W1zzard
07-04-2005, 12:24 PM
[pagE=Introduction & Features]
Introduction
I would like to thank Albatron (http://www.albatron.com.tw) for supplying the tested motherboard.
After our recent review of the Albatron PX925XE (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/PX925XE), my contact at Albatron asked if I wanted to test a "very very fast and affordable" nForce4 SLI motherboard. First I was a bit sceptical about very very fast, but after reviewing this board I must admit he was right.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/nf4.jpg
The Albatron K8SLI is based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI chipset. This chipset was the first platform to support PCI-Express and the dual-video card solution SLI and is now the prefered chipset when it comes to using AMD CPUs. It is available in three version "nForce4" "nForce4 Ultra" and "nForce 4 SLI".
Not only does the chipset support PCI-Express and SLI, it also has four SATA-II capable ports with RAID 0/1/0+1 support. Also integrated is a native Gigabit Ethernet controller which can be used with NVIDIA's own firewall solution and ten USB2.0 ports.
Features
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Albatron K8SLI</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Processor</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 / FX Socket 939</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>FSB</th>
<td>800 MHz / 1000+ MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Chipset</th>
<td>NVIDIA nForce4 SLI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory</th>
<td>4x 240 Pin DDR, Dual Channel DDR333/400, up to 4 GB </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>BIOS</th>
<td>AwardBios</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Slots</th>
<td>2x PCI-E x16<br />
2x PCI-E x1<br />
2x PCI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>HDD Connectivity</th>
<td>2x ATA-133<br />
4x SATA II</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Networking</th>
<td>10/100/1000 Mbps - VITESSE VSC8201RX (PHY) via NVIDIA nForce4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ports</th>
<td>8x USB 2.0 (4 on Back Panel)<br />
1x Serial, 1x Parallel</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Audio</th>
<td>6 Channel Realtek AC97 Audio, <br />
optional S/PDIF </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Form Factor</th>
<td>ATX 293 x 198mm</td>
</tr>
</table>
Specifications from Albatron
Feature
AMD Athlon™64 / Athlon™64 FX Processor
Socket 939 with FSB 800/1000+ MHz
4 DDR333/400 Memory Sockets (Dual Channel).
Built-in Realtek AC97 6 channel
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI GbE LAN
2*PCI Express x 16 ( nVIDIA SLi technology support X8+X8 ,No support for ATi Radeon X300)
2*PCI Express x 1, 2*PCI Slots
4 Serial ATAII Channels, Serial ATA RAID 0,1& 0+1
2 ATA133 Channels, up to 4 ATA 133 IDE Devices
Dual BIOS (Second BIOS by ABS Card) (Optional)
8 USB 2.0/1.1 Ports (4 ports by optional cable)
Processor
Socket939 AMD Athlon™64 / Athlon™64 FX Processor
FSB
800/1000+ MHz
Chipset
Chip : nForec4 SLI ( Single chip)
LAN Chip : VITESSE VSC8201RX (PHY)
Audio Chip : Realtek ALC655
I/O Chip: Winbond Smart I/O W83627THF
Memory
4 * DDR Sockets:
DDR 333/400 NON-ECC DDR SDRAM up to 4GB ( Dual Channel )
Expansion Slots
2 x PCI Express x 16 2*PCI Express x 16 ( nVIDIA SLi technology support X8+X8 ,No support for ATi Radeon X300)
2 x PCI Express x 1
2 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)
IDE / SATA Connectors
2 ATA133 Channels, up to 4 ATA 133 IDE devices
4 Serial ATAII Channels, up to 4 Serial ATAII Hard Drives
Onboard I/O Connectors
1 x Floppy Connector
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 header (4 ports by optional cable)
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 x 5 pin system panel header (Intel spec)
1 x 3 pin Power LED header
1 x Front audio header (Intel spec)
1 x ABS 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, 1 x RCA,1x Line-in/Line-out(Speaker Out)
Power
24-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
Dual BIOS (Second BIOS by ABS Card) (Optional)
Adjustable CPU frequency by 1 MHz increment, Adjustable Vcore,,VMemory 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 ( 293x198 mm )
[pagE=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package1.jpg)
The motherboard comes in a green military colored package. That dual barrel tank looks really powerful, I bet every army in the world would like to have some of these. Anybody remember the Apocalypse tank from Red Alert 2?
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package2.jpg)
On the backside is a picture of the motherboard where the most important features are listed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package3.jpg)
When you open the package, everything that is included pops right into your face.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package4.jpg)
Under the cables and manuals you find the motherboard in an anti-static bag, which I removed to get a nicer picture.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Motherboard
Users Manual, DIY Installation Guide
2x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 1x SATA Cable, 1x SATA Power Adapter
IO Bracket
Driver CD
[pagE=Board Layout]
Board Layout
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/board_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/board.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/back.jpg)
Click here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/board_fullsize.jpg) for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/back_fullsize.jpg).
The first you will notice when you hold this board in you hands, is that it is a good deal smaller than most other ATX motherboards.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/cpuarea_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/cpuarea.jpg)
Even though the board is small there is still plenty of space around the CPU socket area. To check if big coolers fit, we used the Thermaltake Golden Orb II, which is one of the biggest coolers, there were no space issues at all.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/io_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/io.jpg)
PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, LPT, SPDIF Out, one COM port, Audio, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB Ports. On the backside panel the most important connectors are included. The layout matches the ATX standard, except that the SPDIF Out is located where a second serial port would would be. This is perfectly fine, most users will prefer it that way.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/dimm_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/dimm.jpg)
The motherboard's memory slots have been color coded for easy dual-channel configuration. To run your memory in dual-channel mode you have to put the modules into slots of the same color. I find the placement a bit uncommon, usually it is, that you have one empty slot between the modules when you run dual-channel.
