 instead of the more usual 1 for best stability on the KT600 with 2 or 3 dimms. However, I have not noticed that the 2 setting degraded performance by very much. My experience has not mirrored what Kyle is reporting at HardOCP, and I really can't explain it.You can NOT use nForce2 type timings on a KT600. The boards were not designed to handle them, nor are they necessary for best memory performance. Those holding on to fast memory timings are always faster need to run a few benchmarks, because it is not always true.
Anonymous User - Monday, September 1, 2003 - link
Im surprised about the comments on stability with KT600 boards. According to HardOCP, all KT600 boards they have tested (including Abit & Epox) are quite unstable with 2 DIMMs inserted.Zepper - Monday, September 1, 2003 - link
addendum to earlier post:As I see it, the DFI SiS based mobo just reviewed really lost out by not including the P4 connector. For a budget system, you want all your costs to be kept down, not just the mobo. You will still have to shell out for an overpowered PSU to run it...
.bh.
Zepper - Monday, September 1, 2003 - link
Thanks for the good reviews, Wes! I particularly like the fact that you make an issue of the P4 power connector in AMD mobo reviews. Finally AMD fans don't have to pay for overpowered PSUs as most AMD solutions will be able to run on a good 200W PSU. Even OCd and multiple drive systems should be able to get by on a good 250Watter.. Keep drilling on the P4 - make it a big demerit in reviews of AMD mobos that lack this feature.
.bh.