ASUS P4PE/L vs Albatron PX845PEV PRO vs wait

[Auric]

I am considering upgrading to a P4 -cannibalizing what I can of my current system which I am actually happy with but realize I could be getting much better gaming performance for very little upgrade cost when selling off the old CPU, mainboard and memory, especially as DDR memory prices drop faster. The ah heck is I may need a new PSU and case.

I don't need onboard audio though I know they all come with it. I suppose I do not need SATA. I don't need RAID. I have an 8x AGP card and know an 8x AGP board has no advantage now but will I need an 8x AGP board for next generation cards? Onboard LAN would be welcomed if it is reliable without any drawbacks. USB 2.0 will be welcomed and I do not need FireWire as it exists on my Audigy for basic use. I would probably use a cheaper CPU to begin with and choose one based on overclockability but do not want to be limited in the forseeable future.

I wonder if it is worth saving money on an Albatron? I have read about thermal readout problems and failures to warm boot without shutting down completely first. Also, it seems overclocking is limited to higher frequency "B" chips meaning a cheap 1.8A would be out of the question? The last thing I want to do is go to a lot of trouble just to end up with an unreliable system. But I am also a frugal bastid and would prefer saving 25% versus getting the ASUS brand, everything else being equal.

How significant will dual channel DDR be? What else is in the pipe? Should I just play ze waiting game a bit longer?


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What about the ABIT BE7? I have had good experiences with ABIT and am familiar with their SoftMenu and it is priced betwixt the other two.


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Hmm, the more I read the more I think waiting would be best in light of the cold boot problems with the PE from various mobo co's.

 

[easystreet]

Why is a P4-A out of the question? The "missing" 2.5 is only a problem if you get a cpu that will overclock more than your memory can handle..............you can do a mod to get 2.5 if you need it. The warm boot thing is annoying at first but it's better than a cold boot problem. My changes are actually made in bios........I just have to cold boot if necessary.
Most people don't get a wild cpu overclock.............on an average P4-A overclock the 2.66 is better than 2.5 since your memory can be clocked higher.
Here is a link if you haven't seen it.

 

[2hotP3s]

I had a P4PE, and after cold boot probs, voltage probs, cpu temp probs and USB probs, I decided to exchange it for a Albatron PX845PX Pro II S and I must say it has been a great mobo since day 1. I have searched for problems on this board before buying it and havent read about the booting problems you mentioned. I ended up saving money and having a stable PC.
This mobo is more stable than the P4PE in my experience.

Call me one happy camper with the albatron.
I shouldnt be happy with this mobo, it just works as I expect it to.
-2hotP3s

 

[HdwGuy]

I have been running the Albatron 845pev pro for about a month. The mb is very stable in oc running a 1.8gh northwood at 2gh . I know that is not much of an oc but I perfer not to stress my compontents to the max like some others. I have one problem with a Philips 706 Acoustic Edge sound card (crackeling in background) that seems to be a problem with the Philips drivers through. The bios sets IRQ of pci slot 3 to (3) but in Win XP Pro System Info reports the sound card as having an IRQ of (23)! Weird! I am happy espically since you can get it for 85 at newegg. Runnig DDR PC2100 pulled from my old mb but plan to upgrade to PC2700 or faster in the future. The 3com lan works great and saves a slot to boot!

 

[Justen]

I'm running the Albatron PX845 PE Pro II S also. Cost about $130 at newegg. Very happy with it. I have a 2.53 OC'd to 2.77 , lapped Intel heatsink, reporting 46 degrees in UT2003 (is that high?) and 38 otherwise in MBM, running Corsair 3500 at about 385, 2-2-2-6. No problems at all, except 24" IDE cable to the CD drives was dumb. Easily fixed. Plenty more under the pedal!

 

[CraigRT]

Albatron rocks.. they are ALOT cheaper around here, and I use mostly Albatron for my P4 builds now at work, and they are running fantastic.

