Mainboard AV40, AV40R

Translation: There is no chance to write anything else, than the mainboard Shuttle was surprise of the test. The benchmark results were always better than average, layout of MB is good balanced and real surprise was big possibilities for set up in BIOS. It is very easy to set up and adjust the system, especially memory, by this tool. The overcloking of CPU is also very comfortable! Regarding the not high price is Shuttle AV40R really one of the good and interesting piece of hardware and the investment to it is decidedly good choice!

Conclusion: The Shuttle/Spacewalker AV40R is a respectable and relatively affordable board.

One thing I must pay credit to Shuttle/VIA is the stability of AGP on the AV40R. Most other VIA boards I have used previously had some minor (or major) problem with AGP performance and/or stability. I am pleased to say that demanding AGP transfers didn’t upset the AV40R one bit - well done to Shuttle and VIA! Combined with falling CPU prices, and the widespread availability of DDR SDRAM, the future looks a lot brighter for the Pentium 4 than it did six months ago. Thanks to manufacturers like Shuttle who grasped the opportunity with both hands, the variety and choice in the Socket 478 motherboard market has taken a turn in the consumer’s favor.

Pros: DDR SDRAM is a good compromise between cost and performance, Extremely stable board (except under Windows XP*), Nice range of features, Tweakable BIOS, Low price, Widely available now
*) maybe a driver problem

It is, of course, VIA P4X266 chipset - first chipset that united successfully DDR memory and Pentium 4 processor. (...) various benchmark application will show acceleration of about 15% compared to similar motherboard with i845 chipset. (...) One of important parts of Spacewalker AV40R motherboard is onboard RAID controller, which gives speed at ATA 100 standard. (...) It would be nice to see that other manufacturers follow Shuttle example. We will give this motherboard good rating and recommend it to anyone who wants fast and good equipped motherboard designed for Pentium 4 processors.

Preiswert und schnell: Das Shuttle-Board ist die einzige Serien-Platine im Test, die mit VIAs P4X266-Chipsatz arbeitet. Die Performance ist gut, das reicht für den Testsieg.

(...) wir haben die für Spieler augenblicklich beste Pentium-4-Platine für den Sockel 478 gesucht. Mit dem Shuttle-Board haben wir sie gefunden. Die Ausstattung ist gut, der Promise-RAID-Controller unterstützt die die Betriebsarten "0" und "1". Für Übertakter gibt es alle wichtigen Optionen. Der FSB-Takt wird zwischen 100 und 160MHz gewählt, die Prozessorspannung kann per BIOS erhöht werden. Außerdem bietet das Board viele Optionen für das Speicher-Tuning. Insgesamt ein relativ schnelles und sehr günstiges Pentium-4-Mainboard.

Translation:
Award: "Best Socket478 Mainboard!"
(out of 8 tested mainboards)
Good value and fast: Shuttles mainboard is the only available mainboard in our test, which is equipped with VIAs P4X266 chipset. It wins the test because of its good performance. (...) We have simply looked for the best Pentium-4-mainboard with Socket 478 for gamer which is currently available on the market. We found it with the Shuttle-Board. It is well equipped, the Promise-RAID-Controller supports mode 0 and 1. It offers all important settings for overclocking. The FSB can be set between 100 and 166MHz. The CPU voltage can be increased within the BIOS. The board also offers many options for the memory timing. We conclude that it is a relatively fast and very cheap Pentium-4-mainboard.

"(...) The AV40/R offers many more voltage tweaking options than any of the other motherboards in this roundup which is what we've come to expect from most manufacturers, but we've been left disappointed with most of the competing solutions in this roundup; it's good to see that Shuttle put more effort into the production of the AV40/R than most. (...)"

Conclusion: Shuttle has delivered another successful enthusiasts' motherboard, and because of its unique position in the market, it's one of the most exciting mobos to come along in quite a while. The AV40R delivers on the potential of VIA's P4X266 chipset; it's a DDR-based Pentium 4 platform that will run—and in many cases outrun—the RDRAM-based competition. The AV40R even outruns VIA's own reference motherboard most of the time. Those folks who have been questioning whether the Pentium 4 would perform as well with PC2100 DDR memory as with PC800 RDRAM have their answer: the AV40R is a full production end-user motherboard, on the market now, that matches the 850 chipset/RDRAM solutions stride for stride. (...) the AV40R is golden—especially for its #119 list price.