Connectors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/atx_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/atx.jpg)
While the 24-pin ATX power connector is very conveniently placed, the ATX12V connector could be placed in a better location.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/ata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/ata.jpg)
You will find two parallel ATA ports on this motherboard, for a total of four IDE devices. Both ports are provided by the nForce4 chipset and are specced to run at up to 133 MB/s.
While SATA-II is not much of a performance improvement, having four 300 MB/s capable ports is definitely a nice thing. The red ports are SATA1 and SATA3. No idea why they are a different color.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/headers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/headers.jpg)
The color scheme of the Reset/Power/LED connectors helps finding the right pins when installing the board the first time.
Slots
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/slots_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/slots.jpg)
What's missing here? Yup. The SLI switch.
Albatron has engineered a clever solution which automatically detects, if two SLI cards are installed in the PCI-E slots, and switches the PCI-E bus to the 8x/8x configuration required for SLI.
The placement of the PCI-E x1 slots is very convenient, it allows use of one slot, even when the system is running with two SLI cards.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/slibridge_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/slibridge.jpg)
In order to be able to run two NVIDIA cards in SLI mode you will have to link them together by using the included SLI bridge.
It has to be noted that this boards can not be used together with the Radeon X300, neither in dual-card configuration or with one card. Who uses these cards anyways?
[page=Layout continued]
Cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/chipset1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/chipset1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/chipset2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/chipset2.jpg)
The chipset cooler is small but its noise is not annoying. I wonder if the fan cable will be as nicely tucked away as in our sample for the standard retail boards, it definitely looks very cleaned up.
Albatron Bios Security
A very handy feature Albatron has added to this board is ABS - Albatron Bios Security. In case your BIOS goes bad during an update, you plug in a small PCB with a BIOS chip on it, then you can boot your system and fix the corrupted flash. Unlike the DualBios from Gigabyte, you can actually write to the flash chip on the ABS card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs3.jpg)
On the card you find a red jumper which allows selection of the active BIOS when the add-in card is installed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs2.jpg)
The connector is keyed, so it's impossible to plug it in wrong.
While you can run the system with the ABS card installed at all times, I suggest you make sure you can boot with the card once, then remove the card and put it away. When you are not using the card, you should remove it, just in case something goes wrong with your board and it messes up both BIOSes.
Chips
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/w83627_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/w83627.jpg)
Hardware monitoring is provided by a Winbond W83627THF.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/lan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/lan1.jpg)
For networking, Albatron chose a Vitesse CIS8201 LAN Controller to implement Gigabit Ethernet via NVIDIA's nForce4 chipset.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/alc655_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/alc655.jpg)
The Realtek ALC655 Audio Chip is responsible for sound.
[pagE=BIOS]
BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_main_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_main.jpg)
Albatron uses a Phoenix AwardBios. On the Main Page, you can change your date/time settings, the HDDs and select the Floppy type.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advanced_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advanced.jpg)
Advanced lets you change the order in which drives are tried at bootup, also it houses several suboptions for overclocking.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advbios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advbios.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_pnp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_pnp.jpg)
Advanced BIOS has settings to adjust general BIOS settings like typematic rate and additional bootup-delays.
Memory Timings
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advchipset.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_dram_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_dram.jpg)
In Advanced Chipset Features you find options to change your memory timings settings between Manual, and Auto, which uses the data from the SPD chip on your memory modules.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_cas_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_cas.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_tras_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_tras.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_trcd_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_trcd.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_trp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_trp.jpg)
You can change CAS Latency (tCL), Active-to-Precharge Delay (tRAS), Rad-to-Cas Delay (tRCD), and RAS Precharge Time (tRP), which are the standard timings for memory modules, there are many many more settings to tweak in the Athlon64 memory controller, but they are not listed here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_memclock_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_memclock.jpg)
Also on this page you will find an option to set your memory divider to change the frequency your memory is running at. There are seven different settings which should cover most situations you would like to run your memory in.
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_oc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_oc.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ht_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ht.jpg)
The Frequency/Voltage control page is home to the overclocking options in this BIOS. You can increase the CPU FSB up to 400 MHz. It is nice that the greyed fields are automatically updated when you change the values, so you won't have to do the math yourself.
The Athlon64 connects chipset and CPU via the HTT, which runs at a multiple of the FSB. Once you start overclocking your CPU a lot, you should drop that divider, so that the HTT runs in spec and does not limit your clocks, increasing HTT does not increase performance since the bus will never be saturated, even at the default speed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_fid_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_fid.jpg)
Unlike Intel CPUs, AMDs processors have a selectable multiplier (only downwards). This allows you to boost your performance even more, if your memory can handle the speeds. The available options here are fine, some boards offer half multipliers, but they are usually not needed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_pcie_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_pcie.jpg)
PCI-Express bus frequencies can be selected from 100 to 145 MHz.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ddr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ddr.jpg)
You can raise your DDR voltage up to 3.0V, which is ok for most users, but the more extreme people would sure like to see more. Usually the DDR voltage is generated from the 3.3V supply, so options up to at least 3.3V should be no problem at all.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_vchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_vchipset.jpg)
The Chipset Voltage can be set from 1.5V to 1.8V which is a good range. Everything higher than 1.8V puts your Chipset at serious risk.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_vcore_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_vcore.jpg)
CPU VCore options are rather limited. You can select from default, +5%, +10% and +15%. I prefer absolute values. On the other hand relative values are good for less experienced users, +10% is a good value for most users who don't care too much about knowing details. More (=smaller) steps would have been nice here.
