SUMMARY: Compared to some of the main players in the motherboard industry, Soltek is a relatively new company, being founded just six years ago. Their main offices are in Taipei, Taiwan and during the last year or two, Soltek have been developing quite a name for themselves amongst hardware enthusiasts due to their high performing, stable products that are sold at prices most people can afford. The latest addition to Soltek's SocketA motherboard line-up is the 75DRV5 based on the KT333 chipset. Can it live up to the standards set by Soltek's previous products? Join Asher "Acid" Moses as he attempts to find out!
The Soltek 75DRV5 comes packaged in a colorful blue and silver box that has an attractive metallic finish. I don't usually talk much about the box itself, but this would have to be one of the, if not the best looking packaging I have seen included with a motherboard and the picture definitely does not do it much justice. Soltek's artists did a good job on this one and it is sure to stand out on store shelves.
Inside the box were some IDE and floppy cables, a driver CD, a detailed User's Manual and a USB bracket that enables the extra two USB ports. On top of this, Soltek includes a nice software bundle with the 75DRV5. This consists of PC-cillin 2000, Virtual Drive, PartitionMagic 6.0 SE and Drive Image 4.0. PC-cilling is an anti-virus program made by a company called Trend, Virtual Drive is a program that emulates a CD drive, allowing you to run CD-ROM applications without physically loading a CD, PartitionMagic allows you to partition your hard disk or reclaim wasted disk space while Drive Image allows you to backup, recover or upgrade your hard disk data quickly, easily and safely. Soltek even included a second manual that explains how to install and use each of the free programs bundled with the board.
This bundle is certainly one of the best I’ve seen included with a motherboard, let's just hope it doesn't increase the price too much.
