ASUS CUSL2-C, best value for money motherboard!!!
Written: Feb 23 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Stability, overclocking (both RAM and processor), AGP 4X, ATA 100, PC 133RAM, 2 USB ports...
Cons: Maximum 512MB RAM memory, lack of COM2 port
The Bottom Line: ASUS has not let anyone down with this model, it is just what the PC owners wanted from a motherboard.
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| darkucio's Full Review: Asus CUSL2 |
This is one of the first motherboards with an Intel 815EP chipset. It is basically almost the same as the ASUS CUSL2 Intel 815E chipset, except the ASUS CUSL2-C doesn't have integrated graphics or sound card, which is in my opinion much better, as you don't really need graphics or sound cards integrated in today's PC's.
We all have separate graphics and sound cards, and 90% of us don't use these two components for anything else than regular game-playing, internet-surfing or program-using stuff. And for that, you don't need any integrated components. And to most of you, this new motherboard will have something which many of you give a big consideration when buying products in general. A low price. Low price for the ASUS name and a high-quality product that is.
The ASUS CUSL2 costs about $200 in my country. This motherboard is about $50 cheaper which for many of you this won't be such a big difference, but let me asure you that you are really buying a very good product which offers EVERYTHING a today's PC motherboard should and can have!
It supports all the latest technologies.
From AGP 4X for all you game freaks, who want to squeeze that extra from your PC in those monster graphics games such as Quake III Arena, UT and other.
A condition of course being that your graphics card supports AGP 4X.
The second technology it offers is called ATA100, and this basically means that your hard drive and motherboard are communicating faster.
For all you who like to overclock your hardware this motherboard will be a dream come true, as you can manually set speeds of your processor (by 1 MHZ increment) and your RAM memory as easy as you can click "Start" in your Windows and choose something. But I advise all you overclockers out there to be careful, and to increase speeds gradually and by small MHZ increments. And as far as the limitations are concerned, they are all up to your processor and your RAM in these cases. If they are high-quality products and don't have any factory faults, processor can probably withstand about 100 MHZ without any problems and your RAM about 10-15 MHZ. But you cannot hold me responsible, as it is all up to you. Personally, I don't overclock, because I have a powerful enough machine without doing this. And it quite simply isn't worth it. Maybe just by a couple of MHZ, but nothing more than that!
And in my opinion the best feature of this motherboard is its stability. You won't find any motherboard which is as stable as this one. It will not crash, and it will actually load setup defaults if there is something wrong with the system. And it also has different sounds and beeps which inform the user about what is going on with the motherboard. If you don't believe me, just visit the anandtech site for more insight on this motherboard (although not on this particular chipset though).
And mentioning the PC 133 SDRAM support is today not that new, but anyway you have nothing to worry about this. And if 133 FSB isn't enough you can overclock as I already described.
There is also a surprise for you if you buy this motherboard, although it doesn't offer COM2 port, it offers 2 additional USB ports for free on a separate card, which means you will have a total of 4 USB ports. And believe me, USB is the best port standard today, it is faster and it is Plug&Play, which means you don't have to do anything extra, like installing or worrying if you plugged your devices into the right port, you just plug your USB devices and they work INSTANTLY.
There are also 6PCI ports on this motherboard, so you have nothing to worry about if you have many components on your PC.
Basically the only thing that I found a con in this motherboard, was the maximum capacity for RAM memory. It's 512MB, which for someone like me is more than enough. I have never had more than 256MB RAM on my PC and I certainly don't need more than 512MB. And quite probably you don't either, unless you are dealing with some huge high-tech programs.
ASUS and ABIT are currently two of the best PC motherboard companies, you can't go wrong by choosing any of their models, but if you want a really good product and value for money you will choose this model.
And if I at the end also tell you that this model is one of the fastest motherboards today, do you think there is anything else to think about?!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
darkucio
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Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Honesty is the only policy...
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