Albatron K8X800 ProII Socket 754 Motherboard

Impressions & Conclusions

This is my first look at an Albatron product and I have to say that I am very impressed with K8X800 ProII. As with other Socket 754 reviews we have done recently on PCPerspective, the performance across the different competing chipsets are fairly close but the Albatron K8X800 ProII fell behind slightly in a few of our tests (like in Winstone). This difference isn’t much to really base a purchase decision on, so let’s take a look through the features and see why you should consider the K8X800 ProII.

Audio Done Right
If I were to pick out a key feature it would be the audio solution on the K8X800 ProII. The Envy 24 audio is a great improvement over generic onboard sound, and the audio riser gives you dedicated microphone and headphone jacks along with coax and optical I/O. I have to say that Albatron has done audio right with this package — it has all the connections you need and with great sound. With audio becoming so important in home theater and gaming applications, Albatron fill that need.

The Icing
The other features like the dual BIOS, SATA RAID, a copper Northbridge cooler, and two IEE1394  and eight USB 2.0 connections round out the features. Albatron even offers industry leading 3-year warranty proudly displayed on their box. This puts them on the same footing as industry heavyweights Asus and Abit.

Overclocking
The downside from the K8X800 ProII is that it does not offer that much in overclocking features. With a broken multiplier, we weren’t able to do much except overclock the FSB at the default CPU ratio.  There is a good selection of voltage options for the chipset and the HyperTransport bus, but only basic memory performance options. There is dual bios chips which is something enthusiasts will appreciate.

Conclusion
The Albatron K8X800 ProII is a fine product that boasts some great audio and audio connectivity which I think is the main draw for this product. We had problems with overclocking but many customers have this same motherboard and have no issues at all.  I suggest you do further research if you are considering buying this board for overclocking.

Albatron packs good features into the K8X800 ProII and reinforces your investment with an excellent 3 year warranty. I think if you’re in the market for a product with a strong audio component, then you should seriously look at the Albatron K8X800 ProII.