Integrated Peripherals
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_peripherals_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_peripherals.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ide_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ide.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_onboard_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_onboard.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_onboardio_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_onboardio.jpg)
Integrated Peripherals has options to change, how the SATA ports appear to the system and to enable/disable USB, Audio, LAN, Floppy and configure the Serial Port.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_power.jpg)
Nothing special is to be found under Power Management, except for an option to enable AMD Cool&Quiet which reduces heat output and power consumption when the CPU is idle.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_monitoring.jpg)
The Hardware Monitoring page shows the essential temperatures, CPU fan speed and the usually monitored voltages. Options to dynamically change fan speeds based on temperature are not available.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_defaults_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_defaults.jpg)
One nice feature is, that you can copy your BIOS settings from CMOS into the BIOS ROM. The setting in ROM is not erased when a CMOS reset is performed, or when the battery is removed.
[pagE=Dr.Speed Software]
Dr.Speed Software
Albatron's overclocking and monitoring utility is called Dr.Speed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_easy_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_easy.jpg)
In "Easy" Mode you can get a quick glance at VCore, CPU Temperature, CPU Fan speed and change the FSB Frequency.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_oc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_oc.jpg)
When you click on "Advanced" you can select from several panels. The first is Overclocking.
Here you can see detailed info on the motherboard's clocks and change them. Voltage change is also possible.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_auto_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_auto.jpg)
A really nice feature is an automatic overclocking detection test. It increases the FSB step by step while some plane models are rendered in another window. While it is a good idea, it needs much more work. No way a plane rendering test can stress the CPU enough. However, this test gives a pretty good ballpark figure on what the maximum frequency is, your CPU can run at, fine tuning will be neccessary.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_monitor_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_monitor.jpg)
The hardware monitoring section of Dr.Speed is pretty standard, you can see the same sensors as in the BIOS, alarms can be configured if needed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_sysinfo_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_sysinfo.jpg)
Panel #3 shows you some general information about your system. Nothing special, but might come in handy when you need to give someone your system configuration for troubleshooting.
The next page is not available on this motherboard. On other motherboards from Albatron you can control the fan outputs here to decrease fan speed if your system is idle.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_alarms_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_alarms.jpg)
Here you can configure threshold levels for the monitoring alarms.
Overall I must say I like the visual design of Dr.Speed very much. The CPU Max. FSB detection functionality is a great new idea, which I haven't seen anywhere else yet, although it needs some work.
[page=Performance: Test systems]
Test Systems
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "K8SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Albatron K8SLI, Bios 1.07a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "LanParty NF4"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D, Bios 5.10-2 Fix</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 3.0F"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, Bios 1.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB 4-2-2-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 4500 is 15x300 FSB, Mem Ratio 1:1 (=300 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 2.4C"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 2.4C (S478; 512KB; Northwood)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT IC7, Bios 2.8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 256MB Generic PC3200 2.5-3-3-6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 XT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Antec TrueControl 550W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 3400 is 15x283 FSB, Mem Ratio 2:3 (=188 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Sandra & Everest]
SiSoftware Sandra
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/sandraint.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/sandrafloat.gif
Raw CPU performance is the same between both nForce4 boards (within margin of error).
Lavalys Everest
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/everestread.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/everestwrite.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/everestlatency.gif
Everest's memory benchmarks show that DFI has spent much more time improving memory performance for their board. When it comes to memory latency, the integrated memory controller of the Athlon64 shines.
[pagE=Performance: SuperPi]
SuperPi
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/superpi1m.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/superpi32m.gif
SuperPi uses the CPU a lot, but is also dependant on memory performance, so it is normal that the DFI board is a little faster here too. But the difference is very small.
[page=Performance: PCMark04 & 3DMark01]
PCMark 2004
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/pcmark2004.gif
PCMark is a benchmark where Intel is traditionally strong. Albatron's K8SLI is a good deal faster than the competition from DFI, especially when overclocked.
3DMark 2001
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/3dmark2001.gif
At standard clocks, the DFI board is faster, but once you start overclocking, the Albatron board keeps gaining and at maximum clocks it is about 2% faster than the LanParty NF4.
[page=Performance: CineBench & Kribibench]
CineBench
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/cinebench.gif
Both nForce4 motherboards show about the same speed, the K8SLI might be a little bit faster. Intel systems with their Hyper-threading Technology are king here.
KribiBench
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/kribibench.gif
Again, overclocking gives you more performance on the K8SLI compared to the DFI board.
[page=Performance: Comanche 4 & Quake 3]
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/comanche4.gif
Comanche 4 seems to love AMD. Here the DFI board is showing better performance.
Quake 3 Arena
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/quake3.gif
Same picture in Quake3 Arena. I was surprised that the P4 3.0F is that much faster. This is probably due to the huge memory bandwith advantage of the DDR2.
