Albatron PX865PE Pro II Review

Post by **Illuminati** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 8:40 am

We posted a review of the Albatron PX865PE Pro II Motherboard this morning. Take a look at it HERE!

And as always, feel free to post comments.

betacom · Post by **betacom** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 6:31 pm

First i have to say that i DO NOT agree with your conclusion.

Second, I build systems with this mainboard all of the time with no problems except "operator errors"
You can OC past 215Mhz
Here's how:

When using SATA in Intel 865/875 you NEED to manually set the PCI / IDE controllers to 66/100 instead of leaving it on auto. there are lots of other things to do to OC properly and get the best performance out of the springdale

From: Anandtech

Post by **Apoptosis** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 10:03 pm

When using SATA in Intel 865/875 you NEED to manually set the PCI / IDE controllers to 66/100 instead of leaving it on auto.

Yup... we fixed it and never leave it on auto.

Post by **Illuminati** » Thu Nov 06, 2003 9:18 am

Yes, I apologize for not specifically pointing that out in the review. We always lock the PCI/IDE bus... if we didn't do this, we wouldn't have been able to overclock ANY of the motherboards we have.

And I also feel obligated to quote the following post from the same AnandTech link you gave above:

Of course I have read and learn about Intel Chipset before complaining about a great product. The PCI/IDE controllers was set to 66/100 at all times(and not auto) and still this motherboard can't OC with SATA drive as it claims. I have tested this motherboard again and again trying to OC this with SATA drive but it is not working. Please read anandtech forums on this motherboard and you will find others also having this problem. Please don't try to defend this great motherboard when it can't do what it says and if you can prove that it is working please provide details....thank you.

I also invite anyone who has a screen shot of this board effectively overclocked while showing use of a SATA hdd, to please post it. I would like to know the exact combination of SATA hdd and BIOS version that has shown this to work.

Thanks for the feedback!

eva2000 · Post by **eva2000** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 1:30 am

i have had my Albatron PX865PE PRO2 board for several months now but i use PATA drives as i have no confidence in SATA while i rely so much on Ghost2003 to backup my drives on a near daily basis.

Albatron tech support themselves have stated PX865PE PRO2 oc'ing is for PATA only and not meant for SATA drive + oc'ing. So yes you're right that SATA drive issue with this board. But this board is excellent for it's memory compatibility (2nd only to P4C800-E's memory capatibility) and PATA oc'ing.

I've tested 5x 2.4C and 2x 2.8C on PX865PE PRO2, IC7, 4PCA3+ and P4C800-E with 14GBb of different brand PC3200, PC3500, PC3700, PC4000 memory and only P4C800-E and PX865PE PRO2 manage to work with them all!

Post by **Illuminati** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 9:06 am

Very interesting eva! Thanks for the post!

eva2000 · Post by **eva2000** » Sat Nov 08, 2003 12:33 am

Illuminati wrote:Very interesting eva! Thanks for the post!

no probs ... another plus of this board is the max number of IDE devices it supports - one of my main criteria for choosing motherboards since i have up to 6 hdds and 2 cd devices i need installing

OsamaBinAthlon · Post by **OsamaBinAthlon** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:26 am

I had 2x Albatron 865PE Pro's in a row that wouldn't boot with any optimisations at all!!!
That was with a PATA HDD.
Very disappointing.
They are a very young company - personally, I wouldn't bother with them again - nice case badge.