915 Motherboard Roundup: Socket 775 for the Rest of Us
by Wesley Fink on December 7, 2004 12:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Albatron PX915P Pro: Features and Layout
Albatron PX915P Pro Motherboard Specifications | |
CPU Interface | Socket 775 Pentium 4 (Prescott) |
Chipset | Intel 915P/ICH6 |
BUS Speeds | 200MHz to 333MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
DDR2 Speeds | Auto, 333, 400 |
PCI Speeds | 33.33, 36.36, 40.00 |
Core Voltage | 0.8375 to 1.60V in 0.0125V increments plus 1.6 to 1.9V in 0.1V increments |
DRAM Voltage | Default, +.1V, +.2V, +.3V, +.4V |
NB (Northbridge) Voltage | Default, +.1V, +.2V, +.3V |
Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR 400 Slots Dual-Channel Unbuffered Memory to 4GB |
Expansion Slots | 1 PCIe x16 Slot 3 PCIe x1 slot 2 PCI Slots |
Onboard SATA/RAID | 4 SATA 150 drives by ICH6 |
Onboard IDE/RAID | One Standard ATA100/66 (2 drives) plus ITE IT8281 (4 drives) ITE can be combined as RAID 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD |
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 8 USB 2.0 ports No FireWire Ports |
Onboard LAN | Gigabit PCI Ethernet by Marvell MV8001 10/100 Ethernet by VIA VT6105 |
Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC880 (HD Audio) 8-Channel with SPDIF in/out |
Tested BIOS | 1.19 Award |
Albatron has been very aggressive in their marketing of 915/925X solutions. The PX915P Pro represents the top 915 board aimed at the enthusiast. There are other boards in the Albatron 915 lineup, most notably, thePX915G Pro, which is the same board based on the integrated graphics G version of the 915 chipset. Albatron also offers both the P and G 915 boards without the Pro designation. These non-Pro boards are cheaper and don't have firewire.
None of the Albatron 915 boards are offered with the ICH6R chipset - they all use the non-RAID ICH6 south bridge. Albatron does, however, include Intel High-Definition audio (Azalia) in even the cheapest 915 board that they offer. Interestingly, all 4 boards also offer support for 4 additional IDE drives to supplement the limited 2 IDE drives provided by the 915 chipset. The point is that Albatron made some smart decisions on cost reduction in our opinion. HD audio and additional IDE ports are features that we like to see on all the boards. You will be disappointed that to get Intel Matrix RAID, you will need to choose the Albatron 925X.
As the 915 flagship, the PX915P Pro offers a very wide range of options in the Award BIOS. Noteworthy is the incredible CPU voltage range to a dangerous 1.9V for a 1.3875V Socket T CPU. However, water-cooling and phase change overclockers will like to see such a wide range in a stock BIOS. Other BIOS options are also generous for tweaking with memory voltage reaching to 3.0V and the north bridge voltage selectable to +0.3V.
Layout of the PX915P Pro is very good. It's good to see the floppy connector in a usable upper right edge location. The 24-pin ATX is also at the board's right edge and the IDE is located on the edge as well. It is located a little lower than what we like, just below mid-line, but the location still works well in most case designs. The 4-pin connector is a little less accessible, located about mid-board between the CPU and IO backplane. You have to be careful when you route the 4-pin 12V cable, but it is also pretty easy to get a 4-pin cable of the way of cooling. With 4 SATA connectors and 2 additional IDE ports on the lower right edge behind the slots, you have a busy board, but you rarely see full-length cards any more. The PCIe x16 slot is still clear to handle even the biggest video card.
Albatron uses the capable Realtek ALC880 codec for High Definition 8-channel audio. This is the same High-Definition audio codec that we saw used in most motherboards in the 925X roundup, so it speaks well of Albatron's HD choice. Realtek says that their 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio features four 24-bit two-channel DACs and three stereo 20-bit ADCs. "The ALC880(D) also achieves 100dB sound quality; easily meeting PC2001 requirements and also bringing PC sound quality closer to consumer electronic devices." You can find more information on the features and specifications of the Realtek 880 at the Realtek website.
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coldpower27 - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
Of course the Pentium 4 560 is gonna be outperformed, The Pentium 4 560 is designed to compete at the 417US price point while the Athlon FX 55 is designed for the 827US, were talking double the P4 560 in price. i believethe closest competitor for the Pentium 4 560 in price is probably the Athlon 64 3700+ even though it is on Single Channel DDR.danidentity - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
Even the 3800+ could be included, but that is still about $180 more expensive than the 560, according to Newegg.danidentity - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
I know comments like I'm about to make have been made before, and I am not biased, but I wanted to reiterate.Why is the FX-55 even part of the benchmarks in this review? Why not a 3500+? The FX-55 is TWICE the price of the Pentium 560 according to current Newegg prices.
I know the argument will be that the FX-55 and the 560 are two of the highest performing chips from the two camps. But the fact of the matter is that most people shopping for a 560 aren't going to be shopping for a FX-55. It's in an entirely different class.
mongoosesRawesome - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
Can you do a comparison between soundstorm and dolby digital live? What is the bitrate of the encoding? Frequency range? Overall quality?It seems like this may be the second time I pass on AC3 encoding though. Last time I chose a northwood platform over AMD and NF2, and this time I'll likely choose the NF4 over intel and dolby digital live.
Would be nice to be able to easily hook it up to my klipsch dolby digital decodor though...
anandtechrocks - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
Thanks for the great review!MAME - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link
AMD >>>>>>>>>>>>> *