Bij Digit-Life hebben ze eens kort gekeken naar de Asus CUSL2-C i815EP plank. Dit moederbordje is gebaseerd op de i815EP chipset en is dus niet onnodig uitgerust met onboard VGA. Daarnaast is het AGP Pro slot vervangen door een standaard exemplaar en is er een CNR slot afgetrapt. Onboard audio is ook verdwenen en er is wat gekort op USB aansluitingen. Dit alles heeft wel een positief effect op de prijs, die schijnbaar zo'n 25 dollar lager is dan bij de CUSL2. Zijn performance en stabiliteit zijn uiteraard wel gebleven:
They took out the second CNR, a thin slot of half-width which shared the space with a thin sixth PCI, the pins of which are more sensitive to the mechanical force; you shouldn't take in/out the cards out of this slot. VGA connector of integrated video disappeared as well, but the layout didn't allow the second COM-port to be put on its regular place - it 's left on the front edge of the board. USB hub was been taken out as well - 4 ports are more than enough.
Another problem concerns the board's complete set. So, what does it lack of? We don't have practically free sound in AC'97 codec, 3 audio connectors - Line-In, Line-Out and Microphone, and a connector for a joy-stick. They seems to consider that a customer of CUSL2 or CUSL2-C doesn't need a cheap sound, in any case it would buy something like Live! or Vortex2.
Interestingly that CUSL2-C doesn't work together with PPGA Celeron which can be found on the market from 366 to 500 MHz.
[...] So, the flagship model of ASUS on the chipset from Intel got rid of integrated video and some other unnecessary things, lost 20-25 USD, and now it's ready to fight against competitors in order to win users' hearts. So, meet ASUS CUSL2-C!
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