Overclocking
We were able to get our Athlon XP 1800+ running on a 140MHz bus with the KX400+ Pro, but we hit a wall after that and any CPU-intensive tasks would hard-lock the system. Testing suggests that the limiting factor here was the CPU rather than the motherboard, since overclocking the same processor on Abit's AT7 produced similar results.

Just for fun, I also threw an Athlon MP 2100+ into the system to see how fast I could get the front side bus running with an unlocked multiplier. Curiously, the KX400+ Pro's multiplier control doesn't work with Athlon MPs, and I wasn't able to change anything from the BIOS. Doh! I don't have any unlocked Athlon XP processors lying around, so I'm not sure if the same limitations will apply to those of you who have filled in the bridge gaps. As it stands, I'm not sure I can fault Albatron for not supporting multiplier manipulation for Athlon MPs on a single-processor motherboard.

Conclusions
Albatron's KX400+ Pro is available for US$99, which is a lot cheaper than the $150 you'll pay for an AT7 MAX, but a lot more expensive than other KT333-based motherboards with similar specs. Availability may be an issue, too, because I was only able to find one retailer on Pricewatch that carries the KX400+ Pro. Albatron has only been around for a few months, so I would expect availability to increase over time.

The KX400+ Pro is an impressive first offering from Albatron; it performs well, and its stability was impeccable during our testing. However, I'm not sure to whom I would recommend the board. The lack of IDE RAID and integrated networking seems to cater to picky enthusiasts who eschew integrated components, but then what's the integrated audio doing there? For mainstream users, six full PCI slots is overkill, and I would have preferred at least an integrated NIC. I'd also hesitate to put anything other than an Athlon XP or Morgan-core Duron processor on the board because of its exclusive use of the internal CPU diode to read processor temperatures.

As part of Albatron's first barrage of motherboards, the KX400+ Pro leaves me hopeful, and I'm definitely looking forward to their next wave of products. Albatron seems to have performance and stability nailed, so it's just a question of upgrading the feature set to better compete with older and more established brands. Something tells me we're going to be seeing a lot of Albatron in the future.