CUSL2 Questions

[camieabz]

I've a few queries redarding the Asus CUSL2 and variations.

"Intel® Accelerated Hub Architecture Features a dedicated high speed hub link between the ICH2 and GMCH with a bandwidth of 266MB/sec - twice the maximum bandwidth of the PCI bus."

What exactly does this apply to? Does this mean the PCI cards work at twice the performance?

"CUSL2 (socket 370, i815e 133MHz, UDMA100, AGP 4x, ATX, 3xDIMM)

CUSL2-C (socket 370, i815ep 133MHz, UDMA100, AGP 4x, ATX, 3xDIMM, CNR, sound)

CUSL2-M (socket 370, i815ep 133MHz, UDMA100, AGP 4x, ATX, 3xDIMM, CNR, sound, vga)"

Now these are the stats I found for the different variations. (The microAT and the black pearl are of no interest to me)

Now lots of people keep going on about the CUSL2-C, but I can't think why to buy a mobo with onboard sound if there is one without. Am I missing something?

With this mobo, it is possible to have 512Mb SDRAM. If running Win98se is this worthwhile? Should I be thinking of WinME? (gasps & screams) I play quite a few games, so Win2000 is probably not for me.

Finally, the usual problem of IDE/RAID configuration raises its ugly head.
What are the best configurations for:
1 x UDMA100 HDD, CD-RW, CD-ROM.
3 x UDMA100 RAID 0+1, CD-RW, CD-ROM.

I still can't decide which of the UDMA33 devices should run on master. I would probably only use the CD-RW for back-ups.

Many thanks in advance!

<b>
Heatsinks, fans & whisky...Everythings Cool!
</b>

 

[Crashman]

CUSL2=original, it has onboard video out, which is automatically disbled when an AGP card is used.

CUSL2-C=Original CUSL2 with the video out port removed. This has no affect on performance, but does lower the price.

CUSL2-M is Micro ATX.

The 266MB/s link refers to the bridge between the north bridge and south bridge, and the faster rate means faster comminication with the PCI bus as a whole, but has no affect on individual cards.

 

[Guest]

i think the cusl2-c come with or without audio. i have one without the audio. i think the cusl2 is most commonly found with audio.

 

[Crashman]

I have the CUSL2 without audio. When I ordered mine, no one on Pricewatch was carrying the one with audio yet.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine