Albatron K8SLI: Features

Albatron designed a beautiful board with an excellent layout, considering the small form factor utilized. The board is lacking most clearance issues and was extremely easy to install in a mid-size ATX case. Albatron did an excellent job with the color coordination of the various peripheral slots and connectors.

The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup. The power plug placement favors standard ATX case design and the power cable management is very good. The floppy drive port connector is on the outside edge of the board next to the DIMM modules slots. The two nForce4 IDE port connectors are conveniently located on the front edge of the board along with the 24-pin ATX power connector.

The nForce4 SATA II ports are conveniently located down and to the left of the IDE port connectors. The SATA II ports feature the old attachment design that could create connection issues.

The nForce4 USB connectors, BIOS, and System Panel connector are located along the front edge of the board. The CMOS reset is a traditional jumper design located next to the battery.

The board comes with (2) physical PCI Express x16 slots, (3) 32bit PCI slots, and (2) PCI Express x1 slots. The layout of this design offers a good balance of slots and allows for numerous add-in peripheral cards.

In between the two x16 PCI Express slots is a PCI Express x1 slot. This configuration could potentially render this slot useless when utilizing the first x16 PCI Express slot. We did not have any issues utilizing this slot with video cards containing single slot cooling systems, but we were unable to install a network card upon installation of a NVIDIA 7800GTX 512mb in the x16 PCI Express slot. The first PCI slot next to the second PCI-E x16 slot will be rendered useless when utilizing a two-slot video card cooling solution.

Returning to the CPU socket area, we find ample room for alternative cooling solutions. We utilized the stock AMD heat sink, but also verified that several aftermarket cooling systems would fit in this area during our tests. However, the Zalman CNPS7000 series cooler covered the fan on the CK8-04 chipset, which could limit airflow to the chipset.

The CK8-04 chipset is actively cooled and located between the CPU socket and the first PCI-E x16 slot.

Albatron places the four-pin 12V auxiliary power connector at the top of the CPU socket, which creates a potential cable management issue or airflow issue if your cable is short.

The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel port, LAN (RJ-45) port, and 4 USB ports. Located below the parallel port and to the right of the PS/2 ports is the Coaxial S/PDIF port. The audio panel consists of 3 ports that can be configured for 2, 4, and 6-channel audio connections.

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium: Overclocking Albatron K8SLI: Overclocking
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  • Gary Key - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    quote:

    On the second page, in the table, all the boards have slots for DDR2 memory. It should be DDR, I think


    Corrected. I apologize for that error and the previous mention of DDR2 in the Asus memory section. My right side brain was thinking DDR but the Intel side of the brain was typing DDR2. ;->
  • JarredWalton - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    Nah, these are M2! Seriously, though, thanks - busted Gary on the copy/paste, eh? Although he did get the memory speeds right, so you can't go too hard on him. :)
  • Martrox - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    I've got a K8SLi that I picked up for $80. I'm currently running a 3000+ Venice at 2610(9x290) memory set to 166fsb(TCCD 2x512)2.5,3,3,7. Running 7800GT's SLi'ed with absolutely no problems.......Wish the voltage options were better, but it does work pretty well.
  • lopri - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    The title says, and the article begins with "Premium performance at bargain price" then it ended up praising (and recommending) ASUS board. The ASUS board doesn't belong to same ground as that of the other two boards, and the price of the board certainly proves it. In the first page how affordable NF4-SLI boards have become is mentioned ($70), then compare 2 value boards with a premium board($170)? What's the point of this review? Did ASUS ask to boost the "A8N-SLI Premium" board since they can't meet the demand of "A8N32-SLI"?

    I'm sorry but as an avid AT reader/forumer, I should say this review is totally off. It's nothing but an ASUS PR presentation. Also, it's been pointed out many times lately, but according to AT reviews, every single board on the market is a "great overclocker," "dark-horse," "keeper," "enthusiast-targeted". Everytime AT reviews a motherboard they miraculously find something to compliment and that becomes the main point of the article.

    It's almost up to the point that I no longer completely trust AT motherboard reviews. I'm sorry to say this, especially the author of this specific article, but my comment is more general towards the whole AT motherboard team. (Wesley, Jared, et. al)

    Is this going to continue? (Sigh..)
  • JarredWalton - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    Just curious, Lopri, but you did notice that the Foxconn and Albatron received a recommendation based on price, right? There are people that want all the features of something like the ASUS Premium, and they're willing to pay for it. All three motherboards here are pretty decent, though, and while I didn't write the article I'm a little confused as to how this is seen as a PR piece.

