A
few weeks back I looked at a board from Albatron, the PX925X Pro.
In the meantime, Intel released a new CPU and a new Chipset to
go with it. The CPU in question was the 3.46GHz P4EE and the big
change with this CPU from previous Extreme Edition CPU's was the
fact it ran on a 1066MHz bus. Of course we needed a chipset to
handle this jump as well since 915 and 925 chipsets are only rated
for 200. Enter the 925XE with support for 1066MHz Front Side Bus.
Of course this meant manufacturers had to update their lineups
with new boards to accommodate to which Albatron responded with
their PX925XE Pro-R, an evolution of the original PX925X Pro to
support the new 925XE chipset.
| CPU |
Intel
Pentium® 4 Processor (Prescott)
800/1066FSB |
| Chipset |
Intel
925XE |
| Memory |
4
DDRII 400/533 Memory Sockets ( Dual Channel ) |
| Expansion
Slots |
1
x PCI Express x16 Slot.
2 x PCI Express x1 Slots.
3 x PCI Slots.
|
| LAN |
Broadcom
Gbits Ethernet LAN(PCI-Express LAN)
VIA
10/100 Mbits/s Ethernet LAN
|
| Audio |
8-Channel
HD Audio |
You
can read the full specification here.
The
box for the Albatron PX925XE Pro-R hasn't changed much from the
previous PX925X except for the labeling, which is to be expected
considering the board itself hasn't changed except for adding
1066FSB support. The rear of the box gives you a quick tour
of the features and supported specifications. Inside you find
the extras are placed in the top half with the motherboard itself
under a cardboard separator in the lower half.
As
far as extras go, the overall package is nothing special, but
enough is included to get you going. Ribbon IDE cables and a
red SATA cable are included, as well as a 4pin Molex to two
SATA 7pin power adapters. You will also find a 'quick start'
sheet and 2 manuals; one for the motherboard itself and the
other for the ITE IDE RAID controller.
Moving
on to the motherboard itself we have the by now familiar cap
on the Socket T to protect the tiny pins underneath during shipping
when not in use; if there is even a slight possibility you may
pack this board away at some point in its life I would highly
recommend you keep the cap safe. The actual socket area pretty
much follows the reference design and I have had no trouble
installing the standard HSF, an ASUS Star Ice and a Vapochill
LS. Below the socket is the Northbridge, passively cooled by
this rather large gold coloured aluminum heatsink, under which
we find the 925XE.
Moving
right are the DDRII slots, 4 slots in total, 2 orange and 2 green
to indicate the Dual Channels you'll also see at the extreme
right, the 24pin Power connector and the Floppy port. These are
perfect places for both, as the large and bulky power connector
will be out of the way, and those who still use floppy drives
will have extra reach in case your drive is at the top of the
case.
Below are the IDE and SATA ports. Unlike the PX925X
Pro, the PX925XE Pro-R has IDE RAID and SATA RAID. The two yellow
IDE ports are provided as extras to the singular red port, with
RAID 0 and 1 available. You can also see in this area the Southbridge,
the ICH6R, and like the 925XE it is also covered by a heatsink.
Below
the white PCI slots you'll find pins for a game port,
CD in SP DIF and Front Panel Audio and I have the same complaint
about this board as I did with the PX925X Pro and its Front
Panel Audio; I'll be damned if I can get it to work fully
with the supposedly compatible AC97 setup in the 5 towers I
have to hand. I do feel the manufacturers should make a point
of including documentation to not only explain this but also
indicate the differences and how they can work together.
Above
the white PCI slots we find two blue PCIe 1x slots. Above this
is the red PCIe 16x slot for a graphics card. You can also see
in the photo just behind the IO panel is the 4 pin 'P4' AUX connector.
The
IO Panel is quite clean and without anything to surprise us. We
have from left to right, the two PS/2 ports, the two serial and
a parallel port, the 8 ports for the Intel HD 7.1 Sound, two LAN
ports (1 is Gigabit) and 4 USB 2.0 ports.
The
board has no glaring issues and appears to be a pretty good layout.
Most everything is where we like it to be, although I would have
liked to have seen the P4 AUX connector on the same side as the
24pin power connector. The only real issue is not something that
Albatron alone has a problem with (although that doesn't negate
the fact the problem exists). I really don't feel enough documentation
is given on the front audio panel pins and how they connect to
standard AC97 equipped cases.
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