Albatron K8X800 Pro II Motherboard Review

The K8T800 is Via’s newest edition to their long line of AMD chipsets. Albatron has taken this chipset and used it in their new K8X800 Pro II motherboard. This motherboard packs a lot of features into a motherboard waiting to unleash the power of AMDs 64-bit CPU. I want to get right into this review so lets take a look at the chipset. The information below is from Via’s website.

The VIA K8T800 chipset with Hyper8 technology is powering next generation 64-bit compatible platforms based around AMD Opteron™ and new Athlon™ 64 processors, including Dual Opteron™ processor based workstations and servers, and Athlon™64 processor based performance PC platforms. Combined with the VIA VT8237 South Bridge and VIA companion chips, the K8T800 enables an unparalleled range of cutting edge I/O and multimedia features, including an 1.6GHz HyperTransport Bus Link, AGP 8X, Native Serial ATA/RAID, 7.1-surround audio, and Gigabit Ethernet.

The HyperTransport link between the AMD64 processor and chipset provides a 16-bit/1.6GHz data transfer rate for a total bandwidth of 6.4GB/s. To counter the massive data loads and high propensity for signal interference of a 16-bit/1.6GHz link, several AMD64 supporting motherboards currently available feature a below-spec HyperTransport implementation. By reducing the processor-to-chipset HyperTransport link to deal with signal interference, total bandwidth is reduced from 6.4GB/s to as little as 3.2GB/s. With support for VIA’s unique Hyper8™ technology the VIA K8T800 enables the industry’s first full 16-bit/1.6GHz implementation of the HyperTransport bus for the AMD64 platform, ensuring AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon 64 processor based systems achieve their full performance potential.

Featuring the VIA DriveStation™ Controller Suite, the VIA VT8237 South Bridge provides the most comprehensive support high-performance integrated storage interface technologies available on the market today. In addition to enabling high-speed 150MB/s dual channel connections to Serial ATA Hard Drives while retaining support for up to four Parallel ATA-133 devices, it combines exceptionally fast disk data transfer rates and optimal data integrity with easy installation and manageability through V-RAID, the first native RAID controller integrated into a South Bridge supporting multiple RAID Level 0, RAID Level 1, RAID 0+1, and JBOD configurations.

The VT8237 also features the VIA Vinyl™ Multichannel Audio Suite for superlative integrated and onboard 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, and offers a host of high-bandwidth connectivity options, including support for the VIA Gigabit Ethernet companion chip, integrated 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet and up to eight high-speed USB 2.0 ports.

The K8T800 benefits from VIA’s unique V-MAP (VIA Modular Architecture Platform) architecture that facilitates faster product development and speeds up time to market, and features the high-throughput V-Link interconnect running at speeds of up to 533 MB/s between the North and South Bridge.

Block diagram
Below is a block diagram of how the chipset is laid out and how everying connects. Most of the I/O is handled by the VT8237 southbridge while the brunt of the work is done by the K8T800 chipset.

Key Features
· Supports full range of AMD Opteron/Athlon64 processors
· Hyper8 Technology enables 16-bit/1.6GHz HyperTransport processor-to-chipset link
· Support for AGP 8X/4X
· V-Link 533 MB/sec high bandwidth North/South Bridge interconnect
· Support for VIA Vinyl 5.1 & Vinyl Gold 7.1 Multichannel Audio Suite
· Serial ATA support for up to 4 devices
· Integrated V-RAID with RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1*, and JBOD (SATA) support
· Parallel ATA133/100/66 support for up to 4 devices
· Support for up to 8 USB 2.0/USB 1.1 ports, UHCI compliant
· Support for VIA Gigabit Ethernet companion controller & Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet
· Integrated MC’97 Modem
· Advanced power management capabilities including ACPI/OnNow
· 578-pin BGA North Bridge
· 539-pin BGA VT8237 South Bridge

Benefits of VIA K8T800

VIA Hyper8™ Technology
VIA’s unique Hyper8 technology eliminates noise on the HyperTransport link between the processor and chipset, enabling the industry’s only full-speed, full-spec 16-bit/1.6GHz implementation of the processor-to-chipset HyperTransport link.

