Sound Tests - Subjective Listening

The 8-channel Realtek CODEC is on par with our previous experiences with the same chip. We found the CODEC acceptable for DVD and gameplay and with the more popular games using their own sound engine, it should not be a factor in most cases.

Sound Tests - Performance in Gaming

We fired up UT2003 and ran through the Inferno demo and collected numbers at 640x480 (Min detail) and 1024x768 (Max detail).

At the lowest resolution, we see the CPU take the hardest hit, losing over 23 frames per second with the onboard sound enabled. A loss of ~0.25 frames occurs at 1024x768, which isn't too bad at all and in line with our experiences with the Realtek CODEC.

Network Performance

We used to test the networking speed, and Windows Task Manager for CPU usage. We a number of game patches and driver updates, totaling 758MB to and from the Soltek EQ3901-300P, to our ASUS P5AD2 Premium machine. We also performed the same test with a folder zipped to 761MB.

Both systems were connected via a CAT-5E crossover cable, which should prevent any bottlenecks that would arise with our standard 10/100 router.

Small Files Test - 758MB Total

	Time to Copy	Ave Transfer mB/sec	CPU %
Upload	0:23.4	34.87	11
Download	0:28.1	27.56	12

Large File Test - 761MB Total

	Time to Copy	Ave Transfer mB/sec	CPU %
Upload	0:22.5	35.12	9
Download	0:25.2	31.33	12

The Gigabit NIC on the Soltek EQ3901 proved sufficient in its tasks. The ISO image was faster to upload and download as well as scoring a slightly lower CPU usage during the upload tasks.

Cooling Performance

To address heat and noise, Soltek added cooler named IcyQ to the side of the EQ3901. The temperature controlled cooler works by drawing warm air from inside the SFF and blowing it out of the back. Along with the PSU, both devices exhaust air, but the EQ3901 does not have an air intake.

While the PSU fan and the IcyQ focus on system cooling, the cooling for the CPU is provided by an aluminum heatsink with a copper core. The heatsink is about the same size as the AMD reference cooler, and while the system was idle, the EQ3901 hovered at about 41°C. Load temperatures on the other hand were rather high (an understatement) at 81°C. Yup, you read that right. This is by far the highest temperatures we've seen from the Athlon 64, and although the temperatures do concern us, the EQ3901 was surprisingly stable and reliable during load operations.

The fan is temperature controlled (via the BIOS) and ran very quiet during idle operation, but was a different story once we put some light load on the CPU. Installing a game from CDROM was enough to kick the temperature past 50°C, and thus increasing the fan speed. At this point, the computer was very audible and the loudest system in the room.

Overclocking

Given the tight confines and the high heat load put out by the Athlon 64 3500+ with Soltek's stock cooling, we did not have high hopes for overclocking. As expected, we hit the ceiling very quickly at 210FSB.

We decided to take the EQ3901 apart completely, and outfit the PC with a Cooler Master Hyper 6 to see if we could attain a better OC. Keep in mind that doing this will pretty much restrict you from using an enclosed PC as the HDD rack and shell will not properly install with this cooler in place. With the Hyper 6, we were able to push the system to 221FSB (about average with the CPU we normally use) before it failed to boot. Obviously, the CPU ran much cooler in an open air setup with the larger heatsink, so it looks very much like the heat that is limiting the overclocking potential.

Final Words

In terms of performance, Soltek put together a winner with the EQ3901-300P SFF. Cosmetics aside, the little PC that could just stunned us with its performance and was easily the fastest SFF we've looked at in quite some time, beating a couple of full sized boards quite convincingly in some of the tests.

Ease of use was about 80/100. We found the EQ3901 very easy to take apart and work with. The removable storage rack made installation for drives a breeze, and removing it left plenty of room (for a SFF) to work on the interior. The IcyQ did not give us any problems with ram installation, and the only problem we have with the internal layout was with the AGP slot location which will limit your video options somewhat as large GPU coolers will not fit in this system when fully enclosed. Our main gripe in the setup was putting the chassis back together. It was a lot more difficult than it needed to be to slide the exterior shell back on to the main chassis as the slide latches were difficult to line up by "touch". With a typical shell we can feel the hooks catching on, but the plastic shell on the EQ3901 made this difficult to do.

As for the plastic shell itself, we're not completely sold on it. I'll admit that I was not wild about it at first, though it has started to grow on me. However, you ask me straight up, and I'll still ultimately say that it's not the most attractive looking case. I do think a black QBic Mania would be much nicer, and thankfully, Soltek offers this colour option. That being said, the shell does a great job of shielding some of the noise, though as the system starts to run under load, it is fairly noisy.

While the shell is a minor aesthetic thing, the cooling is something we think Soltek needs to reevaluate. Idle and light load temperatures are acceptable, but the full load temperatures are quite scary. I'll have to credit both AMD (for their chip durability) and I suspect some kudos are in order for Soltek's engineers for keeping the system completely stable during testing, but I wonder if there will be long term harm if the setup remains this hot for extended periods. We can say that after 4 weeks, there are no problems to report. As expected, heat contributed to the rather meager overclock and if Soltek can improve the EQ3901's heat transfer efficiency, overclocking will be more successful.

In the end, what we're really concerned about are the features, performance and stability. Feature-wise, the Soltek EQ3901-300P SFF has it all. Sure, PCI Express would have been nice, but that is a limitation of the chipset used rather than the barebone design and can easily be added once VIA releases their new chipset for mass adoption. Keep in mind like all VT8237 South Bridges, a floppy or slipstreamed CD is needed to install SATA drivers (regardless if you use RAID or not) during the OS installation. The heat issues and bright yellow exterior aside, we were very impressed with what the QBic Mania brought to the table and think Soltek put together a very nice package.

Pros: Great performance, easy to assemble a system, quiet under light load. Very stable despite the above average heat.

Cons: Aesthetics not for everyone. AGP slot not in the best location, poor cooling which affected overclocking.

Bottom Line: If the looks of the QBic Mania are to your liking, you'll love the performance even more. Overall, Soltek has put together a fine system that performs well and runs very stable, albeit a little warmer than we'd like.

If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

HOME