Overclocker Cafe - AlbatronKM18G

Albatron KM18G Pro Mainboard

Board Layout

One thing that I like about this motherboard, that is immediately noticeable is the color coordination. Yes, I know that there are a lot of different boards out there that use multiple colors, but this is the first one that I've had the opportunity to review. Plus I think that the colors that were used blend in with one another rather nicely.

As you can see the different colored IDE channels make it much easier when you're working in a confined space, such as a small case. The red is IDE1, with the white being number 2 and the floppy channel is off to the right and colored black. Plus, the DIMM slots are also multi-colored. DIMM 1 is purple with DIMMS 2 and 3 being a pretty green color. This motherboard does support Dual channel DDR, but only if you're using an additional VGA card instead of the onboard video.

Next we'll take a quick peek at the Northbridge chip and cooler. As you can see, it's oriented diagonally to the rest of the board with the Albatron logo right out on top. And just below the this is the AGP slot.

It is not uncommon for manufacturers to equip the AGP slot with a clip to help keep the VGA in place, Albatron has differed here in the design. Instead of an up and down clip at the end of the slot, there is a bar that slides into place to keep the VGA card nice and steady. And while I didn't do any drop testing on the different designs, I would think that this method is somewhat sturdier. Good attention to detail here on Albatron's part. That third shot there is just a quick snap of the Southbridge MCP chip which I'm sure you all have seen a hundred times by now, but what the hey, right?

Ok, the last thing we're going to cover here is something that I thought was pretty neat, especially for a "budget" board. Remember in the intro, when I said there was something else included in the package and I'd get to it later? Well if you have a desire to hook you're TV up for a monitor, you can do it without having a high dollar VGA card with TV out. This board has it.

Along with the cable Albatron has included a good little instruction pamphlet on using this feature. The motherboard header for the TV out is located just to the side of the Northbridge chipset cooler. Before we move onto the BIOS let's take a quick look at our two budget nForce2 boards side by side.

On the left is the Chaintech board we reviewed earlier with the Albatron to the right. As you can see, the basic layout of these two boards is essentially the same. There are a few difference here, but mostly the Albatron board seems much less cluttered than our Chaintech model. Ok, enough of the pretty pictures......On to the BIOS!

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