Overclocking and tweakage
The AV32's overclocking options are pretty decent, and Shuttle's obviously trying here to appeal to the enthusiast market with a little more gusto than they have in the past. The AV32 does have BIOS-based overclocking options, as you can see below...

However, using the AV32's "jumperless" front-side bus speed settings can require the use of a jumper. For instance, I used a PIII 500E to test the AV32, and I wanted to crank it way past its default 100MHz bus speed, to well over 133MHz. With the AV32's FSB jumper set to the default setting, I was only able to choose bus speeds near 100MHz in the BIOS menu. In order to hit 133MHz and beyond, I had to set the jumper to 133MHz. This "safety measure" may appeal to OEMs and folks building systems for Aunt Erma, but I found it mildly annoying.

Also, the AV32 doesn't allow the fine-grain control most of the real overclocker's boards do. For example, one may choose speeds of 133, 136, 140, 145, 150, 160, and 166MHz, but nothing in between. Believe me, there's a heckuva a lot of difference between 150 and 160MHz when you're trying to push that CPU to the edge. With the competiton offering speed adjustments in 1MHz increments, this arrangement seems a bit anemic.

The AV32 redeems itself by offering a 1/5 PCI divider at 160 and 166MHz. This means that if you have high-quality RAM and a willing CPU, you could run your system with a 166MHz bus without making clock-sensitive peripherials like UDMA hard drives lose their cookies. Very nice.

Personally, I don't have any such highfallutin' RAM, but the AV32 was able to push this 500E to 750MHz on a 150MHz bus. At that speed, things were a bit flaky, but the system was quite stable at 725/145MHz, so long as I gave it a little extra voltage. Not a bad overclocking feat, all told.

I should also note that the AV32 has very clear BIOS-based options for memory tweaking, including 2- and 4-way bank interleave. Such tweaks tend to matter more on recent Via-based mobos, and not every board exposes these options.

Now, let's see how this puppy performed...