Overclocker Cafe - Albatron PX 875P Pro

Albatron PX 875P Pro Mainboard

Manufacturer: Albatron
Supplied by: Albatron
Price: TBA

by Brian Tiller (2/14/2004)

Introduction

When Intel released their 875 chipset last spring, it was the hottest thing to hit the P4 market. And after almost a year, it is still banging down the door with it's speed and stability. Even with the fairly recent release of VIA's PT800 chipset to counter it, the 875 is hanging tough. More than a few of the top mainboard manufacturers have thrown their hat into this ring and now we can add Albatron to that list.

Albatron produces a wide range of both motherboards and graphics cards for the enthusiast market, but until now they have not hit the streets with Intel's top dawg. Today we are going to take a look at Albatron's PX 875P board. Here is a quick glance at the specs. I have to say they decided to put on their driving gloves and jump behind the wheel of their favorite Ferrari.

Specifications:

Support for Intel P4, both Northwood and Prescott
Hyper threading support
Intel 82875 Northbridge chipset
Intel ICH5 Southbridge chipset
AC '97 onboard Audio - Super 5.1 Channel
3Com LAN controller 10/100 Mbps
400/533/800 MHz Front Side Bus up to 1200MHz overclocking (WOW!)
AGP 4x/8x @ 66MHz
Five PCI expansion slots @ 33MHz
Hardware Monitor
(2) ATA 100 IDE channels
(2) Serial ATA
Dual Channel DDR400
(2) USB 2.0 ports
(6) Additional USB headers on board
Phoenix Award BIOS
Watch Dog Timer

While the PX875P Pro doesn't have all the features that other boards in this class, there are a couple of things that are very nice about it. The first is that great big splotch on the front of the box which states that the motherboard is 'Prescott Ready'.

It wasn't too long ago that we found out that not all motherboards currently out there would support the Prescott CPU's. So its nice to see that Albatron is looking to keep their board relevant but ensuring it can handle future processor upgrades.

What You Get

Along with the motherboard itself, we have several other things in the box. Pretty normal here with the manual, some ATA and floppy cables and the driver CD. Also included were a Serial ATA cable as well as a SATA power adapter. This last was nice to see as SATA drives are becoming more common.

Another item that I always like to see included was the big color fold out Quick Installation Guide. I love these things. Even though the manual for this motherboard is very good, you just can't beat that full size EZ Do-It type of thingy.