Asus CUV4X Motherboard Review

The first thing you notice about the CPU socket is the handle. Unlike a lot of socket 370 handles, the one used by Asus is bent down to  below the level where the CPU mounts. This way you can put on a big PPGA cooler like those from Alpha or Global Win. This is a really nice touch and it's good to see the Asus engineers doing their home work. 

Here you can see the well thought out layout of the motherboard. The only questionable move is the placement of the power supply connector. It's kinda low and may not reach your power supply if you use an extra tall case. A better spot for it would have been at the top of the board, like Abit did with their BX133-RAID

While most people will be using the Asus softmenu to overclock their CPU, you can do the same thing with the DIP switches just above the floppy and IDE inputs. The selection of bus speed is not as great as the softmenu, and I really can't see why anyone would use it over the software setup.

It's a snug fit but the big Alpha PPGA cooler will fit on the CUV4X without any problems. There is lots of space between the CPU and the DIMM slots, but there is nearly no space to spare on the other side. The fan header is placed nice, and close right next to the CPU. 

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