Shuttle AK32A any good?

[bgatot]

I've been exploring the possibility of cheaply upgrading my computer this Christmas (sorry, "Holiday Season" ) I'm planning to get an Athlon T-bred 1800+ to replace my Celeron 566@850 on Abit BH6 (is this considered a 'classic' by now? ) Of course I need a new motherboard, but I want to use my current 512mb of PC133 RAM to make it affordable. I've been considering ECS K7S5A but was turned off by the myriad of horror stories. The Shuttle AK32A is just a little bit more and also accepts PC133 RAM. I can't find any review for it though. I even do a search on this board and found only one topic asking for the difference between AK32L and AK32A (which is very useful anyway). Is this board any good? Would it be better than the K7S5A? Pros/Cons? Any better alternative/suggestions?

 

[MJ99]

Also very interested in reviews the Shuttle AK32A.

 

[eGAK]

Have you looked a this review using the AK32A? Linky

Might ask Dave Barron what he thinks of the board.

 

[bgatot]

I ran into that review too. Naturally it didn't say much about the AK32A itself, though!

How about that Shuttle AK32L you have? The local Micro Center have it for $56. Probably even cheaper online. But I don't know if it'll even take Thoroughbred Athlon? Being based on older chipsets and all. And how big is the performance difference between that and the AK32A...

I guess very few people have the Shuttle AK32A...

 

[eGAK]

I?m using an AXP 1600+ AGOIA, no problem, 4/12/2002 BIOS (supports the AXP2200+). Crucial PC133 CAS2 memory. Memory doesn?t overclock (140?s) as well as my Iwill (150?s), I think due to the lack of any vdimm adjustment

Performs like a KT266 chipset. The KT266A chipset offers better performance. If the AK32A had been available at the time of my purchase I would have got it instead of the L, if the price were competitive. Latest AK32A Bios supports the AXP 2400+.

Might download & look at the AK32A manual from the Shuttle Group site .

 

[bgatot]

Thanks eGAK!

Man, this board must be really unpopular! :Q

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: bgatot
Thanks eGAK!

Man, this board must be really unpopular! :Q

Actually the board just became available in the past few weeks, which is why no one has any opinions yet.

The AK32A is very similar to the AK32L so you can probably read up on reviews on the AK32L to get an idea of what's going on.

 

[Regalk]

Why not take a look at a better board manufacturer MSI K7T turbo2 - heard great things about it and it s red. I used the LE version of this board and was very happy with it until I sold it.

 

[bgatot]

Oh, they are new... I didn't know that. No wonder there's no manual specifically for it to download at Shuttle's website.

Hmmm, the MSI K7T Turbo2 uses KT133 chipset, whereas the AK32A uses KT266A. Will that makes big difference? Also MSI's site does not list T-bred at all with this motherboard, only Athlon Thunderbird and unspecified XP. Does any motherboard that accepts "Athlon XP" accepts Thoroughbred XP as well?

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Regalk
Why not take a look at a better board manufacturer MSI K7T turbo2 - heard great things about it and it s red. I used the LE version of this board and was very happy with it until I sold it.

Not such a great idea to get a KT133A board in this day and age. There used to be big USB problems with those boards, I don't know if they were ever resolved. Also, KT133A boards generally don't support XP cpus out of the box, you have to flash it. Of course, since it doesn't support current CPUs out of the box, it leaves you with a catch 22 situation if all the parts are new.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: bgatot

Also MSI's site does not list T-bred at all with this motherboard, only Athlon Thunderbird and unspecified XP. Does any motherboard that accepts "Athlon XP" accepts Thoroughbred XP as well?

I think the bios has to specifically support the tbred. I've read at different forums more than once that people were left SOL when their mobo said it supports XP up to 2100, but their tbred XP 1700/1800 wouldn't work.

 

[Vette73]

The AK32A looks like a good board is you have to run Sdram.

One thing I don't get is it says it comes with C-Media 5.1 sound, but all the pics I find have the VIA 2ch sound?

Other than that for less than $65 shipped it looks good.
That and you can get a Athlon 1700+ RETAIL at newegg.com for $63 shipped

 

[tcsenter]

If you're looking specifically for Socket A/XP boards with SDR + DDR RAM slots, I had a thread about this a week or so ago because I too have a bunch of PC133 SDRAM modules and really have no need to migrate to DDR right now. Here's all the boards a few others and I were able to find:

ASRock K7VT2 Distributed in U.S.A. by Amptron - Also see ASRock Website

ASUS A7A266-E

BIOSTAR M7VIG (also carried by Amptron)

BIOSTAR M7VIG Pro (also carried by Amptron)

ECS K7S5A

ECS K7AMA

ECS K7VMM

ECS K7VTA2 (no product link available from ECS)

Matsonic MS8137C (A.K.A ECS K7VTA2)

Shuttle AK32A

Note: there are other SDR + DDR boards not listed here because they do not have an AGP slot.

 

[audscott]

I recently built a system for my daughter using the AK32L, 512 (2 X 256) PC133, Radeon 9000 and Athlon 1600+ (running 2100+ - default V-core).

It's not a bad board at all...the unlocked 1600+ readily changes multiplier and overclocking (moderate FSB) is easy.

On board sound sucks (of course)....For the money, it is a real solid board for use with PC133, IMHO.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: audscott
I recently built a system for my daughter using the AK32L, 512 (2 X 256) PC133, Radeon 9000 and Athlon 1600+ (running 2100+ - default V-core).

It's not a bad board at all...the unlocked 1600+ readily changes multiplier and overclocking (moderate FSB) is easy.

On board sound sucks (of course)....For the money, it is a real solid board for use with PC133, IMHO.

That was a very helpful review, thx.

 

[Zap]

I've used a few AK32L boards here at work, and they have all worked as advertised. I was not aware (didn't check, were for customers) that the AK32L had any overclocking features. At default speeds, worked great. The AK32A should be pretty much the same, but with the better KT266A chipset. Shuttle is known for making some of the earlier decent KT266 and KT266A chipset boards (back when other manufacturers were having problems).