With the Albatron
KM18G Pro V2.0, small does not mean weak in terms of performance.
As all the benchmarks have shown the
KM18G Pro V2.0 does pretty well for itself and is able to keep up with the reference
Epox 8RGA+ motherboard. With a retail price of $135
CDN ($100 US) the
Albatron KM18G Pro will certainly not break the bank either.
For applications where space is scarce but a powerful computer is needed
the KM18G Pro will certainly not let you down. nVIDIA's nForce2 chipsets
are extremely fast, stable, and most importantly mature.
Because of its small size there aren't many onboard features but that's expected as there simply is
not enough PCB to fit in everything under the sun. Albatron include the
bare necessities; 5.1 audio, 10/100 LAN and a TV-Output bracket. If you do
need to expand Albatron includes an 8x AGP port and three PCI slots which should be
plenty for most typical consumers.
Because the nForce2 chipset generates quite a bit of heat it was nice to see
Albatron decided to use an active cooler on the Northbridge. Many manufacturers
have started putting heatsinks on the MCP/MCP-T Southbridge and it would have
been nice for the KM18G Pro V2.0 have one as well.
Obviously, without multiplier or voltage control the
Albatron KM18G Pro is not intended to be an overclocker, and the results here
were nothing impressive. At the heart of a home theatre or SFF PC, the Albatron
KM18G Pro brings all the nForce2 goodness down into a small package. I for one will definitely
consider the Albatron KM18G Pro when I build my next HTPC!
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