Asus CUSL2/ PIII 800EB Before I buy, any comments?

[Felonious]

I am changing out mobos tomorrow.
My present specs are below.
Is this new choice my best bet for bang and stability? (For the buck?)
I don't plan to overclock.

The KT7/T-Bird/GeForce/SB Live combo is not working out after 6 weeks of nightmares

I want that warm fuzzy feeling

NOT the too much coffee and I pray this driver/bios/IRQ/Slot/memory/voltage/AGP setting works feeling.

 

[Radboy]

cusl2.com

 

[odog]

rather then ditch that oh so kick ass rig.... why not this forums help fix what you currently have?

i have absolutely zero problems with my A7V athlon 900@1050/GF2 GTS/SBLv/winmodem/netgear nic/tekram scsi card...


trust me it can be done...

 

[Felonious]

Sure, I tried all the boards all the stuff here's a link to a previous thread

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=248167
been at sharky's and 3dfiles and you name it.

I dont wanna be a beta tester for this rig anymore. Piss on anyone that reviewed it too.

 

[GuardianAli]

go for it...i have a cusl2 and pIII 733

works sweet

 

[LXi]

I recommend the MicroStar 815E Pro over the CUSL2. Its an overall better board than the CUSL2, features are very even, the layout of the MSI is much better than Asus, and the price is approximately $20 cheaper. Definitely recommended over the CUSL2.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Horsehockey! I've actually used both in systems and find that:

The price difference is $5-10 tops; ex. on Pricewatch, cheapest MSI is $126, cheapest CUSL2 is $135.

Feature-wise, the CUSL2 kills the MSI. More bus setting speeds, no stupid manual jumper to run 133 or higher, the ONLY 815 board (per AT and others) that runs stable with all three DIMMS filled, break-out board for 3 additional USB ports included, etc.

The only thing better about the MSI is more room around the CPU socket to clear your heatsinks.

PS. - Since you note that you don't plan to overclock, I'd personally recommend the Intel BOXd815EEAA or EEAAL. It's Intel's i815E board with built-in PCI SB sound (EEAA) or with the SB sound + Intel 10/100 LAN built-in (EEAAL). This motherboard is actually better than both the CUSL2 or the MSI 6337 (815E Pro), and it has a 3 yr. warranty. Board layout is excellent, and the details are nice ... for example, there are leaded pads on the motherboard around the CPU socket in the area where the HS/fan assembly clips on to the socket. This is an area which can be damaged on some mobos if the HS clip contacts/scrapes/etc. any circuitry on the mobo during installation. On the Intel board, this can't happen. Price is superb too - approx. $137 for the mobo with both SB sound and 10/100 LAN built in ! This board also sports the largest capacitors I have ever seen in my life !

 

[LXi]

<<Horsehockey! I've actually used both in systems and find that:>>

So have I.



<<The price difference is $5-10 tops; ex. on Pricewatch, cheapest MSI is $126, cheapest CUSL2 is $135.>>

Its $112, stop denying it. You just have to use MicroStar instead of MSI.
Edit Pricewatch now listed the MicroStar 815E Pro at $109(from Mwave.com), Oopsy, sorry.


<<Feature-wise, the CUSL2 kills the MSI.>>

D-LED, FuzzyLogic, LiveBIOS, 4 DIMMs...



<<More bus setting speeds,>>

That can be only reached in your dreams.



<<no stupid manual jumper to run 133 or higher,>>

Big deal.



<<the ONLY 815 board (per AT and others) that runs stable with all three DIMMS filled,>>

You'll never need to fill them anyway. 2 DIMMs of 256MB will get the job done.



<<break-out board for 3 additional USB ports included, etc.>>

I call that overkill.



<<The only thing better about the MSI is more room around the CPU socket to clear your heatsinks.>>

The only thing? Hardly.

 

[Narse]

I agree with midnight, I have had horror storied with any board but ASUS and Abit, I have the CUSL2 and would never give it up!!!
Love this baord, and I use all Five USB ports!!!!!!
get the CUSL2 you will not regret it!!!!!

 

[PwAg]

Complete audio recording rig built around a P3700@1000mhz with Asus CUSL2. You'll have to tear it from my cold dead hands. It is extremely stable and configurable. You won't go wrong with CUSL2. Before purchasing it about 3 weeks ago, I did probably 1 week of research as it was important for me to have the most stable yet overclockable rig. Kept coming back to CUSL2. Research yourself, don't just listen to rants and raves here on the boards. Prove to yourself it is the best board, as it is in my open minded opinion.

