An elephant-sized thank you to Albatron for providing this motherboard for review!
Although Intel has already released the Granite Bay chipset, supporting dual channel memory, the prior release named 845PE has been the choice of budget builders because of the Granite Bay’s higher price point and limited availability. Albatron, a relatively new motherboard maker has been making quite an impression among the enthusiast crowd. We have had the chance to review some of their Athlon-based boards, but this is our first Pentium 4-based. In my prior experiences working with Albatron boards, outside the context of Maximum3D, each has been an extremely positive experience. Hopefully, their latest board will live up to my expectations.
Support for 400/533 MHz FSB Pentium 4 Processors
3 x DDR DIMM Slots, 2 GB PC2700
AGP 4x, 6 x 32bit PCI slots
Onboard Intel Pro 100 EV LAN
Onboard 6 Channel Audio
Onboard USB 2.0 with 6 Ports
Promise SATA Raid with 2 SATA and 1 PATA 133
Chipset
This Albatron board uses Intel’s 845PE northbridge in conjunction with the ICH4 southbridge. The northbridge is merely an update to its predecessor, Intel’s own 845E, with official support for DDR333 memory. If you remember, most 845G motherboards had unofficial support.
A piece from the past, Intel continues to use their ICH4 southbridge giving support to current technologies as USB 2.0 and integrated LAN. There has yet to be integration of Serial ATA support yet, but should be implemented as soon as companies such as Seagate start to release their serial hard drives.
The Package
Here is a quick run down of what is included in the box:
- Manual
- Overclocking Instructions
- Quick-Start Guide
- Reference Sticker
- Promise Fast Trak Manual
- Driver CD
- One SATA Cable
- Three 80pin PATA Cables
- One Floppy Cable
- USB2.0 Breakout Bracket
- Optional SPDIF Breakout Bracket (I didn’t receive one)
- Motherboard
Overall, a really nice bundle though another SATA cable and PATA to SATA adaptors would be nice.
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