ASUS CUSL2 Socket-370 i815E ATX Mainboard

Introduction

Like Elsa and Matrox are on top of the range in the video card market, ASUS has earned an extremely good reputation for producing some of the best motherboards in the market. It seems that ASUS always gets things right and no one has yet argued this fact. When MSI introduced their K7 Pro, ASUS was quick to respond with their K7M, which gave a very good run for the K7 Pro. Abit tried to gain the top spot soon after with their introduction of the KA7, but this was soon smashed by ASUS’s K7V. The countless successes of ASUS for producing top quality reliable boards has earned them the reputation of being one of the best motherboard manufactures in the world.

When Intel introduced the 440BX chipset it became a hit almost overnight. The 440BX chipset has been with us for quite some time now, and if we are to move ahead some changes need to be made fast. BX boards have been among us for such a long time that motherboard manufactures have had the opportunity to tweak these boards to the max. New BX boards come equipped with ATA-66 support-a feature not even supported by the chipset.

Today users have two choices to move away from BX board genre. One choice is to purchase VIA’s new Apollo Pro 133A chipset, which beats the BX boards mainly due to their features. These boards provide full support for AGP 4X and an Asynchronous memory bus. Added USB ports, support for ATA -66 and priced under $100 these boards give super performance for your price. However the Apollo Pro 133 boards suffer greatly in memory performance. To meet the drawbacks of the VIA’s Apollo Pro 133 boards Intel promptly answered them by putting out the i810e chipset. Boasting of a graphics controller, these boards were a nightmare for gamers. However after a few months the i820 was released, yet due to the high price of RDRAM most users still opted to go for the reliable BX boards.

Recently at Computex Intel announced their i815e chipset with official support for PC 133 and a 4X AGP Pro slot. ASUS was quick to identify the potential of the i815e chipset and soon put out the CUSL2, which they say will finally replace the 440BX boards for good. With great trouble we managed to get our hands on one of these boards, so lets find out how really good the CUSL2 is.

Specifications

Processor

• Socket 370 for Intel® FCPGA Pentium® III 450MHz~933+MHz processors
• Intel® PPGA CeleronTM 333~566+MHz.

Chipset

• Intel® 82815 Graphics and AGP Memory Controller Hub (GMCH)
• Intel® 82801BA Enhanced I/O Controller Hub 2 (ICH2)
• Intel® 82802AB Firmware Hub (FWH)
• Support 4x AGP, 4MB AIMM, PC133/PC100 SDRAM, UltraDMA/100 IDE Devices

Super I/O & USB Hub

• ITE IT 8703F LPC Chip
• AU9254 USB Hub

Front Side Bus (FSB)

• 66/100/133 MHz Front Side Bus

Memory

• 3x 168-pin DIMM Sockets Support 16MB to 1.5GB 3.3V PC133/100 SDRAM
• Maximum 512MB PC133/PC100 non-ECC SDRAM

Expansion Slots

• 1 x 32-bit AGP Pro/AGP 4X slot
• 6 x 32-bit PCI
• 2x CNR (Communication and Networking Riser)
• Supports AGP Pro Slot with Universal AGP Connector and additional Power Connectors

VGA

• AGP Pro/4X/2X/1X Graphics Adapter Compatible
• Integrated 4X AGP Graphics

IDE Ports

• 2 x UltraDMA/100/66/33 Bus Master IDE Ports
• Supports DVD-ROM, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, and LS-120 Drives

Special Features

• Power Loss Restart
• ASUS JumperFree(TM) CPU Throttle
• STR (Suspend to RAM) · SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
• Vcore & VIO Adjustable

Back Panel I/O Ports

• 2 x USB Ports
• 1 x Serial Ports
• 1 x Parallel Port (ECP, EPP Port)
• 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port, 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
• 1 x VGA Port

Onboard I/O Interface

• ASUS® iPanel Connectors
• 3 Headers to Support Optional 5 USB Ports
• 24-pin ASUS® Panel
• SIR/CIR
• CPU/Power Supply/Chassis Fan
• ATX Power
• IDE LED
• COM2
• TV/Out/LCD Module Connectors

BIOS

• Award® 4Mb BIOS with Full ACPI, SM BIOS 2.3, Green, PnP, Trend® ChipAway Virus (TCAV) & Symbios® SCSI BIOS

Manageability

• Wfm 2.0, DMI 2.0, WOL (Wake-on LAN), WOR (Wake-on Ring), Chassis Intrusion, SM Bus

Accessories

• User’s Manual
• UltraDMA/66 Cable
• IDE Cable
• Floppy Cable
• 3-Ports USB Bracket

Board Size

• ATX Form Factor with Size : 20.8cm x 30.5cm (8.2″ x 12″)