By the way, I switched from a KT7RAID/ Thunderbird 900 to P3700/CUSL2 setup and the latter takes the thrown easily in performance for what I'm doing. The reason of switch was not for instability, as the AbitKT7/Th900 is a great setup. It was simply the fact that pro sound cards just suck like no other with VIA/AMD chipsets, so I got a ticket for the Intel train...and sure am loving it. Complete stability and top notch performance.

Good luck.

 

[LXi]

As much as I hate to say it, all Intel setup nowadays suck bad. As good as CUSL2 and 815E Pro gets they'll never be better than a Tbird setup. The server that we're debating on right now run on MSI boards, shows how what kind of confidence Anandtech has in MicroStar's reliability and stability.

 

[PwAg]

That is an ignorant comment. Where do you get the justification for saying such a thing? Perhaps it is a comment of a very biased opinion, which is not helping out the creator of this thread at all.

As for myself and the rest of the music industry using DAW setups (Digital Audio Workstations), Intel prevails by leaps and bounds. I've personally owned a KT7/Thunderbird900@1000 and now P3700@1000, and the latter is considerably snappier in audio production/editing/etc, but that is of least importance. AMD completely fails in compatiblity when compared to Intel for audio interfaces. The KT7/Thunderbird setup was a fantastic performer, not to mention a great buy. If you are looking for a general purpose setup, AMD is the way to go. I had absolutely no complaints about it whatsoever. But for what I'm doing, Intel takes the cake.

&quot;As much as I hate to say it, all Intel setup nowadays suck bad&quot; ... why do they suck??? because they are more costly. I can tell you right now that my Intel system at 200mhz less stock speed than my previous 900 THunderbird, outperforms the bird in almost all my applications when both are at 1000mhz. But what I do is probably different from what you do. It's just shedding light. But I don't go saying AMD setups suck even though for what I'm doing, they do.

Both are solid setups, but you have to weigh in what they will be used for to determine what will be right for you. Simple as that.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Sheesh, a tad touchy aren't we LXi.

Re: Price. My bad, but Pricewatch is at fault here. Ideally, you should get the same results no matter what keyword you search on, so they need to do some work on their system.


<< <<Feature-wise, the CUSL2 kills the MSI.>>

D-LED, FuzzyLogic, LiveBIOS, 4 DIMMs... >>

I'll give you the 4 DIMMs, but as noted before, you can't fill them, the rest is just marketing &quot;fluff&quot;


<< <<no stupid manual jumper to run 133 or higher,>>

Big deal. >>

Hardly, unless you call having to power down, open your case, and move a jumper, easier than merely changing a BIOS setting. I lost on the price issue, you lose here ...

 

[LXi]

<<That is an ignorant comment. Where do you get the justification for saying such a thing? Perhaps it is a comment of a very biased opinion, which is not helping out the creator of this thread at all.>>

Oh yea? Its common sense AMD is better than Intel now, denying that is like denying the sky blue. Very biased opinion? Should I begin with I own 2 Intel setups?


<<As for myself and the rest of the music industry using DAW setups (Digital Audio Workstations), Intel prevails by leaps and bounds. I've personally owned a KT7/Thunderbird900@1000 and now P3700@1000, and the latter is considerably snappier in audio production/editing/etc, but that is of least importance. AMD completely fails in compatiblity when compared to Intel for audio interfaces. It is for personnel preference. The KT7/Thunderbird setup was a fantastic performer, not to mention buy. If you are looking for a general purpose setup, then AMD looks like the way to go. I had absolutely no complaints about it whatsoever. But for what I'm doing, Intel takes the cake.>>

Regular users like the creator will never have a need of such professional audio applications. And should I also note you that AMD slaughters when it comes to professional OpenGL speed and other apps such as photoshop. Yes it really depends on what you do, but most likely you'll get more out of it with AMD.


<<why do they suck??? because they are more costly. I can tell you right now that my Intel system at 200mhz less stock speed than my previous 900 THunderbird, outperforms the bird in almost all my applications when both are at 1000mhz.>>

What kind of apps again? Your audio apps? Dude, not everyone use your audio apps, its not the only thing that matters in the world either.


<<But what I do is probably different from what you do. It's just shedding light. I don't go saying AMD setups suck even though for what I'm doing, they do.>>

Exactly. But Im gonna have to say that AMD will be better in most situations, maybe besides the things you do. I have seen others setup an Audio workstation with a Tbird, runs fantastically.


<<Both are solid setups, but you have to weigh in what they will be used for to determine what will be right for you. Simple as that.>>

Again, you'll be more satisified with the AMD setup, faster, cheaper, widely available. Hate to burst your bubble, but Abit KT7 is suck, if he had gone with, say an MSI K7T Pro2, it'd save tons of hassle.

