Features & BIOS

Features

The top feature on the Albatron K8X800 ProII is the sound solution. The board supports VIA’s Envy 24 which is one of the better on-board sound cards / chips currently on the market (if not the best onboard sound). Albatron takes this one step further by offering a SPDIF bracket that supports digital input and output for both coax and optical. This is better than most other products on the market since most just support digital output for a single type of connection.

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Though it may be peculiar that the digital audio support is only available through the optional SPDIF audio bracket, by having SPDIF optional Albatron can save customers some money by only buying something they are sure they will use.

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SPDIF audio riser gives full digital I/O and dedicated
headset + microphone support.

If you are using analog connections, there is a full compliment of stereo jacks for you to use, including separate Mic and Headphone jacks. You no longer have to ‘share’ jacks, or crawl behind your case to connect your headphones. You can connect your entire 7.1 channel system and still have room for the microphone and an input source.

The Envy24 also supports surround speaker support for non-digital signals (i.e. you get 4 speakers when playing MP3s instead of just 2), which has been a main feature of NVIDIA’s SoundStorm for a long time. To enable this just check the Stereo EXpander option in the Envy24 software.

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The dual BIOS chips (top) gives added security in case of a
bad BIOS flash. Just flip the switches (bottom).

One of the unique features of the K8X800 ProII are the dual BIOS chips. Other solutions merely make soft backups of BIOS settings onto the same chip, so if that chip gets corrupted the backup is lost as well. With the K8X800 ProII, the backup resides on a separate physical location. So even if your primary BIOS chip gets corrupted your backup remains safe! By flipping the onboard dip switches, the motherboard will make a copy of the backup back onto your damaged chip. So say goodbye to dangerous hot-swaps or lost time and money due to servicing.

Other features of the Albatron K8X800 ProII are the SATA RAID, 3COM gigabit LAN, two Firewire connections, and ten USB connections (3 onboard headers, and 4 connections on the back).

The BIOS

The Albatron K8X800 ProII has a good selection of overclocking features. The K8X800 ProII has a AGP/PCI frequency divider, but because it is not a Pro chipset it does not have a frequency lock when overclocking or HyperTransport ratio settings.

Albatron K8X800 ProII Overclocking Options

CPU Frequencies

200-300Mhz

CPU Multipliers

4x to default CPU multiplier (0.5x factors)

CPU Voltages

0.800V — 1.9V

AGP Voltages

1.5-1.8V (0.1V increments)

DDR RAM Voltages

2.6V – 2.9V (0.1V increments)

Northbridge Voltages

2.5 — 2.8 (0.1V increments)

Southbridge Voltages

2.5 — 2.8 (0.1V increments)

LDT Voltages

1.2 — 1.3 (0.1V increments)

The K8X800 ProII has your essential memory control options which should be enough for most users and overclockers as seen in the image below. Some of you may want more options, but unfortunately the K8X800 ProII does not provide them.

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Another feature of the BIOS is the ability to save a BIOS configuration so you can recall a previously saved state quickly and easily. Overall the BIOS isn’t fancy like those seen on other boards. You won’t find fan controls or voltage monitors galore here, just your basic features with a good compliment of frequency and voltage controls.

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