8-Way nVidia nForce 2 Motherboard Roundup

Features of the Albatron KM18G Pro

Board and Layout

KM18G Pro from Albatron is the only Micro ATX motherboard in our roundup. Measuring 244 x 244 mm, it is not the smallest Micro ATX motherboard on the market. While small the board is set out well in most regards.

As far as expansion slots onboard go you get a single AGP slot supporting 4x and 8x transfers and three PCI slots giving enough potential for most of the demanding micro systems. Connectors on the boards are, for the most part, placed well. IDE and floppy connectors have been placed behind the DIMM sockets; this is what we want to see from a full ATX board. The power connector on the other hand could have been done better. Like most nForce2 boards, it is placed between the north bridge heatsink and the I/O back ports.

Chipset and Memory

For its first nForce2 motherboard, Albatron has chosen to use the nForce2 IGP and the MCP south bridge. This gives DDR-400 Dual Channel memory support, integrated GeForce4 MX graphics - all of which are used. Like the Soltek nForce2 motherboard, Albatron colour coded the DIMM sockets to show you how to get 128bit memory working within seconds of installation.

Overclocking - Hop, Skip and Miss?

While Albatron has came out of nowhere with its push into the overclockers market, the KM18G Pro is definitely aimed more at integrators rather than overclockers.

In the BIOS under the Frequency / Voltage control menu you are given very limited overclocking options to the Soltek motherboard - simple FSB adjustments from 100MHz up to 200MHz in 1MHz increments, and CPU voltage up to 1.7v giving us nothing to write home about.