What the difference? Two Gigabyte G31 boards.

[VirtualLarry]

GA-EG31M-S2

GA-G31M-ES2L

Trying to figure out what the main differences between these two boards are. They seem mostly identical in specs, although one has an ALC888 and one has an ALC883. Biggest question is if there is a difference in terms of overclocking features.
Which board is newer?

 

[happy medium]

I see one has o.c. suport for 1600 fsb but other then that I don't see a diffrence.

Edit; copied from one of the Newegg reviews.


When I was researching which board to buy, this one appeared to have almost exactly the same specs as the GA-G31M-S2L but with some advantages: higher FSB support (1600MHz O.C.), better audio, and it was even a little cheaper. Comparing both at the Gigabyte website makes me think that this one is a later (and better) model. The original bios support 45nm processors. You can use Ctrl+F1 in bios to display hidden overclocking options.

I guess that answers that.

 

[Blazer7]

There are a lot more differences there. The board layout for starters is quite different. The floppy connector, the front panel header, system fan header etc, are all in different places. Most notably the GA-EG31M-S2 is physically bigger than the GA-G31M-ES2L and it features 4 phases instead of 3. The S2 also features an additional COM port, 8Mbit BIOS chips instead of 4MBit and a HD surround/center speakers header.

All and all these 2 boards are quite different.