The chips behind the board

The PX865PE Pro II is based on Intel's "Springdale" 865PE chipset, which we reviewed back in May. Springdale is the mid-range chipset for Intel's new Pentium 4 "C" processors and supports an 800MHz front-side bus, AGP 8X, CSA-attached network devices, and dual-channel DDR400 memory. Unlike the high-end Canterwood 875P, Springdale lacks support for ECC memory, but that shouldn't be a concern anywhere other than high-end workstations and server environments. The price premium for ECC memory really isn't worth it for mainstream PC users, gamers, or even enthusiasts, at least not in their personal systems.

Initially, Springdale wasn't supposed to have access to the same Performance Accelerated Technology (PAT) as Intel's high-end Canterwood 875P north bridge, but things haven't quite worked out that way. Since PAT is essentially a series of more aggressive timings within the 875P's memory controller, it was really only a matter of time before prying motherboard engineers found a way to enable PAT-like timings in the Springdale 865PE memory controller. To date, a number of motherboard manufacturers—including Albatron—have released BIOS updates that give users the ability to unlock PAT-like memory timings. We'll be exploring the performance of those timings a little later in this review.

The promise of Canterwood performance with PAT-like Springdale timings has no doubt cannibalized some of Canterwood's sales. Further reducing the Canterwood's allure is the fact that numerous Springdale boards, including the PX865PE Pro II, use Intel's ICH5R south bridge chip rather than the more pedestrian ICH5. The ICH5R's tastiest feature is its Serial ATA RAID support, which I'll get to in a minute, but what else does the south bridge have to offer?

Everything but Firewire.

It's doubtful that Intel will build a south bridge chip with Firewire support anytime soon, but at least they've packed the ICH5R with eight USB 2.0/1.1 ports for high speed peripheral devices. Albatron actually only uses six of these ports on the PX865PE Pro II, though an on-board header provides access to the extra two ports for applications like front-mounted USB headers. To make up for the ICH5R's lack of Firewire ports, Albatron uses VIA's VT6307 IEEE 1394 Firewire controller. The PX865PE Pro II only uses two of the VT6307's three available Firewire ports, but that should be enough for most users.

The ICH5R south bridge actually includes a 10/100 Fast Ethernet controller, but Albatron serves up CSA-attached Gigabit Ethernet on the PX865PE Pro II instead. Gigabit Ethernet may be overkill for most users for at least the near future, but I still like the idea of having a CSA-attached Ethernet controller tied directly to the north bridge where it doesn't have to compete for north/south bridge interconnect bandwidth.

Two paths to RAID
Like every other motherboard featuring Intel's ICH5R, the PX865PE Pro II serves up two channels of Serial ATA 150 RAID 0. Apparently, Intel will be adding software RAID 1 support to the ICH5R this summer, too.

Serial ATA drives are still relatively new and until they take over the market it seems only fitting that the PX865PE Pro II should have a second "parallel" ATA RAID option. For those of us with older ATA/100 or ATA/133 drives, Albatron uses Promise's PDC20276 ATA/133 IDE RAID controller to serve up RAID 0 and 1 support. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the controller working in single-drive configurations or with optical drives, but multi-drive arrays work just fine.

24-bit/96kHz audio, sort of
Many mid-range motherboards use relatively low-end south bridge integrated audio controllers combined with RealTek's near-ubiquitous ALC650 codec to provide 5.1-channel support. With the PX865PE Pro II, Albatron takes the high road; they've equipped the board with VIA's brand spankin' new Envy24PT audio controller.

Support for 7.1 output channels highlights the Envy24PT's feature list and seems to be what many manufacturers focus on the most, but a lack of 7.1-channel PC speakers makes me wonder if anyone will actually use the extra surround output channels. A more important capability of the Envy24PT, at least in my mind, is its support for high fidelity 24-bit/96k audio, which Albatron notes in the PX865PE Pro II's product literature. Has Albatron really loaded the Px865PE Pro II with high fidelity 24-bit/96kHz integrated audio? Sort of.

Because an audio solution is only as good as its weakest link, we have to look at more than just the Envy24PT. With PX865PE Pro II, the weak link is VIA's VT1616 "Vinyl Audio" codec chip, which only supports a maximum resolution of 18 bits up to 48kHz. Any audio streams that pass through the VT1616's analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog converters will be downsampled to 18-bit/48kHz regardless of whether the Envy24PT is trying to record or play at 24-bit/96kHz. Even if downsampling isn't necessary, the VT1616 is still a relatively low-end codec to be pairing with a 24-bit/96kHz audio chip; I wouldn't expect the analog audio quality to be comparable to discrete audio cards like M-Audio's Revolution 7.1, which supports 24-bit audio from input to output.

As if teasing users with the prospect of 24-bit/96kHz via the Envy24PT only to dash their hopes with the low-end VT1616 codec weren't enough, Albatron actually uses a 24-bit/192kHz WD8728 DAC from Wolfson on the PX865PE Pro II. The Wolfson DAC handles 24-bit/96kHz audio with ease and should sound better than the VT1616, but the PX865PE Pro II's front output channels, which are used for music playback, are routed through the VT1616 and not the WD8728.

To be fair, this one really isn't Albatron's fault. Chaintech's Zenith 9CJS uses a similar Envy24PT/VT1616/WD8728 audio configuration that also routes the front audio channel through the comparatively low quality VT1616 codec rather than the WD8728 DAC. This is actually part of VIA's current reference design for Envy24PT motherboard implementations, though engineers are working on a new reference design that will route front audio outputs through the Wolfson DAC.

Despite its use of the relatively low-end and low-precision VT1616, the PX865PE Pro II's music playback quality is still quite good. To my ears, the board's 320KB/s MP3 playback sounds easily as good as Chaintech's Zenith 9CJS, which puts it a cut above other integrated motherboard audio solutions, including the nForce2. Music playback isn't as clear or crisp as what can be heard with true 24-bit audio cards like M-Audio's Revolution 7.1, which uses high-end DACs, but the Envy24PT/VT1616/WD8728 is currently as good as integrated motherboard audio gets. I can only imagine how sweet the Envy24PT would sound if its front output channels were routed through the WD8728.

Laying cable
The PX865PE Pro II's bundle is pretty sparse, but Albatron does manage to include a stack of IDE ribbons and a Serial ATA data cable and power converter.

A copy of InterVideo's WinCinema Pro rounds out the board's bundle, but that's it. Honestly, for a mid-range board like the PX865PE Pro II, I'd rather see a sparse bundle than one loaded with extras that would only increase the price of the board.