People do not hurry to buy computers during the summer simply because there are other interesting things to do :). But companies can not afford to relax in this period. New technologies and products are developed, ready to be introduced in the autumn. In the motherboards' area nothing spectacular happened in the last two months. Except for several aggressive previews and media announcements of the nVidia nForce2, the market is slow: we can find the same products like two months ago. Until the new products will reach the market we decided to review some of the best solutions available today. All motherboards that are going to be presented are not powered by new chipsets, but quality writes their names on any shopping list. Today we will experiment with two KT333 motherboards which claim to offer a superior overclocking level and increased reliability. Let’s find out which motherboard is better: Abit KX7-333 or Shuttle AK35GT2R. Abit are known for their products in terms of reliability and performance, but will Shuttle be able to compete against the king?

Which one?

Abit KX7-333 is shipped in a nice box with two 80 Wire Ribbon Cables, one Floppy Ribbon Cable, one USB D-Bracket, one floppy disk (includes drivers for RAID), one user’s manual and one CD with various tools and drivers. As usual the Abit manual is top quality.
There are six PCI slots, one AGP slot and four DIMM slots on board. Being targeted to enthusiasts world, there is no onboard sound on KX7-333. The motherboard's layout is pleasant and follows the KR7A's design. In fact there is no big difference between the KR7A and KX7-333 design, that’s why I recommend you to check this review about KR7A. Overclockers should appreciate that the CPU cooler must be mounted parallel with the PCI slots. This means that it’s possible to use large coolers even in small cases, but there is one tiny disadvantage: when you install the cooler you can be disturbed by the power source. Unfortunately there are no diagnostic features on KX7, which may be the only weak point of the board from the overclocker's point of view. The ATX connector and the fan headers are placed in very good positions. The voltage regulator is impressive, but I guess that you have already known this setup from older reviews.

Abit KX7-333 product picture

Let’s take a look to Shuttle AK35GT2R. Inside the box you can find the motherboard, two IDE cables, one floppy cable, one USB bracket, one bracket with an audio header, one CD with drivers, the user’s guide and a RAID administrator user’s manual. The Shuttle manual is decent but it can not compete with KX7 user’s guide. You can find inside information about features, installation, BIOS and drivers installation but it’s not as detailed as I would have wanted. AK35GT2R has six PCI slots, one AGP and four DIMM slots. There are several similarities between KX7's design and AK35GT2R, but there are also several important differences. For example, the ATX connector on AK35GT2R has a less inspired position and a fan header is placed between the AGP slot and the first PCI slot in an inaccessible place. The CPU cooler on AK35GT2R must be installed at 90 degrees rotated counterclockwise compared with KX7 and as you can see below this cooler can not be extremely large (it’s blocked by the chipset fan). On AK35GT2R you can find a decent sound, powered by CMI8738. For some users this may be an advantage although the sound quality is not amazing. I reminded earlier about a bracket with an audio header. Well, on this bracket Shuttle placed the central/bass channel output. I have to remark that audio and RAID connectors are placed near the lower edge of the motherboard which means that you will need long cables if you plan to use AK35GT2R in a large case.

Shuttle AK35GT2R product picture

The number of jumpers on both motherboards is low and none of them has a role in the CPU setup. Both motherboards have layouts targeted to overclocking, but without any doubt the KX7's design is better. The AK35GT2R layout is not bad either, but the CPU socket position may limit overclockability. From the expandability point of view these boards are identical. An AGP retention mechanism is included on AK35GT2R, KX7 doesn't have one.
We will see later how these motherboards perform in the comparative reliability and performance test.