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 .
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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