Is there anyway to tell if a model 1 is a 20 pin or 21 pin?

[spsaturn]

Is there anyway to tell if a model 1 is a 20 pin or 21 pin disc drive besides opening it? i just ordered the Fenrir Saturn ODE for my 20 pin model 1 saturn, im looking foward to it! i think i would like to buy one more 20 pin console as a back up but as far as i can tell there's no way to know if a model 1 is a 20 pin or 21 pin without opening it? i know model 2 saturns are 21 pins so i will avoid them, but if im buying a console on ebay is there anyway i can know if im getting a 20 or 21 pin console before buying it? this page gdemu.wordpress.com/details/saturn-details/ is kinda of confusing, it looks like there exists model 1 saturns with 21 pin connectors? if it makes any difference im talking about usa consoles. thanks!

[zyrobs]

Yes, model 1s can be both 20pin and 21pin depending on when they were made.

HST-3200 units are always 20pin (and use VA0 boards). For anything else, you can either look at the power supply connector (if it is very tall, then the unit is VA0), or decode the serial number.

[spsaturn]

thank you for the response! is there any info online for decoding the serial number? i would be buying from ebay and i cant ask sellers to open their saturns to check for me, if they can just send me a pic of the serial and i can decode that would be best. also do you know if theres a specific date when they switched over to 21 pin? like any saturn made after june 1996 is a 21 pin or something? thank you!

[zyrobs]

Just buy a HST-3200, or leave the ODEs for those of us who already have a Saturn to go with it.

[spsaturn]

hahaha im not buying ODE without already owning the correct saturn, my question is how do i buy another correct saturn without being able to open the console. the hst 3200 looks nice though so thanks for your help.