First Impressions

The SL-65D is Soltek's Via Apollo Plus based Socket 370 mainboard. It features 4 PCI, 2 ISA and 1 AGP slot, along with 3 DIMM slots for a maximum memory capacity of 768 MBs. The board is well layed out with the exception of the placement of the CPU DIP switches right next to the AGP slot. The DIP switches next to the AGP slot become hard to reach when there is a card occupying the slot.

The Specs

CPU Support: Socket 370
Chipset: Via Apollo Plus
Memory: 3 168-Pin DIMMs, Max Mem 768MB
L2 Cache: On-Chip (128K)
Form Factor: ATX
Expansion Slots: 1 AGP, 4 PCI, 2 ISA
Bus Speeds Supported: 66, 75, 83, 100, 112, 124, 133
Multipliers Supported: 3.5x-8x
BIOS: Award

The SL-65D boasts a lot of features that rival any other manufacturer's offerings. It features an on-board Ultra ATA-66 controller, on-board hardware monitoring, partial menu configurable CPU setup, wake-on lan, power off resume, on-board sound and the ability to run the memory at bus speed or at AGP speed. In other words, you can run your memory at 100 Mhz or at 66 Mhz. The SL-65D features Via Technology's Apollo Plus chipset, which was build to offer more features and a lower price than Intel's 440BX chipset. With a street price of roughly $75 the SL-65D certainly offers a lot of features for the buck, but features is only part of the equation.

The Package

The SL-65D comes bundled with a quick installation guide, a CD-ROM containing the complete manual in PDF format along with Acrobat reader, as well as various utilities, two ATA-66 80 conductor ribbon cables, a floppy drive cable, a thermistor cable, Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Ghost software. A good paper manual has always been one of the main things I look for in a motherboard package, but it seems more and more manufacturers are getting away from that just to "save a buck or two". Other than the lack of a paper manual, the SL-65D bundle is top notch.

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