 

[DaisyCutter]

yeah, they rock all right
All,
Just discovered this thread about my favorite motherboard and had a good time reading the 6 pages. I've seen and felt these same frustrations and satisfaction too. Now get ready for a Bad, Bad Albatron
In November I bought the PX845PEV Pro because I refused to spend big$$ on a PE mobo when Granite Bay, SiS655 and Springdale were all on the horizon. I got mine from Newegg.com
and I liked it right away. Yeah, the pcb is tiny...who cares. You have to remove your Graphics card to remove RAM, ok. But it's fairly well laid out. I also picked up a P4 2.66 (SL6X I think) Costa Rica. I bought a Swiftech MCX478 w/Delta fan. I used my Corsair XMS3200C2 from my AMD rig, and bought a 520W TTGI PSU. I use a Maxtop case from Newegg.com that I got for $34 and it rocks. I run 2 x 92mm fans and 3 x 80mm fans.
My Radeon 9700 Pro is an initial release v1.0 and I use a Alpha PAL 6035 HS/F on the GPU. I also have performed the voltage modification and run it at 1.75vgpu for benchmarking. I'm currently benching 3DMark2001 at 431/361 clock speeds.
Now for the Albatron PX845PEV Pro, I immediately removed the NB HS and finely lapped it and removed the TIM. I replaced it with AS3 after cleaning it thoroughly with goof-off and alchohol. After running the board for two months I wanted more performance and looked at Voltage Mods for the PX845PEV Pro. I decided to pursue vmem mods only as I didn't want to push my cpu farther than 1.81vcore.
The mod is here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8420
I now run 3.10vdimm and am trying to improve on my un-modded bests of 3DMark2001 @ 19,048 and 20 x 182 = 3640mHz and ddr480+ (yes running 2.66x at cas2, 6,3,3)
http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/1102/3641small.JPG
ddr501 and 3760mHz is next...stay tuned.

Charlie

 

[PhoenixOfWater]

Originally posted by: Yield
Albatron rocks.. they are ALOT cheaper around here, and I use mostly Albatron for my P4 builds now at work, and they are running fantastic.

(Albatron rocks) X 2!!!
If I was going to make a new computer it would have Albatron mobo in it...

 

[Auric]

Welp, after doing some more reading it seems the i865PE or SiS655FX are worth waiting a couple or three months for. I cannot knowingly buy a chip that has problems and I like my mainboards to last. These ones with dual channel memory and P5 support seem like they will have more longevity too.

 

[Muzzy]

Well, I have the PX845PEV PRO. Been running for 2 week. I like the its stability and price. I do have problem with this thing though. It seems to take forever to load Windows, that I can live with. Here's my main problem, it won't boot without XP disc in my cd-rom. I email Albatron twice, and they answer promptly. They suggested flashing the bios which I did, but the problem still there. If I set the bios to only boot from HD, it says something like "disk failure......" It works fine if I have XP disc in the drive. Any idea?? It's annoying, very annoying. Thank.

 

[Justen]

Which port do you have your HD connected to? If its the yellow (Promise controller) one, did you press F6 when you started the XP install and load the Promise drivers?

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: PhoenixOfWater

Originally posted by: Yield
Albatron rocks.. they are ALOT cheaper around here, and I use mostly Albatron for my P4 builds now at work, and they are running fantastic.

(Albatron rocks) X 2!!!
If I was going to make a new computer it would have Albatron mobo in it...

I think I'd run them too.. for sure!!

 

[Muzzy]

Originally posted by: Justen
Which port do you have your HD connected to? If its the yellow (Promise controller) one, did you press F6 when you started the XP install and load the Promise drivers?

Hum, yes the hd is on the yellow connector and no I didn't press F6...dang it. Now, how do I go about installing the Promise controller without reinstalling the whole Windows? Thank.

 

[Justen]

I don't remember if it can be done. I would search the Technet knowledge base for changing boot device driver. Here is one I found. Also www.windowsreinstall.com is a good place to look. Try plugging it into the other Primary IDE connector too maybe? Good luck.

 

[Muzzy]

Thank Justen. Will try all of that. I'll let you know what happens, probably not until next week.