Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Introduction

Following in the wake of the AK32, we recently received a copy of Shuttle's AK31 motherboard, complete with the requisite bag of goodies. The AK31 is based on the VIA KT266 chipset, and includes support for 266MHz(DDR) FSB CPUs, PC1600, and PC2100 DDR-SDRAM. In the past, Shuttle hasn't put much energy into chasing the Overclocking market. This time around though, it seems they've taken the initiative to cram as many Overclocking functions into the AK31 as possible.

So, without further ado, let's take a closer look at Shuttle's newest board.

On first glance, the AK31 is quite similar to the AK32 from the same manufacturer. The only essential difference between the two is the type of memory supported. While the AK32 comes with support for both SDR SDRAM and DDR SDRAM, the AK31 only supports the later.

Asides from that, and a few capacitors here and there, the AK31 is more or less identical to its sibling.

Configuration

The AK31 is almost totally Jumperless. Like the AK32 before it, the AK31 is equipped with only two small jumpers, and those are used to flash, and/or write protect the BIOS.

In short, all configuration issues are handled from within the BIOS system.

All adjustments relating to the processor are conducted from within the "Frequency/Voltage Control" menu.

Once there, users are given the choice to set the FSB to a frequency ranging from 100MHz to 166MHz in 1MHz steps.

The clock multiplier can also be set to between 5X and 13X.

The Vcore voltage can also be adjusted, but, unfortunately, not the Vio voltage.

Once interesting option does allow users to set the amount of voltage supplied to the memory sub-system however, by upping said value to 2.55v, 2.60v, or 2.70v.

As you might expect, a variety of memory timing options can also be set from within the "Advanced Chipset Features" menu. These include the option to set the independent memory bus to 100MHz, 133MHz, or SPD (Serial Presence Detect).

Next: Technical details.