[page=Performance: Audio RMAA]
Rightmark Audio Analyzer
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/rmaa.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/loopback_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/loopback.jpg)
We used Rightmark Audio Analyzer together with a loop-back cable to analyze the quality of the on-board audio solution.
Summary
<table width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:</strong></td>
<td>+0.17, -1.00</td>
<td>Average</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Noise level, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>-73.0</td>
<td>Average</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Dynamic range, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>74.5</td>
<td>Average</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>THD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.017</td>
<td>Good</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.155</td>
<td>Average</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Stereo crosstalk, dB:</strong></td>
<td>-71.2</td>
<td>Good</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD at 10 kHz, %:</strong></td>
<td>5.795</td>
<td>Very poor</td></tr>
</table>
General performance: Average
Frequency Response
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/fr.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Frequency range</strong></td>
<td><strong>Response</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-5.18, +0.17</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-1.00, +0.17</td>
</tr>
</table>
Noise Level
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/noise.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power, dB:</td>
<td>-70.8</td>
<td>-71.2</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>-72.5</td>
<td>-73.0</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Peak level, dB FS:</td>
<td>-57.8</td>
<td>-57.9</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>0.66</td>
<td>1.18</td>
</tr>
</table>
Dynamic Range
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/dynamics.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range, dB:</td>
<td>+72.0</td>
<td>+71.7</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>+74.5</td>
<td>+75.0</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>0.66</td>
<td>1.18</td>
</tr>
</table>
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/thd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD, %:</td>
<td>0.0171</td>
<td>0.0168</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0461</td>
<td>0.0516</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0381</td>
<td>0.0391</td>
</tr>
</table>
Intermodulation distortion
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/imd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.1739</td>
<td>0.1551</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0913</td>
<td>0.0900</td>
</tr>
</table>
Stereo crosstalk
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/cross.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>L <- R</strong></td>
<td><strong>L -> R</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB:</td>
<td>-71</td>
<td>-71</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-70</td>
<td>-70</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-72</td>
<td>-72</td>
</tr>
</table>
IMD (swept tones)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/imdswept.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.1305</td>
<td>0.1306</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %:</td>
<td>2.6985</td>
<td>2.6977</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %:</td>
<td>14.5657</td>
<td>14.5562</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Audio Games]
Quake 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/q3asound.gif
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/c4sound.gif
[page=Sound Levels]
Sound Levels
In order to give a measurement of how loud this board is, we used an IEC651 Type II sound level meter on the dbA slow setting.
The distance between fan and sound level meter was 10cm. Please note that this is very little, compared to the "standard" measurements, which are made at 1m distance. We had to do this, to get proper readings with our sound level meter, because we obviously can't spend thousands of dollars on audio measuring equipment.
All tested fans were connected to an external 12V lab PSU. 12V is the maximum rated fan speed. Some motherboards/video cards use slower fan speeds and slowly ramp them up with temperatures. This is also the reason, why the X800 series seems to have such a "loud" fan. During normal usage its fan is usually running at 33% to 66%.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/soundlevel.gif
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Common sound levels </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ambulance siren</td>
<td align="right">120 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Crying baby </td>
<td align="right">110 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shout (5 feet) </td>
<td align="right">100 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Truck</td>
<td align="right">90 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Urban street</td>
<td align="right">80 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Automobile interior </td>
<td align="right">70 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Normal conversation (3 feet) </td>
<td align="right">60 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Office, classroom </td>
<td align="right">50 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Living room </td>
<td align="right">40 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bedroom at night </td>
<td align="right">30 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Whispering at (5 feet)</td>
<td align="right">20 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rustling leaves </td>
<td align="right">10 dbA </td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Overclocking]
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/maxfsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/maxfsb.jpg)
In order to find out the overclocking potential of the Albatron K8SLI, we put a Dangerden TDX waterblock on our CPU and set the multiplier to 4x with a memory divider of 2:1. This is to make sure that neither the CPU nor the memory are limiting our overclock here.
A maximum FSB of 390 MHz is just awesome, especially for me who's an Intel user.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/maxperf_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/maxperf.jpg)
For a more real-world overclocking score we left the multiplier at 9x and slowly increased the FSB. Since our memory can not run that fast, we had to drop the memory ratio to 2:3 which means the memory was running at DDR400 while the CPU ran at 2700 MHz. The board was no limiting factor here at any time, the CPU's limit is 2700 MHz, sometimes when the water is cool a few MHz more.
When it comes to overclocking I have to say that the Albatron K8SLI is a great overclocker, especially if you look at the benchmarks which show that the performance gains when overclocking are better than for example the DFI LanParty NF4 UT.
A few more overclocking options in the BIOS would definitely be nice, especially more options to tweak memory timings, of which the Athlon64 has a lot.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
With a street price of about $140 this board is one of the cheapest ways to get running on SLI, especially if you don't need features like IEEE1394 or a second LAN port.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Very good performance
Competitive price
Good overclocking
SLI is auto-switched
Dual Bios via ABS
Small footprint
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Needs more overclocking options in BIOS
On-board audio could be better
No IEEE1394
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.7</th>
<td>The Albatron K8SLI is a board designed with cost in mind, but performance has not been left out. All benchmarks show that it can compete with other more expensive boards.<br />
If you want to overclock you can definitely buy this motherboard, it should have enough headroom for any CPU or memory you will throw at it. Hardcore overclockers might want more BIOS settings to tweak their board with, but for everybody else there are enough options.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
I would like to thank Albatron (http://www.albatron.com.tw) for supplying the tested motherboard.