VIA Modular Architecture Platform
To best exploit the rapid pace of innovation in the PC industry, particularly with reference to I/O technology, VIA have opted for a classic North/South Bridge configuration allowing for the most scalable mainboard design, enabling new functionality to be integrated in an expedient and practical manner, thus providing the fastest time to market with new features and system performance enhancements.

Native Serial ATA/RAID Support
The VIA DriveStation™ Controller Suite with native dual channel Serial ATA/RAID controller, provides direct support for two 150MB/s Serial ATA devices and its unique SATAlite™ interface expands support for two additional SATA devices. The V-RAID controller features native RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1* and JBOD, ensuring optimum data integrity and system performance. The user friendly V-RAID software interface enables easy disk array configuration and management.

VIA Vinyl Multichannel Audio Suite
Delivering rich, warm surround sound at resolutions as high as 24/96 through up to six- or eight-channel outputs, the VIA Vinyl Audio 5.1 surround sound and VIA Vinyl Gold Audio 7.1 surround sound enables crisp, clear performance, representing the highest levels of audio quality in a mainstream integrated or onboard solution.

Unified VIA Hyperion 4in1 Drivers
VIA’s unified approach to drivers has been established for eight generations of chipsets, allowing end users to benefit from seamless hardware and software compatibility.

* RAID Level 0+1 requires four Serial ATA drives; support for the two additional drives can only be implemented with two external Serial ATA ports enabled through a SATALite PHY.

This motherboard has a lot of great features which we will look at in more detail as the review proceeds. Below are the motherboards specifications that I got from Albatron’s website.

Feature
AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor
Socket 754 with FSB 800 MHz
3 DDR200/266/333/400 Memory Sockets
Built-in VIA Envy 24PT with 8 channel Audio Support
(Bundle SPDIF2 Card Optional)
3Com 1Gbits LAN
2 Serial ATA150 Channels, Serial ATA RAID 0,1
2 IEEE1394 Ports
2 ATA133 Channels, up to 4 ATA 133 IDE Devices
8 USB 2.0/1.1 Ports (6 ports by optional cable)
BIOS Mirror ™
Voice Genie ™

Processor
AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor

FSB
800 MHz Chipset
North Bridge : VIA K8T800
South Bridge : VIA VT8237
LAN Chip : 3Com 3C940
IEEE1394 Chip : VIA VT6307
Audio Chip : VIA VT1720 Evny 24PT
I/O Chip: Winbond Smart I/O W83697HF

Memory
3 * DDR Sockets:
DDR200/266/333/400 NON-ECC DDR SDRAM up to 3GB Expansion Slots
1 x AGP(3.0) 8X slot (1.5V only)
6 x PCI slots (PCI 2.2 compliant)

IDE Connectors
2 ATA133/100/66 Channels, up to 4 ATA 133/100/66 IDE devices
2 Serial ATA150 Channels, up to 2 Serial ATA150 Hard Drives

Onboard I/O Connectors
1 x Floppy Connector
3 x USB 2.0/1.1 header (6 ports by optional cable)
2 x IEEE1394 header (2 ports IEEE1394 cable optional)
1 x CD_IN header
1 x S/PDIF in/out header (S/PDIF in/out cable optional)
1 x CPU fan header ( 1 fan rotation detection function )
2 x System fan headers ( 2 fan rotation detection function )
1 x 10 pin system panel header (Intel spec)
1 x 3 pin Power LED header
1 x Front audio header (Intel spec)
1 x IrDA header
1 x Case Open detection header
2 x 5 pin Com port header
2 x 8 pin Game Port header

I/O via Back Panel
PS/2 keyboard/mouse, 2 x USB(2.0/1.1), RJ45,1 x Com(serial), 1 x Parallel,1x Line-in/Line-out(Speaker Out)/MIC/SUR_CEN/SUR/R:WOF,L:CEN

Power
20-pin ATX power connector, 4-pin ATX 12V power connector

BIOS Feature
4Mb Flash EEPROM
Award BIOS with ACPI, DMI2.0, PnP, WfM2.0, Green Suspend to RAM (S3), Suspend to Disk (S4) Wake on keyboard/mouse, Wake on LAN/RTC Timer

Hardware Monitoring
3 FAN sensors, CPU/System voltages and temperature monitoring

Special Feature
Zero Jumper Design
BIOS Mirror ™ Protect BIOS by creating an original mirror image of itself
Voice Genie™ Voice Troubleshooting system ( four-Language )
Adjustable CPU frequency by 1 MHz increment, Adjustable V_core, V_AGP, V_Memory for overclocking.
Watch Dog Timer (auto-reset system when it can not handle overclock configurations)
Special design for CPU Over Temperature Protection.( OTP )

Certifications
FCC, CE, BSMI Form Factor
ATX ( 305*244 mm )

The box of the Albatron K8X800 Pro II is pretty slick looking, as you can tell by all of the colors given off by the light from my cameras flash. The back of the box has some good information on it to let you know what you will be getting and what it can do.

