Soyo or Albatron MB?

[Cyric]

Hey guys was wondering which MB you would get between the Soyo Dragon Lite ot the Albatron 400+Pro? I'm leaning toward the Soyo Dragon Lite. It's going be for a 1600+ and at least 256 DDR RAM. Thanks

later Cyirc

[bachviet]

Why don't you give Albatron KX400+ Pro a try? I put a system together with 2000+ and the Albatron motherboard. It's working fine so far but I can't really test O/Cing capability since this system has a low end Micron PC2100 RAM. Get high end DDR (333 or 400) and O/C that thing.

[Cyric]

Hey thanks again bachviet, you helped me alot so far always answering my questions. :cool: The only real differences I see are 1)KX400+PRO has 6ch audio vs the 4ch on the Dragon Lite and 2)the Dragon lite looks cool. I really won't be using the 6ch audio. But a "computer guy" I know has the Dragon Lite and he likes it a lot. Matter of fact he recommended it to me. I just wanted some other opninons on the matter. More than likely I'll be OC'ing it with watercooling in the near future once I get the system up and running! I'll probally have more questions later. ;) Thanks again.

later Cyric

[bachviet]

From what I heard Soyo mobo doesn't O/C well. Also with Albatron KX400+, you have something called "DDR:CPU Ratio" for o/cing (2.0x or 2.5x). Here is an example using DDR333 or DDR400 memory:

Stock CPU: 12 x 133Mhz = 1.67Ghz
O/Ced CPU: 12 x 150Mhz = 1.80Ghz

Stock DDR: 133Mhz x 2.0 = 266Mhz or 133Mhz x 2.5 = 333Mhz
O/Ced DDR: 150Mhz x 2.0 = 300Mhz or 150Mhz x 2.5 = 375Mhz

So you could have your CPU running @ 133Mhz FSB but your DDR could be run @ 333Mhz (2.5x). I haven't tried this out because of the cheap DDR266.

[sho.gun]

I'm an ex-owner of a SOYO Dragon+ motherboard and from my experience, the SOYO is a nice board with a lot of features. There is this problem that is quite widespread though, for some odd reason a lot of the DRAGONS won't boot. You turn on the comp and you get no video signal. A lot of people pointed out the fact that the soyo must have a high enough RPM fan hooked up to the FAN1 plug for it to boot up, and there must be a glitch on that sensor system because at times it won't recognize.

That could be the case, but there could be other factors. My mobo would not boot after I move it from my house to go to LAN parties. There were times it won't boot when after I unplug and replug the LAN cable (dragon+ has onboard ethernet). Sometimes it just doesn't boot out of the blue. I have to wait 4-5 hours then try again for it to boot.

So coming from me, I'd say go with the Albatron get some nice DDR memory and OC it up.

[Realrammstein]

I would lean towards the Albatron. I was a Soyo Dragon+ owner. Mine died :(. It is just over 1 year old. So now I am trying new brands :).

[Cyric]

Thanks guys, looks like the Albatron KX400+PRO. Anybody else running the KX400+PRO?? In a week or two I should have my new system up and running. :D thanks Guys

later Cyric