After our recent review of the Albatron PX925XE (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/PX925XE), my contact at Albatron asked if I wanted to test a "very very fast and affordable" nForce4 SLI motherboard. First I was a bit sceptical about very very fast, but after reviewing this board I must admit he was right.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/nf4.jpg
The Albatron K8SLI is based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI chipset. This chipset was the first platform to support PCI-Express and the dual-video card solution SLI and is now the prefered chipset when it comes to using AMD CPUs. It is available in three version "nForce4" "nForce4 Ultra" and "nForce 4 SLI".
Not only does the chipset support PCI-Express and SLI, it also has four SATA-II capable ports with RAID 0/1/0+1 support. Also integrated is a native Gigabit Ethernet controller which can be used with NVIDIA's own firewall solution and ten USB2.0 ports.
Features
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Albatron K8SLI</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Processor</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 / FX Socket 939</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>FSB</th>
<td>800 MHz / 1000+ MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Chipset</th>
<td>NVIDIA nForce4 SLI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory</th>
<td>4x 240 Pin DDR, Dual Channel DDR333/400, up to 4 GB </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>BIOS</th>
<td>AwardBios</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Slots</th>
<td>2x PCI-E x16<br />
2x PCI-E x1<br />
2x PCI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>HDD Connectivity</th>
<td>2x ATA-133<br />
4x SATA II</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Networking</th>
<td>10/100/1000 Mbps - VITESSE VSC8201RX (PHY) via NVIDIA nForce4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ports</th>
<td>8x USB 2.0 (4 on Back Panel)<br />
1x Serial, 1x Parallel</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Audio</th>
<td>6 Channel Realtek AC97 Audio, <br />
optional S/PDIF </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Form Factor</th>
<td>ATX 293 x 198mm</td>
</tr>
</table>
Specifications from Albatron
Feature
AMD Athlon™64 / Athlon™64 FX Processor
Socket 939 with FSB 800/1000+ MHz
4 DDR333/400 Memory Sockets (Dual Channel).
Built-in Realtek AC97 6 channel
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI GbE LAN
2*PCI Express x 16 ( nVIDIA SLi technology support X8+X8 ,No support for ATi Radeon X300)
2*PCI Express x 1, 2*PCI Slots
4 Serial ATAII Channels, Serial ATA RAID 0,1& 0+1
2 ATA133 Channels, up to 4 ATA 133 IDE Devices
Dual BIOS (Second BIOS by ABS Card) (Optional)
8 USB 2.0/1.1 Ports (4 ports by optional cable)
Processor
Socket939 AMD Athlon™64 / Athlon™64 FX Processor
FSB
800/1000+ MHz
Chipset
Chip : nForec4 SLI ( Single chip)
LAN Chip : VITESSE VSC8201RX (PHY)
Audio Chip : Realtek ALC655
I/O Chip: Winbond Smart I/O W83627THF
Memory
4 * DDR Sockets:
DDR 333/400 NON-ECC DDR SDRAM up to 4GB ( Dual Channel )
Expansion Slots
2 x PCI Express x 16 2*PCI Express x 16 ( nVIDIA SLi technology support X8+X8 ,No support for ATi Radeon X300)
2 x PCI Express x 1
2 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)
IDE / SATA Connectors
2 ATA133 Channels, up to 4 ATA 133 IDE devices
4 Serial ATAII Channels, up to 4 Serial ATAII Hard Drives
Onboard I/O Connectors
1 x Floppy Connector
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 header (4 ports by optional cable)
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 x 5 pin system panel header (Intel spec)
1 x 3 pin Power LED header
1 x Front audio header (Intel spec)
1 x ABS 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, 1 x RCA,1x Line-in/Line-out(Speaker Out)
Power
24-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
Dual BIOS (Second BIOS by ABS Card) (Optional)
Adjustable CPU frequency by 1 MHz increment, Adjustable Vcore,,VMemory 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 ( 293x198 mm )
[pagE=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package1.jpg)
The motherboard comes in a green military colored package. That dual barrel tank looks really powerful, I bet every army in the world would like to have some of these. Anybody remember the Apocalypse tank from Red Alert 2?
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package2.jpg)
On the backside is a picture of the motherboard where the most important features are listed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package3.jpg)
When you open the package, everything that is included pops right into your face.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/package4.jpg)
Under the cables and manuals you find the motherboard in an anti-static bag, which I removed to get a nicer picture.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Motherboard
Users Manual, DIY Installation Guide
2x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 1x SATA Cable, 1x SATA Power Adapter
IO Bracket
Driver CD
[pagE=Board Layout]
Board Layout
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/board_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/board.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/back.jpg)
Click here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/board_fullsize.jpg) for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/back_fullsize.jpg).
The first you will notice when you hold this board in you hands, is that it is a good deal smaller than most other ATX motherboards.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/cpuarea_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/cpuarea.jpg)
Even though the board is small there is still plenty of space around the CPU socket area. To check if big coolers fit, we used the Thermaltake Golden Orb II, which is one of the biggest coolers, there were no space issues at all.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/io_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/io.jpg)
PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, LPT, SPDIF Out, one COM port, Audio, Gigabit Ethernet, four USB Ports. On the backside panel the most important connectors are included. The layout matches the ATX standard, except that the SPDIF Out is located where a second serial port would would be. This is perfectly fine, most users will prefer it that way.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/dimm_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/dimm.jpg)
The motherboard's memory slots have been color coded for easy dual-channel configuration. To run your memory in dual-channel mode you have to put the modules into slots of the same color. I find the placement a bit uncommon, usually it is, that you have one empty slot between the modules when you run dual-channel.