 

[LXi]

<<Hardly, unless you call having to power down, open your case, and move a jumper, easier than merely changing a BIOS setting. I lost on the price issue, you lose here ...>>

As a proud owner of the Asus P2B-F and Asus P3V4X, Im gonna have to disagree, jumpers are non-issues to me, nor to anybody else with the big heart to overclock. After all, you only had to change that jumper once in order to use 133-166 in 1MHz increment in the BIOS. Obviously you havent been through the pain of 100% jumper overclock, oh yea my P2B-F rocks.

 

[Syborg1211]

Jumpers are a huge issue to me. If I had a choice between jumperless and jumpers, I would choose the jumperless board. Having to switch jumpers is just a pain in the butt to me. I have an MSI slotket and whenever I want to change the voltage I have to take out the slotket and change the jumpers. Not to mention how the jumpers are so close together that it is hard to get only one when you pull or even on at all. Since you aren't overclocking, CUSL2 all the way. If you do intend to ever overclock in the future, you might want to check if the cold boot bug on the cusl2 is fixed yet. The bug is just a bug that occurs when you are running at oddball fsb speeds(such as 123,117,69), but it runs perfectly at 66,100,133 so don't let me scare you if you aren't overclocking.

 

[LXi]

I dont get it, why is jumper such a big issue. Yes the MSI slocket was jumper, but so was everybody else? Do I have to mention how many loyal MSI slocket users we have here? The thing is if you put the CUSL2 against 815E Pro, the advantages and disadvantages cancel each other out(even though 815E Pro will still have more advantages), and you're left with price.

 

[Wingznut]

I recently tried out four boards with my P3-700e. The Asus P3V4X, CUV4X, CUSL-2, and the Abit SE-6. All of the Asus' rocked, but the Abit SE-6 was a complete pain in the @ss, wasn't very stable, and didn't overclock well.

By the way, the CUSL-2 is what's staying in my primary machine.

 

[LXi]

CUSL2 owners, think you can put a heatsink like this one on your board?

 

[oldfart]

Believe it or not, that is the factory Intel Heatsink!

 

[Wingznut]

I have no idea, LXi. My Alpha PAL-6035 works just fine.

 

[LXi]

<<Believe it or not, that is the factory Intel Heatsink!>>

Not quite, but close. This is the Intel 1GHz stock heatsink.

 

[Radboy]

Have CUSL2. Very happy with it. P3-700 @938 (1.8v), Golden Orb, 2x128 Mushkin rev 1.5 RAM 2-2-2 7/9T.

Never seen anyone pimp hardware that they don't even own like LXi does. You'd think, if he loves the stuff so much, why doesn't he own one?

When you actually own something, you often learn all the little nitty gritty stuff that you won't read about in an online review. Personally, I don't fell comfortable pimping stuff I don't own/use. Might be probs with the product I don't know about.

He might get one someday, and find out it has quirks that drive him crazy .. or maybe he won't (get one).

If the board is so sweet, let's hear from a few who actually own/use one. I would be more inclined to listen to what they have to say about it.

 

[oldfart]

LXi, that looks like a stock Intel H/S. Here is the 933 model. They may vary chip to chip a bit.

 

[LXi]

<<Never seen anyone pimp hardware that they don't even own like LXi does. You'd think, if he loves the stuff so much, why doesn't he own one?>>

Know something that pisses me off? I have to right to pimp whatever I like and you can do nothing to change that. As to why I dont own an MSI, its because I already have a P3V4X since 6 months ago, if Im upgrading now it will definitely be the MSI.



<<When you actually own something, you often learn all the little nitty gritty stuff that you won't read about in an online review.>>

My opinion is an opinion, your opinion is an opinion, nothing will make mine or yours more valuable than the other, and they're worth exactly what we pay for, nothing.



<<Personally, I don't fell comfortable pimping stuff I don't own/use. Might be probs with the product I don't know about.>>

On the other hand, you accuse somebody not to comment because he doesnt own it, after all its just your preffernce not to pimp. Its my prefference to pimp the product that I feel is the best. If you have no interest in learning products you dont own, thats your business. Im a person that likes to learn everything I can and give my best advice to somebody who needs help. Instead of being a chicken and comment only on things you own.



<<He might get one someday, and find out it has quirks that drive him crazy .. or maybe he won't (get one).>>

Oh then that will not be any of your concern. If I go crazy thats my business, if the MSI boards is quirky I can only blame on myself. Im very close into getting one of them, I'd be very happy to tell you how it runs once I got my own.



<<If the board is so sweet, let's hear from a few who actually own/use one. I would be more inclined to listen to what they have to say about it.>>

The agressiveness of CUSL2 owners like you usually drives everyone away. It looks like this CUSL2 club does not welcome anybody with an different opinion, if somebody disagree the CUSL2 is the best they'd get flamed. Oh yea how nice.