845pe Albatron $89 on pricewatch - Update **Official Info/OC Thread**

[Yourself]

Mine also is humming along:

1.6@2480
155 FSB
Memory@413 DDR

Sisoft Memory

3145/3144

Default 3d Mark-Ti4600

13546 3d Marks

The only down side...no 4:5 memory divider with "a" chips. It reads the default bus speed of the chip and allows certain dividers. 3:4 with an "a" or 100 fsb chip and 4:5 with a "b" or 133 fsb chip. Maybe Tates or somebody else will find something I've overlooked.


Self

 

[lookin4dlz]

Self, so this would just require a bios hack/update to fix, right?

 

[Yourself]

I would think a Bios update would allow all the memory dividers or a "B" chip will also allow them.


Self

 

[Tates]

Bad news....I am RMAing the board back. After initial success, the board I got had a serious under-volt problem. At default, it was supplying 1.4v, and anything higher .75 to 1 volt below what was selected in BIOS. After a reboot, the system would lock up and I had to turn off and on the power at the PS. When I called AJump and spoke with a sales rep, he put me on hold to ask a technician for some pointers. When he got back he suggested I either ask for a refund or look at another board as the Tech has said they were experiencing problems with the new board 🙁

Looks like Yourself got a good board. I hope the one I got was the exception and not the rule.

 

[lookin4dlz]

Well, shoot... Mine isn't scheduled to arrive until Monday. We'll see how it goes... Thanks for the update Tates.

 

[Pardus]

newegg has this board for $99 shipped finally, does this mean to avoid it since tates is having bad results with it.

 

[First]

Originally posted by: ActiveX
newegg has this board for $99 shipped finally, does this mean to avoid it since tates is having bad results with it.

No, just because Tates supposedly got a bad board doesn't mean you will. 🙂

 

[Yourself]

I have a Vcore setting of 1.725v and I'm getting about 1.68v, so not quite as bad as the board Tates had. But, regardless of the undervolting, I have had zero lockups. I have really beat this thing up with Prime 95, 3D mark and many hours of UT03 and Nolf2 without any issue. I will continue to beat on this thing to try and find all possible flaws 🙂


Self

 

[lookin4dlz]

Note to Self - what is your current overclock speed/benchmarks? Thanks!

 

[Tullphan]

Tates,
Are you going to try another Albatron or go with a different board & if so, which one?

 

[Tates]

Tates,
Are you going to try another Albatron or go with a different board & if so, which one?

I'm debating that one, because I think I might want added features that are in the Albatron PX845PEV Pro II.

I apologize if my earlier "Bad News" post overly alarmed anyone. Yourself got a great board.

Evan is probably right......just because Tates supposedly got a bad board doesn't mean you will. 🙂

 

[Tullphan]

Is there another place to pick up the Albatron PX845PE PRO II? Reseller Ratings doesn't appear to be very good.

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

Is there another place to pick up the Albatron PX845PE PRO II? Reseller Ratings doesn't appear to be very good.

Newegg ($99shipped) and Googlegear ($94 shipped) both have them, they're both good retailers. Got mine today! System's goin' together!!

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: OvErHeAtInG

Is there another place to pick up the Albatron PX845PE PRO II? Reseller Ratings doesn't appear to be very good.

Newegg ($99shipped) and Googlegear ($94 shipped) both have them, they're both good retailers. Got mine today! System's goin' together!!

I don't think that's the Pro II model. I've only found the Pro II model in the store posted above. I'm hoping Newegg or someone more reputable will start carrying it soon so I can pick one up.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I just got this mobo and got the system stable with 2.26P4 with a 160Mhz FSB and the 2.00x memory setting. When my new XMS3200 gets here I'll try 2.5x

voltages are low compared to what they should be (1.85v = 1.79v) which is NOT that bad really.

 

[Yourself]

Ok I'm stable at 16x165=2640. I just ran about 4 hours of Prime 95, so things are looking good. It's an "A" chip so the only memory multipliers I have are 1.5x and 2.66x and I don't think my memory would be stable at 439 🙂 so 1.5x it is. The good news is that the board itself seems to be stable at high bus speeds.

Sandra CPU:
5101 Mips
3213 Mflops

Sandra Multimedia:
Integer: 10369
Floating-Point: 12969

That's it for now...

Self

 

[cmdrdredd]

My friend tells me that DDR333 is faster than DDR400...this I know is false. He says that the system runs better when set to DDR333 settings.