Connectors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/atx_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/atx.jpg)
While the 24-pin ATX power connector is very conveniently placed, the ATX12V connector could be placed in a better location.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/ata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/ata.jpg)
You will find two parallel ATA ports on this motherboard, for a total of four IDE devices. Both ports are provided by the nForce4 chipset and are specced to run at up to 133 MB/s.
While SATA-II is not much of a performance improvement, having four 300 MB/s capable ports is definitely a nice thing. The red ports are SATA1 and SATA3. No idea why they are a different color.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/headers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/headers.jpg)
The color scheme of the Reset/Power/LED connectors helps finding the right pins when installing the board the first time.
Slots
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/slots_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/slots.jpg)
What's missing here? Yup. The SLI switch.
Albatron has engineered a clever solution which automatically detects, if two SLI cards are installed in the PCI-E slots, and switches the PCI-E bus to the 8x/8x configuration required for SLI.
The placement of the PCI-E x1 slots is very convenient, it allows use of one slot, even when the system is running with two SLI cards.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/slibridge_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/slibridge.jpg)
In order to be able to run two NVIDIA cards in SLI mode you will have to link them together by using the included SLI bridge.
It has to be noted that this boards can not be used together with the Radeon X300, neither in dual-card configuration or with one card. Who uses these cards anyways?
[page=Layout continued]
Cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/chipset1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/chipset1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/chipset2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/chipset2.jpg)
The chipset cooler is small but its noise is not annoying. I wonder if the fan cable will be as nicely tucked away as in our sample for the standard retail boards, it definitely looks very cleaned up.
Albatron Bios Security
A very handy feature Albatron has added to this board is ABS - Albatron Bios Security. In case your BIOS goes bad during an update, you plug in a small PCB with a BIOS chip on it, then you can boot your system and fix the corrupted flash. Unlike the DualBios from Gigabyte, you can actually write to the flash chip on the ABS card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs3.jpg)
On the card you find a red jumper which allows selection of the active BIOS when the add-in card is installed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/abs2.jpg)
The connector is keyed, so it's impossible to plug it in wrong.
While you can run the system with the ABS card installed at all times, I suggest you make sure you can boot with the card once, then remove the card and put it away. When you are not using the card, you should remove it, just in case something goes wrong with your board and it messes up both BIOSes.
Chips
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/w83627_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/w83627.jpg)
Hardware monitoring is provided by a Winbond W83627THF.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/lan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/lan1.jpg)
For networking, Albatron chose a Vitesse CIS8201 LAN Controller to implement Gigabit Ethernet via NVIDIA's nForce4 chipset.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/alc655_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/alc655.jpg)
The Realtek ALC655 Audio Chip is responsible for sound.
[pagE=BIOS]
BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_main_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_main.jpg)
Albatron uses a Phoenix AwardBios. On the Main Page, you can change your date/time settings, the HDDs and select the Floppy type.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advanced_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advanced.jpg)
Advanced lets you change the order in which drives are tried at bootup, also it houses several suboptions for overclocking.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advbios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advbios.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_pnp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_pnp.jpg)
Advanced BIOS has settings to adjust general BIOS settings like typematic rate and additional bootup-delays.
Memory Timings
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_advchipset.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_dram_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_dram.jpg)
In Advanced Chipset Features you find options to change your memory timings settings between Manual, and Auto, which uses the data from the SPD chip on your memory modules.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_cas_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_cas.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_tras_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_tras.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_trcd_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_trcd.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_trp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_trp.jpg)
You can change CAS Latency (tCL), Active-to-Precharge Delay (tRAS), Rad-to-Cas Delay (tRCD), and RAS Precharge Time (tRP), which are the standard timings for memory modules, there are many many more settings to tweak in the Athlon64 memory controller, but they are not listed here.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_memclock_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_memclock.jpg)
Also on this page you will find an option to set your memory divider to change the frequency your memory is running at. There are seven different settings which should cover most situations you would like to run your memory in.
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_oc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_oc.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ht_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ht.jpg)
The Frequency/Voltage control page is home to the overclocking options in this BIOS. You can increase the CPU FSB up to 400 MHz. It is nice that the greyed fields are automatically updated when you change the values, so you won't have to do the math yourself.
The Athlon64 connects chipset and CPU via the HTT, which runs at a multiple of the FSB. Once you start overclocking your CPU a lot, you should drop that divider, so that the HTT runs in spec and does not limit your clocks, increasing HTT does not increase performance since the bus will never be saturated, even at the default speed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_fid_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_fid.jpg)
Unlike Intel CPUs, AMDs processors have a selectable multiplier (only downwards). This allows you to boost your performance even more, if your memory can handle the speeds. The available options here are fine, some boards offer half multipliers, but they are usually not needed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_pcie_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_pcie.jpg)
PCI-Express bus frequencies can be selected from 100 to 145 MHz.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ddr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ddr.jpg)
You can raise your DDR voltage up to 3.0V, which is ok for most users, but the more extreme people would sure like to see more. Usually the DDR voltage is generated from the 3.3V supply, so options up to at least 3.3V should be no problem at all.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_vchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_vchipset.jpg)
The Chipset Voltage can be set from 1.5V to 1.8V which is a good range. Everything higher than 1.8V puts your Chipset at serious risk.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_vcore_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_vcore.jpg)
CPU VCore options are rather limited. You can select from default, +5%, +10% and +15%. I prefer absolute values. On the other hand relative values are good for less experienced users, +10% is a good value for most users who don't care too much about knowing details. More (=smaller) steps would have been nice here.