The board itself looks to be laid out pretty well however there are some things that look a little poorly positioned. Clearance around the CPU should not be a problem as there is plenty of room and in most cases the heatsink will be a standard size because of the mounting brackets.

This motherboard comes with a lot of extras, in the first picture you can see the manual and driver CD it comes with. Also included is a copy of WinCinema Pro which does a lot of multimedia functions. Albatron also provides a “DIY installation manual” to easily guide you through setting up your own computer. Finally we see the IDE cables, SATA cable, I/O back plate, and a case badge that come with the motherboard.

The motherboard features 8 USB 1.1/2.0 ports and you will get four of those from the USB header provided, There is also a header for 2 IEEE1394 ports. Because the motherboard does not have legacy devices onboard they provide a game port and serial port header that you can plug into your motherboard if you need to use them. Also provided is a Molex to SATA power connector to use if you have SATA drives. Finally is the SPDIF2 card which will allow you to take full advantage of the sound capabilities this motherboard has to offer.

The back panel of the motherboard has the following ports available: 2 PS/2, serial, parallel, 10/100/1000 NIC, 2 USB, and 6 audio connections. It would have been nice to see the parallel and serial ports replaced with USB or firewire but it seems that Albatron has not ditched the old hardware like most of us have.

 

The main thing I want to point about the first picture is the fact that the floppy disk connector is not in the best of locations. I had to use their floppy cable rather than my rounded ones because it is so far away from the actual drive. From the picture you can a. In the second picture you can see all of the USB, firewire, and power/LED jumpers for the motherboard. Also Albatron is still using DIP switches which really shouldn’t be used anymore at least in my opinion. Another feature in the second picture is the dual BIOS which is a pretty good idea incase you incorrectly flash your BIOS or get a virus. The board has 3 DDR slots which can handle up to 3GB of DDR400, also shown is the ATX power connector which is also poorly positioned.

The K8T800 northbridge is covered by a passive copper heatsink while the southbridge has none. I personally like the fact that the heatsink is passive because normally northbridge heatsinks make quite a bit of noise while not improving overclockability by much.

I will be using an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ which was sent over by Directron. Also instead of using a stock heatsink I will be using a Zalman 7000-Cu which was sent over by Sharka Corporation. I removed the heatsink mounting bracket, installed the Zalman mounting bolts, and dropped the CPU into place.

After applying some Arctic Silver 3 I then secured the 7000-Cu into place. As you can see the heatsink is really large and still fit without a problem.

This Phoenix AwardBIOS main screen is like that of most motherboards allowing you to get information on and change the time/date, IDE channels, A & B drives, halt on , and get some memory information.

In the advanced menu of the BIOS you can set your boot priority for your system. There are also the following sub menus some of which we will look into further: removable disk priority, advanced BIOS features, advanced chipset features, PnP/PCI configurations, and Frequency/voltage control.

The advanced chipset features sub menu has a good amount of RAM, AGP, and PCI settings that will assist in overclocking ventures. I set all of the RAM settings to the fastest to get the best performance. The frequency/voltage control sub menu is where you will do your overclocking.

The CPU ratio only goes up to 10 because the BIOS revision I am running is a little old and at the time the 3200+ was the fastest CPU available. The FSB also goes high enough for you to overclock as much as should be possible. There are also a plethora of voltage options. You have the ability to change the CPU, DDR, AGP, NB, SB, and LDT voltages. All of these options listed in this paragraph should help in overclocking.

The peripherals menu is where you can set the first display device and the voice genie. There are also three sub menus for the on chip device, onboard PCI device, and super IO device. These are onboard options that you will need to configure deepening on what you plan on using and how you plan to use them.

