Features

BIOS

Along with the usual array of options, ASUS managed to put in some fun tweaks in the BIOS. The overclocking options on this board rival the best on the market. You're able to adjust in 1 MHz increments to levels where even water-cooling wouldn't help. Voltage controls take you from the default of 1.65 up to a scorching 1.95 volts. Also available are jumpers to increase how much power the RAM gets - bumping you from the default 2.5v up to 2.95v.

As usual with almost all ASUS motherboards, you can still overclock via jumpers and dip switches. The overclocking options available via this method, however, are greatly limited in comparison to overclocking through the BIOS. Should you still care to go through with the joy of pushing little knobs, there is a switch guide printed right on the motherboard for your convenience.

To keep with the overclocking theme, ASUS also provided a thermal monitoring system. It monitors the usual suspects - CPU temperature, motherboard temperature, fan speeds.

Memory Speeds

An option appearing in many of the newer VIA chipsets is the ability to run the system memory faster than the rest of the system bus. Even if your CPU is clocking in on an 100 MHz FSB, the motherboard allows you to run the RAM considerably higher. Although, running the memory out of sync with the FSB usually doesn't yield a significant performance gain. You also have the option to enable 4-way memory interleaving in the BIOS.

Chips

The CUV266 uses the VIA Apollo Pro 266 chipset, which is essentially the same chipset we previewed a few days ago, the KT266. Unless VIA got really lazy about labeling chipsets, and decided to call them the same thing, the only way these two differ is by how they communicate to the CPU.

Should you want more information on the "266" chipset, checkout Brandon's handiwork. He covers all the fun stuff like the Northbridge, Southbridge, and the nifty V-Link architecture.