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What stood out right away about the bundle with the K8TPro-939 was the sheer amount of various drive connector cables included: We found four SATA cables, three Soltek-purple 80-conductor IDE cables, one rounded Soltek-purple 80-conductor IDE cable, and one rounded floppy cable. That is a total of eight drive connectors and one floppy connector. Along with the ginormous amount of drive cabling provided, Soltek has also included two SATA power adapter cables, with two plugs each, allowing you to make use of up to four SATA hard drives if your power supply isn't already SATA-compatible.

Soltek has definitely not skimped in the documentation department when it comes to this package, either. Provided are the following:

• 117-page(!) all-English manual detailing covering everything from detailed specifications to setting up RAID with either of the two external controllers
• 105-page(!) all-English manual for the five bundled full-version applications
• "Quick Installation" guide

The five bundled applications are as follows:

• PC-cillin 2004 (anti-virus)
• VirtualDrive 7 (CD/DVD-ROM emulation)
• RestoreIT! 3 Lite (partition snapshot capture and retrieval)
• PartitionMagic 6.0 SE (partition manager)
• DriveImage 4.0 (drive imaging)

A rear USB faceplate with two ports is also provided. An impressive bundle, especially for those of us that like to read manuals from cover to cover.

Layout

The general layout of the Soltek K8TPro-939 is the regular reference ATX layout we are all used to seeing. The four memory slots to the right of the CPU socket, perpendicular to the AGP/PCI slots. These slots are positioned high enough on the board so that even the longest of AGP video cards will not obstruct the installation or removal of memory.

Personally, I like the positioning of the ATX connector. It is situated in the far upper-right of the board, away from the CPU socket. I tend to bundle up all of the cabling coming out of my power supplies into the empty 5-1/4" bays or above the top-most optical device in my chassis, and this kind of positioning works well for me, because I can keep the ATX cable bundled up with the rest and have it peek out just enough to connect to the board. Things like this, of course, are personal preference. A pet peeve of mine, however, is to have the +12V connector way on the opposite side of the board, which is what Soltek did with this board. The +12V cable then drapes across the CPU socket and fan, unless you manage to tie it down elsewhere.

The VIA north bridge chip, situated below-left the CPU socket, is passively cooled by a silver Soltek-branded heatsink. The VIA south bridge, situated beside PCI slots 2 and 3, does not have any form of cooling.

On the far right side of the board, just below the AGP slot, is the first of three IDE connectors. The two purple connectors utilize the VIA-integrated IDE controller, while the single yellow connector makes use of the Promise PDC20579 chip. The floppy connector is located at the very bottom of the board, beginning where the AGP slot would end if it were at the bottom.

The four SATA connectors have an unusual grouping. The two VIA-provided connectors sit directly below the yellow IDE connector, to the left. The Promise-powered SATA connectors are split up. One is in line with the VIA connectors, but the other one is on the other side of the Promise chip, rotated 90 degrees. We can't find an explanation for why this lone connector has been separated from the others.

There are 5 PCI slots in addition to the mandatory AGP slot, with no extra spacing between the first PCI slot and the AGP slot, as is present on some boards.

Optional expansion includes an IEEE1394 (Firewire) port header, two more USB headers (providing 4 USB ports), and an LPT (parallel) port header.

The back panel for the K8TPro-939 features relatively more than a basic board, such as the Soltek K8AN2E-GR we reviewed in August. Present are the two PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, but only one serial port and no parallel port (it is provided through the use of an optional cable connected to the LPT pin header). The space of the second serial port is taken up by input/output optical S/PDIF connectors. Four USB 2.0 ports are present, as well as another IEEE1394 port. Gigabit Ethernet is almost a standard nowadays, and is also included on the K8TPro-939. Lastly, we have the 8-channel analog audio connectors.

The entire board is in Soltek's trademark purple and black color scheme, which isn't bad looking - but this reviewer would prefer something spicier.