Software Pack

     Normally I don't talk about the included software packs, but Soltek's is well worth mentioning. Most motherboards come with a drivers disk only. Sometimes a company will splurge and toss in a freebie utility or two, but Soltek has included five powerful software titles that I've never seen listed as "FREE" before. The titles include; PC-cillin 2002, VirtualDrive 7, RestoreIT! 3 Lite, PartitionMagic 6.0 SE, and DriveImage 4.0. No, these titles are not shareware, they are fully functional utilities ready to use. Soltek has even included a thick 105 page manual covering all of these utilities. Very nice...

Up Close

     As eager as I am to try out this motherboard, I don't want to leave out the pretty pictures. Let's take a look at the "Golden Flame" shall we?

     One of the first things I do to a motherboard is remove the chipset cooler to inspect for thermal compound. Upon removing the cooler, I was delighted to find a nice amount of thermal compound already in place. However, the compound was not evenly spread. I took the liberty of removing the white goop and using my own Arctic Silver III instead.

     I would like to point out that Soltek has taken it upon themselves to use a heavy duty chipset cooler instead of the normal orb style coolers we usually see. I understand that the nForce2 chipset runs fairly hot, so I'm glad to see a heavier cooler put to use here.