Asus CUSL2 vs. Abit SE6

[Soccer55]

Is the CUSL2 that much better than the SE6? I know there are subtle differences such as more bus speed options and vio tweaking on the CUSL2, but other than that, is the performance about the same? Also, is there a date set for CUSL2 arrival here in the states? Thanks in advance.

Tom

 

[AndyHui]

Definitely the ASUS CUSL2. The board really has quality, something that Abit has had a little trouble with in the past.

ASUS has always been known for having the fastest boards as well.

 

[wm1]

I have the abit se6 and a p3 800 the board is fast and
very stable with a gf2 and a adaptec 29160 scsi card.

 

[PliotronX]

Where did you get that SE6 at?

 

[Ulysses]

The CUSL2 is an AnandTecm Editor's choice - it doesn't get any better.

See:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1274

 

[Aboroth]

So what? The Anandteam didn't even review any other i815 boards yet including the the SE6. That award doesn't mean anything in this comparison. It only really compares it with other boards they have reviewed.

 

[PliotronX]

Viva la CUBX

 

[IceStorm]

I have an SE6. I'm in the process of RMAing it. At first, it was not able to complete an exended POST - the one with the RAM count. I tested with no less than SIX different DIMMs, including different slots, different speeds, the board mounted in the case, the board on a cardboard box, etc. The CPU's a PIII-650 cB0 retail with an Alpha HSF. I figured it was a BIOS bug of some sort.

The new BIOS didn't fix the problem. No biggie, the board was working. Two days ago, that stopped being true. The board is now spontaneously rebooting itself, even at stock speeds.

I'm getting an Iwill Slocket II in the early part of next week so I can test the CPU in an Asus P3B-F that's been running rock solid at 124FSB with a Slot1 pre-cB0 PIII-650 at 1.8v for the past month. I'm not expecting the CPU to be a problem.

I've ordered the CUSL2 from www.bigfootcomputers.com in Canada. I'm in the USA, but the USA won't have the boards for a bit. I will get it either next week or the following week.

What concerns me about the Abit board is the voltage on the CPU at default settings. It's 0.03 below what it should be, according to the CPU monitor. At the 1.80v level, it's at 1.77, at 1.65 it's at 1.62. If this is true, I'm guessing VIO is too low as well. This is with two different power supplies, and one's an Antec PP-303X that powered an Athlon and a P3V4X with no problems.

When it works, the SE6 is a great board. No problem with AGP, no problem installing Winblows. I'm hoping the replacement board I get does not have these problems.

Truth be told, I'll probably keep the CUSL2 for myself and put the Abit in another machine for a relative. I'll be testing the intergrated video and audio once I have a working board.

Just my $0.02

 

[mschell]

I've just got my SE6 up and running, replacing a BF6. I haven't tried enabling the extended POST but the board boots and runs fine.
The processor is a 550E now running at 770MHz(140MHz FBS) but it did that on the BF6. Unfortunately, 145MHz(800CPU) is the next choice available and I get the failed load .vxd driver message when Windows loads.
Setting up this board was a bear, the I815 chipset loads many new devices and even though I deleted all the BX entries(PnP BIOS) in the device manager before installing the board, Windows installed multiple amounts of many devices which means safe mode reboots - delete everything and start over. I think the next time I would install a fresh OS over the hardware to save the 20 or so reboots.

My performance testing backs up most of the published test results, the BE looses around 250 3D Marks in the Default 3D Mark2000 bench but my Asus V6600 seems to be able to OC higher now, I can max both sliders, that gets me back around 150 marks which puts me 100 in the hole. One thing that benchmark numbers don't show is how games seem to play. I do mostly Flt sims and they all seem to run smoother, Janes FA-18 doesn't randomly kick back to the desktop, MS Flt sim doesn't display the erratic frame rates when run on the BF board at 140MHz FBS. This may be due to the video card running in spec AGP speeds or something else. I don't have any OpenGL apps so I can't comment there.

One place where this board kicks butt is disk speed. I'm running an IBM 75GXP ATA/100 drive and it flies when hooked to this board but you do have to load the ATA/100 utility from the Abit disk. I run a HP 8X burner slaved to the CDROM reader on the secondary channel, the interface keeps the burners cache stocked better than the same setup run master-primary/master secondary on the BF(the HD ran off a Hot Rod ATA/66 controller card).

The ability to choose the memory bus speed is great for troubleshooting overclocking failures where you're not sure if it's the memory or the CPU holding you back. I still have to experiment with CAS timings, the system is presently running the slower default settings as my RAM is not the best but ran at 140MHz CAS3 on the BF6.
Overall I think it's a good board, I could not wait for the other manufactures offerings as a friend with cash wanted my BF. It will take the competition getting into the hands of the users out there to see just how good this board is. I do agree with Aboroth that Anand giving the CUSl2 the editors choice award after only testing two boards is a bit ridiculous, it's not hard at all to get a second place finish with only two people entered in a race, - M.

 

[Mem]

Soccer55,go with the Asus CUSL2 ,I`m also buying one, at the moment I have a 21 month old Abit LM6 board which has been excellent so my decision is unbiased, Asus do make very high quality boards thats why they are slightly more expensive then other brands.

 

[throchris]

I need a board really soon. so should i order the board from bigfootcomputers.com or some other place. I am talking about the cusl2

thankx

 

[dihaV]

Why opt for the i815e design when a BX at 133MHz fsb is cheaper and with most good quality boards outperform all the new Intel chips (too many to list, though I like the ASUS CU-BX, and the Abit BE6-II). So you can save about 30-50$US on one of the proven BX boards or jump the gun on a new design that doesn't gain you the performance expected from the increased price.

 

[DataFly]

The i815E supports a 1/2 AGP divider, so if your GFX card is sensitive to the bus speed, the i815E is a better choice. It also has support for AGP4X and ATA 100, though neither are needed yet. Also don't forget that for some the asynchronous FSB and memory timings can be useful. If your CPU could do 150 FSB, but your RAM maxed out at 133, then you could overclock the 133/100/33 setting to max out CPU speed (I know, lower memory bandwidth...).


About the performance difference...
The BX has been around for a good few years so motherboard manufacturers have had a lot of time to optimize the BIOS and the board in general. I'm sure the i815E's performance will improve with future BIOS updates.

 

[Yoshi]

Amen, I just cannot get excited about the i815 chipset when BX pretty much outperforms it at a lower cost. Some people seem to show concern over the 133Mhz bus with AGP video cards, but this has not seemed to be a big problem. When Intel/AMD/VIA come out with something ground breaking I will get excited. Until then BX for me.