Integrated Peripherals
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_peripherals_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_peripherals.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ide_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_ide.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_onboard_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_onboard.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_onboardio_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_onboardio.jpg)
Integrated Peripherals has options to change, how the SATA ports appear to the system and to enable/disable USB, Audio, LAN, Floppy and configure the Serial Port.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_power.jpg)
Nothing special is to be found under Power Management, except for an option to enable AMD Cool&Quiet which reduces heat output and power consumption when the CPU is idle.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_monitoring.jpg)
The Hardware Monitoring page shows the essential temperatures, CPU fan speed and the usually monitored voltages. Options to dynamically change fan speeds based on temperature are not available.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_defaults_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/b_defaults.jpg)
One nice feature is, that you can copy your BIOS settings from CMOS into the BIOS ROM. The setting in ROM is not erased when a CMOS reset is performed, or when the battery is removed.
[pagE=Dr.Speed Software]
Dr.Speed Software
Albatron's overclocking and monitoring utility is called Dr.Speed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_easy_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_easy.jpg)
In "Easy" Mode you can get a quick glance at VCore, CPU Temperature, CPU Fan speed and change the FSB Frequency.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_oc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_oc.jpg)
When you click on "Advanced" you can select from several panels. The first is Overclocking.
Here you can see detailed info on the motherboard's clocks and change them. Voltage change is also possible.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_auto_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_auto.jpg)
A really nice feature is an automatic overclocking detection test. It increases the FSB step by step while some plane models are rendered in another window. While it is a good idea, it needs much more work. No way a plane rendering test can stress the CPU enough. However, this test gives a pretty good ballpark figure on what the maximum frequency is, your CPU can run at, fine tuning will be neccessary.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_monitor_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_monitor.jpg)
The hardware monitoring section of Dr.Speed is pretty standard, you can see the same sensors as in the BIOS, alarms can be configured if needed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_sysinfo_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_sysinfo.jpg)
Panel #3 shows you some general information about your system. Nothing special, but might come in handy when you need to give someone your system configuration for troubleshooting.
The next page is not available on this motherboard. On other motherboards from Albatron you can control the fan outputs here to decrease fan speed if your system is idle.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_alarms_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/drspeed_alarms.jpg)
Here you can configure threshold levels for the monitoring alarms.
Overall I must say I like the visual design of Dr.Speed very much. The CPU Max. FSB detection functionality is a great new idea, which I haven't seen anywhere else yet, although it needs some work.
[page=Performance: Test systems]
Test Systems
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "K8SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Albatron K8SLI, Bios 1.07a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "LanParty NF4"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D, Bios 5.10-2 Fix</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC is 300 FSB x 9 = 2700 MHz, Mem ratio 2:3 -> 200 MHz</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 3.0F"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, Bios 1.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB 4-2-2-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 4500 is 15x300 FSB, Mem Ratio 1:1 (=300 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 2.4C"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 2.4C (S478; 512KB; Northwood)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT IC7, Bios 2.8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 256MB Generic PC3200 2.5-3-3-6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 XT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Antec TrueControl 550W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 3400 is 15x283 FSB, Mem Ratio 2:3 (=188 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Sandra & Everest]
SiSoftware Sandra
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/sandraint.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/sandrafloat.gif
Raw CPU performance is the same between both nForce4 boards (within margin of error).
Lavalys Everest
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/everestread.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/everestwrite.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/everestlatency.gif
Everest's memory benchmarks show that DFI has spent much more time improving memory performance for their board. When it comes to memory latency, the integrated memory controller of the Athlon64 shines.
[pagE=Performance: SuperPi]
SuperPi
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/superpi1m.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/superpi32m.gif
SuperPi uses the CPU a lot, but is also dependant on memory performance, so it is normal that the DFI board is a little faster here too. But the difference is very small.
[page=Performance: PCMark04 & 3DMark01]
PCMark 2004
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/pcmark2004.gif
PCMark is a benchmark where Intel is traditionally strong. Albatron's K8SLI is a good deal faster than the competition from DFI, especially when overclocked.
3DMark 2001
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/3dmark2001.gif
At standard clocks, the DFI board is faster, but once you start overclocking, the Albatron board keeps gaining and at maximum clocks it is about 2% faster than the LanParty NF4.
[page=Performance: CineBench & Kribibench]
CineBench
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/cinebench.gif
Both nForce4 motherboards show about the same speed, the K8SLI might be a little bit faster. Intel systems with their Hyper-threading Technology are king here.
KribiBench
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/kribibench.gif
Again, overclocking gives you more performance on the K8SLI compared to the DFI board.
[page=Performance: Comanche 4 & Quake 3]
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/comanche4.gif
Comanche 4 seems to love AMD. Here the DFI board is showing better performance.
Quake 3 Arena
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/quake3.gif
Same picture in Quake3 Arena. I was surprised that the P4 3.0F is that much faster. This is probably due to the huge memory bandwith advantage of the DDR2.
