Layout and Features
The Shuttle AK37 GT/R is presented in a colour reminiscent of Gigabyte motherboards of late. The deep blue colour contrasts well with the on-board peripherals and ICs.
I like the location of the ATX power connectors on the top right of the 'board. The location keeps the PSU's wires out of the way. Interestingly, for an AMD-based motherboard at least, is the inclusion of a separate 12v power connector. Normally found on P4 motherboards, this is the first time that I've seen it grace an AMD motherboard.
The socket is kept free of clutter so that larger coolers can be mounted with comparative ease. 4 DIMM slots can house a potential of 4GB system RAM, or 3GB if you're looking to use ECC-RAM. If you want to use PC2700 memory, however, you need to ensure that the fourth slot houses a single-sided DIMM should you wish to populate all the slots concurrently.
The standard IDE and floppy ports are located in a sensible location to the right and near the drives they will be used with. A large passive heatsink covers the KT400 North bridge. The AGP slot, 8x-compliant, ships without a locking mechanism. Although not a major oversight in my eyes, I'd have preferred the locking variety. One decent integrated feature of this AGP slot is the fact that older 3.3v cards won't damage the slot and motherboard if connected by mistake
The 5-PCI slots specified by the KT400 chipset find their way on to the AK37 GT/R, too. As usual, the VT8235 South Bridge is once again left bare without a heatsink. Remember, this SB provides support for ATA133, on-board Ethernet, and support for 6 USB2.0 ports via the use of 3 controllers. The revised 533MB/s link connects the two bridges.
The very capable Highpoint HPT372 is used to control the two IDE RAID ports that offer RAID0 (striping), RAID1 (mirroring) and RAID0+1 (striping and mirroring). The ports can be used as standalone IDE ports, too.
Serial ATA makes its appearance with 2 ports powered by the Marvell S-ATA chips. The S-ATA ports can be used in the same fashion as the standard IDE ports (no RAID0+1 support) assuming you have the necessary drives. The HTP372, being a 2-port controller, can use either S-ATA or IDE RAID ports. You cannot use the four ports concurrently, though.
6 USB2.0 ports are catered for, we have two integrated on the backplane and another four available by the use of these two headers.
The ALC650 is an 18-bit, full duplex AC'97 2.2 compatible stereo audio CODEC. It natively supports full surround sound 5.1 configuration with a maximum of 6 separate or discrete channels (Left, Right, Center, SL, SR and Sub). I've used this on-board sound solution extensively and can appreciate its appearance on this motherboard. It more than passes for basic PC sound duty. We also have a S/PDIF header, although the requisite output bracket isn't provided in the package.
The backplane houses Ethernet supported by the VIA 8235 SB. The 2 USB ports are of USB2.0 specification. The AK37 GT/R is kept clutter-free even though we have a number of extras. The fact that most of them are integrated into the South bridge helps the cause.
