Conclusion
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The Shuttle (or SpaceWalker) AK31 motherboard is a great performing, matching or beating the other top KT266 motherboards in every test. This review should even further emphasize how close the KT266 chipset is to being able to overcome the AMD-760 chipset. It’s not hard to imagine that in a couple months, with proper bios updates to see the VIA DDR chipset become the top of the stack. Of course, I am still waiting on the SiS735 board to reach me as well as possible nForce choices we may soon have.On a select few tests, the AMD 760 chipset boards including the 8K7A are still out performing the KT266 chipset. However, the AMD 760 chipset has had a much longer time to mature and settle into drivers and bios updates. Give the VIA DDR option a few more months and I forsee it will be right there with the AMD chipset – and this is exactly what AMD wants. The more powerful chipsets there are for their processors, the more processors they’ll sell and market share they’ll gain. That is good for any AMD investor or fan.
This second revision of the AK31 motherboard (not the KT266 chipset) added a lot of overclocking options as well as increased stability over previous versions. Shuttle does not have any considerable market share in the US, but they are well known in Asia and Europe – and the AK31 shows why. When comparing the AK31 against its current rivals, the Epox 8KHA and MSI K7T266 Pro, I see no reason why you shouldn’t have Shuttle on the top of your list. The board offers all the features, performance and stability you could ask for in a KT266 solution.
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