Then there's the integrated audio powered by C-Media's wildly popular 8738 audio chip. The CMI 8738 appears on Hercules' Muse sound cards and also on a host of competing motherboards, including the Soyo DRAGON Plus. This chip produces sound on par with a SoundBlaster Live! card, but it's a little heavy on the CPU utilization, as we'll demonstrate below. Beyond that, if implemented properly, the 8378 is a perfectly good replacement for a PCI sound card.

Notice, though, that in the Ports section of the spec table above, there are lots of parentheses in confusing formations around the sound port specs. That's because the AK35GTR supports a range of audio output options, including six-channel positional audio for a 5.1 speaker setup, but it does so with only four audio ports—three on the motherboard, and a single port via an expansion header that fits into an open PCI slot cover. In order to support six-channel audio, for instance, the AK35GTR routes the two front channels out of the Line Out port, the two rear channels out of the Line In port, and the woofer and center channels out of the expansion header port.

Really.

All of this is configurable via software, and it's all very clever, but I'd prefer Shuttle had included a more robust expansion header setup like Soyo did with its DRAGON Plus.

Shuttle's one port looks almost lonely Soyo's setup includes all the necessary ports for 5.1 audio, plus coaxial and optical digital inputs and outputs. The AK35GTR's audio setup is nice, but it's a little bit limited in comparison.

The board's layout
The AK35GTR's layout is generally thoughtful and sensible, which is especially admirable given the board's wealth of connectors, slots, and controller chips.

Generally, I have good feelings about how Shuttle's engineers handled the layout for this board. The rear port configuration doesn't deviate from generally accepted standards, so you won't have any trouble fitting the AK35GTR into an ATX case with a standard faceplate. The placement of the ATX power connector is nearly ideal. Ditto for the CPU socket.

However, there are a couple of minor nits to pick. As with many boards nowadays, the DIMM sockets are too close to the AGP slot. If you've got an AGP card in the slot, you'll have to pull it out in order to swap out a DIMM. Also, the ATA connectors for the Highpoint chip are way down at the lower edge of the board, miles from the top of a honkin' tower case. Like I said, minor quibbles, but they're worth noting.

Now, let's fire up this puppy and see how it performs.