Video Encoding
DivX is one of the more popular formats today, as it combines fairly small file sizes with very good quality video. The CODEC is also one that is very CPU dependent for an increase in encoding speed. Increasing the raw bandwidth available to the CPU doesn't provide a large increase as we have seen previously, but how does the Albatron PX865PE perform here?
Well it looks like that DivX isn't very memory dependent at this point, as either better bandwidth or lower latency doesn't do anything much to help the encoding speed. The single channel test of the 865PE and the test of the Albatron board are so close so as to be called equal. However what happens when we move to MPEG-2 encoding?
TMPGEnc is one of the best MPEG-2 encoders that are available for use today, at a reasonable cost. This is a program that supports hyperthreading, but doesn't improve that much when increasing the memory bandwidth of the CPU.
Here we see the first time that the Albatron motherboard lost to the MSI 865PE in single channel mode by a larger than error margin. In this case the MSI board is 6% faster in single channel mode and 7% faster in dual channel mode. As another point the MSI board is more efficient in single channel mode than the Albatron motherboard, with the MSI board averaging about 86% CPU usage compared to 79.5% CPU usage for the Albatron board.
Conclusion
So looking at all the results that we have looked at, as well as the packaging and features of the motherboard. So what can we conclude about this motherboard?
First looking at the motherboard and packaging itself. The packaging of this motherboard is simple but effective, with the red is slightly eye catching in this respect. You don't get the same amount of stuff that those who have MSI motherboards or other similar motherboards get, but what you get is what you need to get started. For first time users the quick setup poster is a very nice addition to the package as it shows you what needs to be done to get the system up and running.
The motherboard has a fairly good layout, except for the extra 12v connector and the floppy drive connector, which are in some of the worst places that they can be. The floppy is at the bottom of the case, and the 12v line is running over the CPU. The ATX connector is in one of the best places it can be, at the edge of the motherboard, far away from the CPU, without going over the CPU.
The BIOS is something different than the standard Award BIOS found in most places, choosing rather to go with a Phoenix BIOS. The BIOS has plenty of room to change all the settings you will need for overclocking your CPU. The only small bad points were that the CPU and DIMM overclocking voltages were slightly lower than I would have liked to see. Overclocking was very good as good or better than the MSI 865PE board, specifically in the memory overclocking area, with the FSB speed reaching around 285MHz with only a 0.02v increase in CPU core voltage.
As for actual testing what do the results show? For most applications there is very little difference in performance between the 848P and the 865PE. The 865PE motherboard manages to take the video encoding tests from the 848P board. 3D rendering and games show the two boards to be close, with only Jedi Knight II running somewhat faster on the 848P than the 865PE board, possibly due to lower latency memory speeds.
Now looking at the price of the board we see that it is one of the less expensive motherboards, simply due to the lowered cost of the chipset and less lines to run for memory paths. Compared to most other boards in its price range we see that it compares to the lower cost 865PE boards, specifically MSI 865PE Neo2 boards, which it performs almost as well as.
Good
Bad
Final Words
This motherboard has a fair amount going for it, it is overclockable, fast and based on a very stable chipset, and is pretty low priced. The only downsides are the lack of dual channel memory and features as well as the misleading name, but overall it is a Viperlair recommended product.
If you got any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.
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