The CUV4X is also from ASUS, and is built around the VIA VT82C694Z chipset. It has a Socket 370 interface, which can take in the PIII and the Celeron processor in the FC-PGA packaging and the older Celerons in the PPGA packaging. Getting the motherboard up and running isn’t a problem at all. It’s built on an ATX form factor and all the slots are well laid out and clearly marked. The ports are also onboard and color coded for easy identification.

The quality of manuals was also good. The CUV4X can take in a maximum of 1.5 GB of RAM in its three DIMM slots. It has five PCI slots for devices such as modems, TV tuner card, etc. It also has an AMR, which is to house the next generation modems and sound cards but are still not available in India. The board has onboard audio so it could save you the money of an extra sound card. It also has a 4X AGP slot which will take in your graphics card. The only thing that’s possibly missing is an ISA slot if you are so inclined. Other than that, feature wise it’s a great motherboard.

On the performance front the CUV4X managed to get very good scores in all the benchmarks. In 3D Winbench 2000 it had an overall frame rate of 92.2, which was the highest in the group. In Quake III Arena it had average frame rate of 101 fps, which put it at second spot by just two frames. In Business Winstone also its score was 31.9, which was one the best in the group. The board had an overall aggregate performance score of 94.3 out of 100, which is very good. So you have nothing to worry about in the performance department also. Another thing going for this motherboard is its attractive price tag of Rs 7,900 and a warranty of one year.

Another variant of the ASUS CUV4X is available as the CUV4X-C. This model is based on the VIA VT82C694X chipset and priced at Rs 8,300. The only major difference between the two is that the CUV4X-C doesn’t have onboard sound and has support for only 1 GB of RAM as compared to 1.5 GB with the CUV4X. Why is the more feature rich board cheaper? Should it not be the other way around? Well, blame it on the different vendors for the two boards!