Need Help to Identify this Shuttle Motherboard!! AK32 vs AK32A vs AK32L?? What gives?

[ripthesystem]

I ordered a Shuttle AK32L mobo and the package arrived today. As I open it up I not on the mainboard box that it is labeled AK32 v2.1..
Hmmm I think. and take a hop over to Shuttle Online to see what gives and I find info for the AK32A and the AK32L which seem identical.... are they?

And what board did I just get in the mail? the A? the L? none of the above?
thanks

ripthesystem

 

[ericboo]

From amdmb.com. Hope it answers your questions.

"AK32A = KT266A chipset, built in 6ch Audio (C-Media)

AK32L (AK32 V2.x) = (old) KT266 chipset, no built in 6ch Audio, but VIA-codec

Have a look here:
http://www.shuttle.com/new/product/...s_m.asp?M_id=22

and here:
http://us.shuttle.com/specs.asp?pro_id=90

But there is only the problem, that I´m not able to see any differences between AK32A and AK32L at the US-page of this board. In Germany (Europe) the Ak32L (also called AK32 V2.x) has the "old" KT266 chipset and no 6ch Audio, look here:

http://www.spacewalker.com/german/faq/ak322.htm#hd001"

 

[ripthesystem]

Hmmmm. It appears that the German site is right and the US site lies??? damn

That means I ordered the wrong board. ughh. If I don't really need the 6ch audio will there be a big difference between the 266 and the 266a chipsets?

I wonder if shuttle would exchange it for free since it's obviously wrong..
grumble grumble
ripthesystem

 

[numark]

IIRC, the original KT266 chipset had some really bad performance in certain areas (memory, I think) and generally isn't recommended today.

I personally have a KT266a, and this thing is blazing fast in terms of memory. I probably wouldn't want to go to a KT266 and lose that extra speed available to me now. With DDR, every little bit of performance you can get from the motherboard matters.