    To a certain extent, all reviews are a form of PR. Companies send us a product and we review it. We review other products sometimes, but generally speaking we review the products that we get sent. The only things that really separates these boards from each other are features and overclocking capability. In most of the benchmarks, scores are close enough that you needn't lose sleep over the difference.
  • Wesley Fink - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    We've complained plenty about the ATI SB450 southbrudge (poor USB 2.0 performance) even though we like the ATI chipset in general. We've also complained loudly about nVidia's mediocre AC'97 audio on their top boards when ATI and ULi are delivering hooks for HD Azalia in their AMD chipsets.

    Frankly, until very recently Asus had not had a really great AMD board since the Socket A days - they hadn't won a single AMD roundup in quite a while. Asus rested on really great Intel boards. Recently Asus got very serious about the AMD market and the A8N32-SLI Deluxe is a great board. So is the A8R-MVP at the price point of around $100. However, as another recent review clearly showed, the Asus 6150 is pretty pedestrian and not a great choice for a multimedia PC with all the important multimedia stuff an extra cost option.

    A lot of the real crap boards we see get pulled from the market before release and our review never sees the light of day. An example is the original Asus Premium reviewed here, which was a terrible overclocker due to the switches that replaced the paddle for SLI switching. When we complained to Asus they decided to hold off release of the board and rework the switching. The result is the board reviewed here which is a huge improvement. Oddly, it overclocks FSB very well but really does not do a great job in overclocking memory. The A8N32-SLI Deluxe is still the better board for the Enthusiast.

    The motherboard team really cares about the products, and they aren't looking for a sensational story like some other sites. We could write Inquirer-like exposes on plenty of the early BIOS' we receive, but we prefer to work with the manufacturer to try to resolve the issues on production boards. If we can't get things to work we ask lots of questions before we assume we are Gods and the board is junk. But if it's junk or just all hype in the end, we'll tell you that.

    We began testing features more in-depth because the memory controller on the AMD CPU greatly reduced the performance variations we used to see in motherboards. Also most manufacturers have gotten more serious about going after the Enthusiast who is our basic reader. That's the reason you're seeing so many really good overclockers these days. Just when we think it can't get any better another board sets some new record. However there are lots of boards out there below these standards, and we do tell you that when we review them.




  • mindless1 - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    I see nothing wrong with this concept, makes plenty of sense.

    I would not however consider this to be "Premium Performance at a Bargain Price". Back in the socket A days an AMD platform at a bargin price was $50-70 for your basic nForce2, of course a little higher when first deputed. It's very hard to make an argument that any board over $100 is bargain in this age with so many of the features chipset-integral.

    If anything, the typical trends of motherboard features and performance are still holding true but at a far worse bargain than ever before. SLI should not cost much more except for the smaller market segment.

    On a side note- Cooling the Asus board by moving the heat from the southbridge to the hottest zone on the board just to save a fan is a really bad idea. Almost seems like an afterthought for marketing purposes. Given the space that thing takes up they should've just use a giant low-profile passive 'sink if they really needed to stay fanless.

  • mindless1 - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    "... by moving the heat from the southbridge"

    I too would like an edit function. ;-)
  • Beenthere - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link

    ...Mobo for the vast majority of PC users as the article states. Most people have no need or use for SLI and have no interest in paying a premium price for SLI when they will never use it. SLI is a gimmick for gamers and nothing more. If you want it, buy it, but I highly doubt mainstream PC users will cough up $170 bucks or more for SLI when you can have Asus's A8R-MVP Crossfire Mobo for $101. from Mwave.

    The $70. you save could go toward a nice Vid card and the A8R-MVP overclocks every bit as good as the SLI boards and performs better than all of the SLI Mobos per Wesley Finks recent review.

    http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2617">http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2617

    At $101. mainstream PC users can have the best performance, overclocking and not even worry about paying a premium for Crossfire or dual graphics cards. If in the future they really desire to blow more dough on a second video card, they could, but there would not be a price penalty for purchasing the superior A8R-MVP Mobo like there is with any of the SLI rigs.
  • Some1ne - Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - link

    I agree, I feel that the article makes some unfounded and moreover highly irresponsible statements, such as "in fact, the current price structure almost ensures that your nForce4 purchase should be an SLI-capable motherboard." SLI is not worth it in any way, shape, or form from any cost/performance standpoint, unless you happen to be the enthusiast user who wants the highest possible performance available today no matter the cost. For everyone else SLI is worthess...and yet how many new users are going to go out and waste their cash on an SLI board because of statements made in the article like the one above?

    Irresponsible, and not backed up by any solid evidence. It's like the author started off with the assumption that SLI = good, so therefore any affordable SLI board is also good. It doesn't work like that though.

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