SOLTEK - Soltek K8AN2E-GR nForce3 250Gb Motherboard Review

With the K8AN2E-GR, Soltek has managed to bring a NForce 3 250Gb based board into the realm of a value priced board while giving up nothing in terms of performance. On the Athlon 64 side, the 250Gb remains on the pinnacle in terms of feature set. No other chipset currently offers an onboard firewall, a Gbe solution that resides off the PCI bus or RAID capability that is as flexible as Nvidia’s solution. It is hard to believe that a top of the line product that was introduced merely six months ago will be dipping below the $100 USD street price mark today.

Despite the strengths of the K8AN2E-GR, it is not perfect. Soltek cut out firewire and the Realtek onboard audio solution does not seem to support hardware accelerated Directsound 3D. Despite the improvement in the featureset of onboard sound solutions, add-in boards provide better audio quality so this is not a huge loss. That said, however, gamers will likely want to opt for an audio upgrade with the K8AN2E-GR. While there is no performance penalty with the included SI RAID controller compared to the 250Gb MCP, it might have been better to have the MCP handle all four of the SATA ports instead of just two as RAID arrays would have been more flexible. BIOS options are conservative compared to some competitors with voltage adjustments being on the low side. More options with regards to adjusting memory settings might be beneficial also. Soltek does include a very good software suite that a lot of enthusiasts will find handy.

AMD has managed to reposition the 754 as a mainstream performance platform - while Socket 939 has the supposed advantage of dual channel memory, processor pricing make it elusive for those looking for a cheap upgrade path. Massive price cuts on the Athlon 64 754 line in recent weeks will drive more users towards the Socket 754 and the Soltek K8AN2E-GR would be near the top of our list for a solid board. It manages to come in at a value price point, yet it performs like a champ and comes with all the bells and whistles of the 260Gb. Soltek definitely has a winner on their hands.

Neoseeker ‘Value Perfomance Award’

Soltek K8AN2E-GR NForce 3 250Gb @ Neoseeker