The HW monitor menu is where you can set the case open warning and CPU warning temperature. I have both of these two options disabled however it is always a good idea to set the CPU warning temperature so that you don’t minimize the risk of damaging your CPU. You can also see your systems voltages, temperatures and fan speeds from here.

For all of the benchmarks I tested at the stock speed and overclocked at 2000MHz with a FSB of 211 which is the best I could do. All of the memory settings were at the most aggressive settings and all of the resolutions were set to 640×480 to test the CPU rather than the video card. I will be using the following benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra 2004 professional, 3DMark2001SE, 3DMark03, and PCMark04.

Test Bed:

• Albatron K8X800 Pro II (review to come)
• AMD Athlon64 3200+ (review to come)
• 60GB Seagate Barracuda IV HDD
• 1024MB PC3200 Corsair TwinX
• XFX GeForceFX 5700 Ultra
• Koolcase’s Panther
• Plextor 708A DVD burner (review to come)
• SilenX 400w PSU
• Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu

SiSoft Sandra 2004 professional has many different informational modules and benchmarking tools. The first benchmark I ran from this program was the CPU benchmark which outputs the MIPS and MFLOPS for your CPU. Below is a screen shot from the stock and overclocked speeds. Even though some of the FSB are higher the scores are lower, I don’t exactly know why this is because the overall clock speed is the same however the FSB is higher so I expected better results.

Stock	Overclocked

SiSoft Sandra 2004 professional can also benchmark the multimedia ability of your system. This benchmark will output the Integer aEMMX/aSSE and Floating-Point results from your system. The same thing happens with this benchmark with the scores being lower while overclocked.

Stock	Overclocked

Overall the most used benchmark in this software is probably the memory bandwidth benchmark. I used 1024MB (2×512) Corsair 3200LL which is one of their dual channel kits. All of the speeds were set to the fastest in the BIOS so that I would get the best performance possible. I was really expecting to see a higher score with the overclocked system on this benchmark regardless of the clock speed. The memory should have also been overclocked as a result of the increase in FSB however the scores are again slower than the stock settings.

Stock	Overclocked

3DMark2001SE is more of a video card benchmark however it can also be used to test CPUs. I set the resolution to 640×480 and left all of the other options at their default. The trend continues with this benchmark as well with the overclocked system getting a lower score than that of the stock one. The results are not that significant but worth mentioning.

Stock	Overclocked

3DMark03 is the newest version of this benchmarking software from Futuremark. Again I set the resolution to 640×480 and left all of the other settings alone. The overclocked system gets only 29 less points than the stock system which isn’t much and could be contributed to inconsistencies with benchmarking. However in this case after seeing the other benchmarks churn out similar results this is probably not the case.

Stock	Overclocked

PCMark04 is an overall system benchmarking program also from Futuremark. With this benchmark I selected the system and memory. This is the only benchmark where the overclocked system gets a higher score than the stock system. It would have been nice to see these kind of results from the other benchmarks however this is not the case.

Stock	Overclocked

Overclocking for me was pretty disappointing but not unexpected. I have had the chance to read other reviews on Athlon 64 motherboards and for most users the overclockability of Athlon 64 CPUs is very poor. I tried different things to get a good overclock out of my CPU but was quite unsuccessful. After trying combinations of multipliers and FSB I ended up at what you see below, a lowly 11MHz FSB overclock with no clock speed increase. This is probably due mostly to the CPU however the motherboard did not have very good overclocking options.

Conclusion

Albatron has certainly packed a lot of great features into a motherboard supporting one of the best CPUs on the market right. However some of the board layout and overclockability leave a good amount to be desired. Also I have to say that I am disappointed with the quality of the onboard audio.

After switching from my Abit NF7-S nForce 2 motherboard I could hear a big difference in sound quality. If you are looking for the most overclockable, gaming, multimedia motherboard I would have to say this isn’t the one for you. If you are looking for a motherboard with lots of features that is very stable you should really consider this one.

Overall I am somewhat disappointed with this motherboard and am only going to give it a 6/10. I would like to thank Albatron for sending me this motherboard to review.

Pros

• Serial ATA capable of RAID
• 3Com 1Gbits LAN
• 8 USB 2.0 ports
• AGP 8x
• Onboard IEEE 1394a
• Blue PCB

Cons

• Poor overclocking performance
• Poor onboard audio
• ATX and floppy connector pooly positioned