Asus has done it again
Written: Oct 18 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast and Stable, can increase front side bus speed in 1 MHz increments
Cons: Poor integrated video, pricey motherboard
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| quigley13's Full Review: Asus CUSL2 |
Asus has become well known for their stable and fast motherboards. They produce motherboards that are both user friendly and feature rich. Asus boards tend to overclock well and often come with more “extras” than other brands.
The 815e chipset
The Asus CUSL2 is based on the Intel 815e chipset. The 815 chipsets only support one processor and 512 MB of RAM. This aims the chipsets focus directly towards consumer use. This chipset is not suitable for extremely high-end applications due to the limitations described above. 512MB of RAM and one processor are plenty for me, just realize that this is not the platform for a high-end server. The chipset has built in 4 megabyte AGP video; this is both a blessing and a curse. It is great for those that plan to do basic word processing, surfing, and 2D stuff but absolutely unacceptable for gaming or anything remotely high end. The problem with including video in the chipset is that it raises the price of the motherboard. This makes the consumer pay for the video whether they choose to use it or not. Luckily, there is a 4X AGP slot for those of us that want increased video performance. Some 815 chipsets happen to include audio and others do not. Intel’s new chipset now includes a ¼ multiplier for the AGP slot allowing the front side bus (FSB) speed to be raised without worrying so much about overclocking your video card. That may sound like Greek to many, so lets just say that it is easier to overclock Pentium III’s with the 815 chipset when compared to Intel’s older 440BX.
The CUSL2
The Asus CUSL2 will support Pentium II/III processors from 450 MHz and higher as well as Celeron I/II processors from 333 MHz and higher. Essentially any Intel chip that is socket 370 or FC-PGA form factor will work with this motherboard (Check with Asus before purchasing and get the latest BIOS).
Front side bus
The motherboard has an amazing amount of front side bus speeds(FSB). Throughout most of the range you can adjust the FSB in one MHz increments! This allows you to get the most out of your processor for those that overclock. There are no jumpers to set for the FSB speeds and Asus could not have made overclocking much easier; it is almost idiot proof. All settings are done in the BIOS, just pick your FSB speed and boot the machine! Overclocking has never been easier than this.
RAM
Another thing worth mentioning is that you can run your RAM at a different speed than your FSB. When you run your FSB speed at 133, you can run the RAM at a slower 100 MHz. This is a big plus to those that want to upgrade to a faster processor and motherboard yet use the older, slower PC100 RAM from an old system. Furthermore, if you have a Celeron and run at the “stock” FSB speed of 66 MHz then you can run the RAM at 100MHz to get a little extra speed out of the system. For some reason, you can not bump the RAM speed to 133 (PC133 RAM) when running the FSB at 100MHz. That would be a nice feature for the Celeron overclockers out there.
Video
As mentioned above, the integrated video performance is poor at best. The CUSL2 does have a 4X AGM pro slot and I would recommend using it if you want to do anything involving graphics. AGP pro slots accept normal AGP cards as well as higher end “workstation grade” cards.
Slots
The CUSL2 has a good bit of expansion possibilities. It has 1 AGP, 6 PCI, and 2 CNR slots. The AGP and PCI are self explanatory, the CNR slots are new. The CNR slot will be used for low cost networking, modems, etc. It should be noted that the 2 CNR slots are shared with PCI slots. The motherboard has no ISA slots so that early/mid 90’s NIC will not work with this motherboard. Prepare for this trend to continue in the future. The CUSL2 also comes with ATA 100 built in. This is not so much of a benefit now because the sustained hard drive speeds are currently well below this speed. This is a nice feature to have for future hard drive upgrades however.
Comparisons
When the Intel 815 chipset became available, I picked up two motherboards using this new standard. One was the Asus CUSL2, the other was the Abit SE6. The Asus CUSL2 did a much better job for my situation for reasons that I will explain. Many of the features are the same with the two boards; I will only list the major differences here.
Front side bus increments
The first difference between the two boards is the amount of FSB speeds available. The Asus has more front side bus speeds than you can shake a stick at, FSB speeds increase in 1 MHz increments throughout most of the range. The Abit goes in about 4 MHz increments with even bigger gaps at some key points. One of the many examples of this is the in the FSB range around 100 MHz. This is a range where Celeron overclockers need every available FSB speed to get the most out of their chip. Speeds available from the Abit SE6 in this range are 83, 90, 100, 103, 112, and 115 MHz. The gap between 103 and 112 is huge. The I MHz increments Asus offers allows overclockers to see just how high they can go.
The overclock
The second difference I noticed was the overclocking ability of the two products. The Abit would not get my Celeron 566 above 100MHz FSB (Aprox. 850MHz) while the Asus motherboard was able to get the processor speed up to 934 MHz. Testing was done using the same heatsink, RAM, processor combo while taking advantage of the integrated video of the motherboards. This test was done with only one sample of each board and was hardly scientific. I do not know if this is a regular occurrence or not, so take what you like from this information. In any case it is very interesting, 84MHz is quite substantial.
Extras
The last difference that I will mention concerns the “extras” that I referred to earlier in the article. Both The CUSL2 and SE6 have the ability to add 3 additional USB ports on top of the 2 that come standard. Asus is nice enough to include the adapter while Abit does not. This may be a matter of keeping costs down, there happens to be a significant difference in price between these two products. I was able to get the Abit SE6 for $25 cheaper than its ASUS counterpart. The Abit even included audio and the ASUS did not. If given the choice I would take the integrated sound and give up the additional USB ports. To sum up the differences, the ASUS overclocked much better and came with the USB adapter while the Abit was significantly cheaper and included audio. Both came with excellent manuals and all the basic cables required. Perhaps I should also mention that the ASUS seems to be more stable at FSB Speeds above 150MHz for those of you overclocking PIII’s (Especially the 133FSB-bus variety).
Final thoughts?
If overclocking is not your first priority then I would suggest the Abit SE6 due to its lower price and integration of audio. I prefer the ASUS CUSL2 because it allows the user to get the most out of his/her system. FSB speeds in 1 MHz increments allows power users to safely max out their system as long as they have a little time on their hands. This motherboard will make your chip scream and last you through a few upgrades to boot.
PS: Is this review too long? Sometimes I feel like I am providing more information than people actually want. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150 (Aug 00)
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Epinions.com ID:
quigley13
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 42 members
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