915 Motherboard Roundup: Socket 775 for the Rest of Us

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.