He's crazy right? There's no way that a mobo running PC3200 memory at DDR400 is slower than the same system with the same memory at DDR333.

Anyhow that's what he says...

 

[First]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
My friend tells me that DDR333 is faster than DDR400...this I know is false. He says that the system runs better when set to DDR333 settings.

He's crazy right? There's no way that a mobo running PC3200 memory at DDR400 is slower than the same system with the same memory at DDR333.

Anyhow that's what he says...

It depends on the platform.

Most KT400 boards perform slightly worse with DDR400 than with DDR333. Gigabyte's KT400 board is the only exception I've seen so far (although it gains like 1-2% from DDR400, not much at all).

Most SiS 648 boards perform slightly better with DDR400 than with DDR333. AOpen's SiS 648 board seems to be the only exception, generally losing between 2-3% with DDR400 compared to DDR333 (I'll have a review of this board soon).

 

[lookin4dlz]

Self Thanks for the update. How well is this board doing when compared to the previous board with the "a" chip you're using?

Also, I email Albatron (their tech Dept. & someone called Dr. Pro) about getting a bios change to provide bios support for the 4:5 at 100fsb. The tech dept is looking into it and will respond when they find some information. Dr. Pro sent me a one page pdf with overclocking instructions for the board (useless to me until the board arrives). I don't know if this information is included in the manual, and can send the pdf to you if you're interested.

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

OK, I'm up and running. No complaints so far, I'm running default settings until it gets "burned in." Call me paranoid..

Anyway: Win2K doesn't detect and install the 3Com driver; and the only LAN driver included on the CD is the Intel one for the Pro II. 😕 How are people dealing with this? EDIT: Never mind, found it (duh) (BTW the 3Com has a PXE boot ROM! I'm very happy... Now I can install Win2K using my RIS server!!!)

What's the Intel INF update and Application Accelerator? I went ahead and installed both of these.
Cheers 😀

EDIT: On MBM5 (latest ver, I think it's 5.2.0.0), I set the sensors 1-2-3 to "Winbond 1," :Winbond 2," and :Winbond 3" respectively. Under load, these are my temps:

Sensor 1: 44 C
Sensor 2: 71 C ?!?
Sensor 3: 42 C

Okay, now please tell me it's a fluke... this "sensor 2" can't be for real? MBM 5 has to be misreading something?? I'm using the LianLi PC60, a case with good but not crazy flow.
I'm getting the undervolting thing too. Core fluctuates between 1.44 and 1.46.. is this cause for RMA?

 

[alobar]

hey, ive been playing with mine for a few days and love it. i'm running my 2.4b at 2777 154fsb and mem at 410 and everything so far is rock solid, my temps are 28c cpu idle and 33c load. the voltage is a little low so i upped it to 1.55 to get near 1.5 actual. the only thing i cant figure out is how to keep my corsair xms3200c2 memory to run at c2. everytime i set to manual and c2 and then i restart and check the bios it somehow reverts to c2.5. I know the memory can run at c2 cause sandra reports it ok. but i cant get it to stick. anyone else have that problem?

as far as the winbond2 im not sure what is, as far as i knew there are only 2 temp monitors, CPU and system.

so far im a very very happy camper.

 

[cmdrdredd]

hrm...never noticed my memory timings jump back to default. Maybe try adding some memory voltage and try again. It might not have enouygh juice for the mobo to support.

As to the voltage...having too little voltage would do nothing more than cause instability on your system. If it works at the current readings I'd leave it alone. At least for now. You can always add a bit if you feel unsafe at the current setting.

 

[BlessidThug]

Thanks for the pdf, Lookin4dlz, it's a good overclocking primer for the board.

 

[lookin4dlz]

BlessidThug, glad the document helped 🙂

cmdrdredd - could you explain what you referenced in your last post? Thanks.

hrm...never noticed my memory timings jump back to default.

 

[Oakenfold]

Originally posted by: OvErHeAtInG
I'm getting the undervolting thing too. Core fluctuates between 1.44 and 1.46.. is this cause for RMA?

Not sure bud, I'm new to the voltage stuff, maybe Tates might chime in here, anyone else having this issue?

Btw the gigabyte is running very smooth @ 350+DDR 2.53@2.7+
Easing my way up, day by day gonna see if I can get past 2.8-3.00 but I seriously doubt that will happen, think the ram is gonna get flaky.