[page=Performance: Audio RMAA]
Rightmark Audio Analyzer
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/rmaa.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/loopback_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/loopback.jpg)
We used Rightmark Audio Analyzer together with a loop-back cable to analyze the quality of the on-board audio solution.
Summary
<table width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:</strong></td>
<td>+0.17, -1.00</td>
<td>Average</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Noise level, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>-73.0</td>
<td>Average</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Dynamic range, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>74.5</td>
<td>Average</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>THD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.017</td>
<td>Good</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.155</td>
<td>Average</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Stereo crosstalk, dB:</strong></td>
<td>-71.2</td>
<td>Good</td></tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD at 10 kHz, %:</strong></td>
<td>5.795</td>
<td>Very poor</td></tr>
</table>
General performance: Average
Frequency Response
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/fr.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Frequency range</strong></td>
<td><strong>Response</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-5.18, +0.17</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-1.00, +0.17</td>
</tr>
</table>
Noise Level
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/noise.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power, dB:</td>
<td>-70.8</td>
<td>-71.2</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>-72.5</td>
<td>-73.0</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Peak level, dB FS:</td>
<td>-57.8</td>
<td>-57.9</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>0.66</td>
<td>1.18</td>
</tr>
</table>
Dynamic Range
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/dynamics.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range, dB:</td>
<td>+72.0</td>
<td>+71.7</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>+74.5</td>
<td>+75.0</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>0.66</td>
<td>1.18</td>
</tr>
</table>
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/thd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD, %:</td>
<td>0.0171</td>
<td>0.0168</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0461</td>
<td>0.0516</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0381</td>
<td>0.0391</td>
</tr>
</table>
Intermodulation distortion
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/imd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.1739</td>
<td>0.1551</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0913</td>
<td>0.0900</td>
</tr>
</table>
Stereo crosstalk
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/cross.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>L <- R</strong></td>
<td><strong>L -> R</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB:</td>
<td>-71</td>
<td>-71</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-70</td>
<td>-70</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-72</td>
<td>-72</td>
</tr>
</table>
IMD (swept tones)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/imdswept.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.1305</td>
<td>0.1306</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %:</td>
<td>2.6985</td>
<td>2.6977</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %:</td>
<td>14.5657</td>
<td>14.5562</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Audio Games]
Quake 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/q3asound.gif
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/c4sound.gif
[page=Sound Levels]
Sound Levels
In order to give a measurement of how loud this board is, we used an IEC651 Type II sound level meter on the dbA slow setting.
The distance between fan and sound level meter was 10cm. Please note that this is very little, compared to the "standard" measurements, which are made at 1m distance. We had to do this, to get proper readings with our sound level meter, because we obviously can't spend thousands of dollars on audio measuring equipment.
All tested fans were connected to an external 12V lab PSU. 12V is the maximum rated fan speed. Some motherboards/video cards use slower fan speeds and slowly ramp them up with temperatures. This is also the reason, why the X800 series seems to have such a "loud" fan. During normal usage its fan is usually running at 33% to 66%.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/soundlevel.gif
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Common sound levels </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ambulance siren</td>
<td align="right">120 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Crying baby </td>
<td align="right">110 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shout (5 feet) </td>
<td align="right">100 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Truck</td>
<td align="right">90 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Urban street</td>
<td align="right">80 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Automobile interior </td>
<td align="right">70 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Normal conversation (3 feet) </td>
<td align="right">60 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Office, classroom </td>
<td align="right">50 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Living room </td>
<td align="right">40 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bedroom at night </td>
<td align="right">30 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Whispering at (5 feet)</td>
<td align="right">20 dbA </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Rustling leaves </td>
<td align="right">10 dbA </td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Overclocking]
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/maxfsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/maxfsb.jpg)
In order to find out the overclocking potential of the Albatron K8SLI, we put a Dangerden TDX waterblock on our CPU and set the multiplier to 4x with a memory divider of 2:1. This is to make sure that neither the CPU nor the memory are limiting our overclock here.
A maximum FSB of 390 MHz is just awesome, especially for me who's an Intel user.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/maxperf_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Albatron/K8SLI/images/maxperf.jpg)
For a more real-world overclocking score we left the multiplier at 9x and slowly increased the FSB. Since our memory can not run that fast, we had to drop the memory ratio to 2:3 which means the memory was running at DDR400 while the CPU ran at 2700 MHz. The board was no limiting factor here at any time, the CPU's limit is 2700 MHz, sometimes when the water is cool a few MHz more.
When it comes to overclocking I have to say that the Albatron K8SLI is a great overclocker, especially if you look at the benchmarks which show that the performance gains when overclocking are better than for example the DFI LanParty NF4 UT.
A few more overclocking options in the BIOS would definitely be nice, especially more options to tweak memory timings, of which the Athlon64 has a lot.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
With a street price of about $140 this board is one of the cheapest ways to get running on SLI, especially if you don't need features like IEEE1394 or a second LAN port.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Very good performance
Competitive price
Good overclocking
SLI is auto-switched
Dual Bios via ABS
Small footprint
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Needs more overclocking options in BIOS
On-board audio could be better
No IEEE1394
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.7</th>
<td>The Albatron K8SLI is a board designed with cost in mind, but performance has not been left out. All benchmarks show that it can compete with other more expensive boards.<br />
If you want to overclock you can definitely buy this motherboard, it should have enough headroom for any CPU or memory you will throw at it. Hardcore overclockers might want more BIOS settings to tweak their board with, but for everybody else there are enough options.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td></td></tr>
</table>