Features
Like other motherboard manufacturers, Albatron is responding to the demand for more and more features:
On most of their high end boards, included is their dual bios system, dubbed bios mirror, an option found commonly on Gigabyte and AOpen varieties. They all work the same way: there are two bios chips, one that can be flashed for future upgrades and the other a permanent rom chip for backup purposes, engaged by a jumper or bank of dipswitches.
Another feature is the voice genie system that works in four different languages that gives diagnostic information in speech rather than cryptic beep-codes, or light/hexadecimal combinations.
One of my favorites, first found on AOpen boards to my recollection, is the watch dog timer which resets the system to default bios configuration when the system locks on boot up. This feature makes testing the limits of a new processor faster and without the hassle of manually clearing the CMOS.
The latest support for the newest generation of hard drive technology is included, via a promise raid chip adding two serial ata channels and an additional parallel ata channel. Standard integrated sound is also included, courtesy of the ever popular Realtek ALC650 chip giving six channel audio along with spdif on an optional breakout bracket. Integrated LAN is included using an unlikely source, from Intel themselves, the 82562ET chip providing basic 10/100Mbps functionality.
Manual
The included manual is one of the best available. Not only is English spelling and grammar correct, everything is covered in great detail with clear diagrams and tables for every jumper and setting on the motherboard. The section on the BIOS is equally comprehensive, something that is lacking in many of the manuals of today. Each setting has an explanation along with available choices. Albatron also includes a quick start guide (essentially select excerpts from the manual) for the savvy. One thing that surprised me was the fact that Albatron included a sticker you can paste some place convenient (such as the inside of your case) with all the essential jumper information for quick reference. It shows Albatron’s attention to detail, and their understanding of the consumer.
BIOS
Albatron uses the feature packed Phoenix-Award bios. Overclocking options are numerous including:
CPU Frequency from 100 to 248MHz (1MHz increments)
CPU Voltage from 1.100 to 1.850V (.025V increments)
Fixed AGP/PCI Frequency Option
AGP Voltage from 1.5 to 1.6V (.1V increments)
DDR Voltage from 2.5 to 2.8V (.1V increments)
The amount of options available in most Albatron boards, especially on the Intel side, has made these boards a contender in the eyes of finicky overclocking crowd along with long established brands such as Asus and Abit. Of course all of the standard options are there including specific memory timing settings etc. Memory settings are also standard multipliers instead of set defaults found on some motherboards, which will allow the memory to be pushed beyond the DDR333 standard of the 845PE. Testing was done with the initial bios release because the newest one did not allow my computer to boot into Windows when overclocked while the initial bios did.
Overclocking
Albatron has proven itself as a manufacturer that caters to the enthusiast market; and with it, comes overclocking. The numerous options available in BIOS and the overall stability of the board allowed my dying 1.8A to run at a 133MHz front side bus I needed for testing, albeit at extremely high voltage, something I was not able to do with any other board tried. I also threw in my friend’s 2.26B, and it was able to overclock back up to its max with no problems, a maximum found with another Albatron board, the PX845E Pro II. No doubt, this board is truly overclocker friendly.
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