Asus CUBX
Board Revision: 1.01
BIOS Version: 1005
Some weeks ago, we already took a look at the latest Asus BX motherboard. All names of the recent Asus motherboards start with CU, thus also the CUBX. Back in Mai, the CUBX already proved its qualities in a short test . Performance and features were both on a high level. This time, the board is being compared against several competitors, which all did their homework well.
The CUBX features six PCI slots, four DIMM sockets, AGP 2x and an ATA66 chip from CMD. Thanks to this, you may use up to eight IDE devices. Additionally, five USB ports are available.
Configuring the CPU, you get two choices. Either you do everything using the comfortable BIOS setup (including Vcore adjustment), or via some DIP switches. A jumper defines, which way will be used by the board.
Asus supplies all required cables (one IDE, one ATA66, one floppy) as well as an USB adapter cable, which you will need in order to use the USB ports 3, 4 and 5. And you will also get an excellent manual.
On board you will find three headers for best fan connectivity. As the system runs at up to 155 MHz FSB, cooling is a very important issue. The CUBX seems to be very overclocking-friendly when using a Pentium III CPU, but it seems as Asus did not test configurations running overclocked new Celeron CPUs. I got several emails from some of our readers, pointing out that they ran into trouble when trying to overclock a Celeron 566 to 850 MHz. In deed we could not run the Celeron at this clock speed, whilst it was no problem with the ABit BE6-II (using 1.60V). The CUBX did start at 100 x8.5, but the system crashed when booting Windows. Please note that this did only happen when running a new Celeron CPU at 100 instead of 66 MHz system speed. All other configurations (old Celeron and Pentium III) worked absolutely reliable.
Conclusion: The CUBX is one of the fastest and best equipped BX motherboards. Also it offers excellent stability. But we faced some problems trying to overclock the new Celeron. Celeron overclocking will only be possible, as far as you don't need to rise the voltage.
