Ak32l ?

[Len]

I'm looking for a budget board which accepts both SDRAM & DDR. Seems like the ECS K7S5a and Shuttle AK32 are the two popular choices. The AK32 seems to have a lot more overclocking features but uses the original KT266 not KT266A which worries me a bit.

But looking at pricewatch all I can find is the AK32L. What's the 'L' mean? I'm worried it might be a 'lite' version or something. Can't get to shuttle's web site today.

Would you recommend the AK32 for my needs or another board?

 

[The Shaman]

The latest revisions of the AK32 are the AK32 L's. These are not 'lite' boards at all, so no worries there. Also, you will not find the 'L' printed on the board itself. Instead you will find AK32 v2.0 or higher.

For the purposes you've stated, you should be fine w/ this board. I haven't dealt w/ the ECS equivalent at all, so I can't comment on that one.

Also, I can't stress enough how important it is to check out the vendor you plan to buy from. Don't let the lowest price on PriceWatch blind you. Most times it's worth spending an extra $5-10 getting it from a reliable vendor.

 

[Len]

Were they any major problems with the original KT266 chipset? I just can't remember why VIA created the revised KT266A. I just don't want to get stuck with something that has a lot of compatibility problems.

 

[Len]

| Deleted duplicate post

 

[Len]

Does anyone actually own one of these Shuttle AK32L boards? Seems like everyone who want a budget board buys the ECS K7S5A.

 

[OCed_5150]

I have an AK32L

I got it on 4-18-02...

Im waiting for a XP 1900+ to arrive before I install it.

Funny thing is... this is a replacement for an ECS K7VZA Rev 3 board that I had which gave me nothing but problems.

I'll post more about the ak32L at a later date.

 

[Len]

I'd appreciate the info on your experience. Please post in this thread if you remember. I'm not buying my new motherboard until mid-May so I still have time to decide.

 

[OCed_5150]

Friday (4-26) is when I get the XP 1900+. SO I guess that is when I'll be installing it.

Using a Volcano 6cu+ I got some 4 weeks ago. Still in the box I might add. THEN the fun begins

Run the usual battery of benchmark tests... Quake 3, 3D Mark, PC Mark, etc...

Burn in for the next 24-48 hours...

Then Overclock.

Some notes I wish to make about the board...

LOTS of room around the CPU socket, due to orientation, for WIDE heatsinks like the Volcano I have.

The Northbridge heatsink LOOKS like it can be removed, I haven't tried it yet, BUT... there IS two holes to put in a push pin type unit.

Board marking of AK32V2.1, so it's a version 2.X.

You MIGHT want to try www.amdboard.com for reviews of other boards. The site DOES have some reviews of the older version of the AK32.

Hope this helps a little more.

 

[Len]

You MIGHT want to try www.amdboard.com for reviews of other boards. The site DOES have some reviews of the older version of the AK32.

Hope this helps a little more.

Helps a lot thanks. About amdboard.com, did you find the review for the AK32 because I couldn't. I searched on AK32 and got nothing ????

 

[OCed_5150]

Sorry, my mistake. It wasn't on amdboards. But Ive found MORE reviews than I did before... these ALL have reviews of the AK32

http://www.xbitlabs.com/mainboards/kt266/

http://active-hardware.com/english/reviews/mainboard/ak32.htm

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/kt266preview/page2a.asp

http://www2.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q3/010808/

If I find anymore... I'll keep putting them up.

I do want to point out this from what was said at Firing Squad :


In all fairness to the KT266 chipset, part of the performance problem can likely be traced back to the motherboard. In our tests, we noticed enabling 2-Way memory interleaving boosted our integer bandwidth by 10% and floating point bandwidth by 9%. However, enabling 4-Way interleaving on the AV32 only added an additional percentage point (1%) in integer bandwidth performance, and 2% in FPU/Memory bandwidth performance. Since the other chipsets were also running with 4-Way enabled, the AV32's poor 4-Way performance really hurt it. Fortunately, this can be solved with future BIOS updates and is in no way indicative of how the chipset will perform in the future

I think this is the reason why Shuttle did the rev change.

 

[Len]

After reading the reviews I don't see anything really wrong with the AK32. Seems like a perfectly fine board. If it only had the KT266A performance would be a lot better. It just would be nice if more people owned it. Reviews are never good at uncovering all those quirks that only end users will discover. Right now I feel like you and I are the only two people on the planet who will own this board

 

[OCed_5150]

Well... we MIGHT be the only two on these forums anyway.

Could also be the first to do a REVIEW of it too!



I just got the CPU about 15 minutes ago.

OEM AMD XP 1900+

AK1900DMT3C
AGNGA 0151XPCW
Y7440230340

Blue Core

L1 bridges are cut in a straight line... I remember reading about some problems with that.

Which reminds me... I need to found < Um... "FIND"... great spelling on my part > out which of the numbers has the date code.

Lando " HERE GOES NOTHING! "

 

[Len]

Sounds nice. What's the deal on CPU codes these days? Remember back in the AXIA days, that's what everyone wanted. Are there preferred codes on the XP's also?

 

[OCed_5150]

I dont think there has been a preferred code for the XP to note. Nothing I read about anyway.

AND yes have INSTALLED the NEW stuff

Benchmarks

Sandra 2002 Memory = 1027 / 1006
Commanche 4 Demo @ 640 X 480 X 32 no audio = 25.33 FPS
Quake 3 Demo 001 @ 640 X 480 Normal = 153 FPS
3D Mark 2001 @ 1024 X 768 X 32 = 3615

PC Mark 2002
CPU = 4586
MEM = 2438
HDD = 815

I havent quite optimized the system yet... still working on it.




The system didn't start up the first time... talk about breaking a sweat. But it was the usual VIDEO CARD NOT IN THE SLOT CORRECTLY type nonsense. It ALWAYS happens to me. Gives me a heartattack everytime I do it too.

And the FAN on the Volcano wouldnt fit and had to be taken off. Well.. you have to see the AIR INTAKE mod I did to the Skyhawk. These cases have a internal Ventduct the attaches to the back of the case. I placed my Delta Black Label 80 MM 80 CFM fan onto it. The entire thing sucks air in from the back and blows the air RIGHT onto the heatsink. This is the BEST aircooled setup around or I could think of.

EDIT... I erased the original scores by accident... SORRY... think I was asleep at the time. These are new scores of the system Overclocked.


3D Mark 2001 SE
http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=3386505

PC Mark 2002
http://service.madonion.com/compare?pcm=255391

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

I've got the ver.2 as well. have not OCed or benchmarked as yet. Have not had a single problem. Install went without any noticable event. I have not had time to play with it yet. It's my first Shuttle product. So far so good!

 

[Len]

I installed my AK32L V2.1 last night. So far I've only booted into the BIOS but I've noticed one problem ... during hardware boot when it say 'Detecting IDE drives ...' it waits for about 15 secs before proceeding. It appears to then properly detect the Western Digital harddrive (single drive on the primary IDE channel) and CDRW (single drive on secondary IDE) I have installed. It's just that the time it takes to do it seems unusually long compared to the other boards I've used. My other boards take under one second. I'm wondering if I might have my drives jumpered incorrectly. I think I have them both jumpered as 'master'. Maybe they need to be 'single' - I guess I'll try that next.

Is anyone else seeing this delay?

 

[OCed_5150]

Do you have a Floppy Disk drive not connected? Turn off the onboard FDD controller in BIOS then see what happens.

I've booted so many times without the FDD that it sounds like thats the problem with the delay. It's looking for it.

err... the POWER connected to the drives? Or a dead FDD could also cause that.

I just noticed something... I GOT A YELLOW STAR UNDER MY NAME... IM SO HAPPY HAPPY, JOY JOY!! LOL!

 

[Len]

Congrats on your first star!

Power is connected to all drives. Floppy drive is connected. In fact I booted from it once using a Partition Magic boot disk. But instead of the PM program starting up it gave me an error about "the specified disk cannot be found". I haven't had the chance to verify yet but I think the hard drive is jumpered wrong.