The CUSL2 from Asus beat all others for the top spot in the high-end category. It was the most feature-rich board and scored a perfect 100 in our feature section. Based on the Intel 815E chipset, it has a Socket 370 interface which can accommodate PIII or Celeron processors. The board supports 66/100/133 MHz FSBs which are used by different processors and SDRAMs. The board is easy to set up. It has ATX form factor with onboard, color-coded ports. All slots on the board are also well laid out and clearly marked, making installation a breeze. All motherboard settings can be done through the BIOS in jumper-less mode and alternatively through the DIP switches. The board supports a maximum of 512 MB RAM in its three DIMM slots. Expansion is taken care of with its six PCI and two CNR slots. One of the CNR slots is shared with the 6th PCI slot. The board supports AGP 4x and UltraDMA100, which takes care of your future requirements. It has two USB ports integrated onboard and three more ports with an external connector.

The CUSL2 doesn’t let up in performance either, scoring the highest in its category with 98 out of a total of 100. It got the highest scores in Indy3D—a benchmark that runs some high-end applications like MCAD—and averaged a frame rate of 43.5. In Business Winstone99, which runs normal productivity applications, it managed to grab the top seat with a score of 32.3.

The board doesn’t let you down in bundled software either, as it comes with a whole range, from anti-virus and multimedia applications to system utilities for your PC. Of course, all these features and performance come at a price, which was the highest in this category. The board has a warranty of two years if purchased from Rashi.

Another variation of this board, the Asus CUSL2-C is also available. It’s priced Rs 500 lower than the CUSL2, making it the second most expensive in its category. Being the same model with minor changes, the board gave identical performance. However, it ended up third overall, losing slightly on features. The CUSL2-C doesn’t come with onboard VGA and has only a single CNR slot.