Even though the nVidia GeForce 6150 chipset was
relatively late to the market, it quickly became a fan favorite for DIY'ers and
enthusiasts wanting to build low cost AMD Sempron/Athlon64 systems (both socket
939, and in our case socket AM2). There is little doubt that the GeForce 6150 is
aimed at the entry level market, however nVIDIA did not totally strip down the
chipset like its competitors. The GeForce 6150 is very feature rich, and perhaps
more importantly the performance of the chipset is excellent.
Considering how well designed the GeForce 6150 chipset
is, it's not surprising that manufacturers decided to port it over to the
Socket AM2 platform. The Albatron KM51PV-AM2 motherboard is a prime example of
what can be achieved.
Albatron integrates everything you need from a
workstation motherboard and that includes a Gigabit network card, 5.1 channel
audio controller and of course the onboard GeForce 6150 videocard which supports
DVI and analog style monitor cables. What makes the Albatron KM51PV-AM2 unique
is its DVI video output, that means this motherboard will work just fine with
digital LCDs and potentially HDMI too. ;-)
Despite all the integrated goodies, the Albatron
KM51PV-AM2 is pretty expandable for its small size. The PCI Express x1 and two
32 bit PCI slots offer you a lot of flexibility while the PCI Express x16 slot
allows you to install a high performance videocard if so desired. As the
benchmarks indicated, the Albatron KM51PV-AM2 is no slouch in terms of 3D
performance with a good videocard either. For office applications and content
creation type software that exists in a 2D world, the onboard Geforce 6150
graphics are more than capable to the task.
The Albatron KM51PV-AM2 is able to keep up with motherboards like
the MSI K9N SLI Platinum and Foxconn C51XEM2AA in the office based tests easily,
even though those boards are in totally different classes. Memory bandwidth
seemed to be a bit on the low side in SiSoft Sandra figures, but Super Pi and
PCMark05 illustrated that the KM51PV-AM2 is extremely quick. Where the Albatron
KM51PV-AM2 really impressed us was in the 3D tests - with a stand along Geforce
7800GTX videocard of course. After installing a high performance PCI
Express x16 videocard into the PCI Express x16 slot, it was almost as if we
unlocked the Albatron KM51PV-AM2's true potential! With a GeForce 7800GTX,
the KM51PV-AM2 fought for top spot in virtually all gaming benchmarks! We have
to admit, we were not expecting a mainstream (or what some would call
value-oriented) motherboard to place so well against the likes of
the Asus M2N32SLI-DLX and Foxconn C51XEM2AA motherboards in gamies like
FarCry and Doom 3! Both of those platforms are based on nVidia's flagship
nForce 590 SLI chipset too...
The Albatron KM51PV-AM2 microATX motherboard has
not quite reached the retail markets yet so we're not sure of its price but
whatever it is, it'll be a steal. Motherboards built with the nVidia GeForce
6150 tend to go for less than $100 CDN, and we'd expect the socket AM2 Albatron
KM51PV-AM2 motherboard to be in that kind of range as well.
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