OC3D Review: Asus Striker II Extreme 790i DDR3 Motherboard

[Phoenix]

Okay, screw the price, I'm hereby selling my P5N-T Deluxe and RAM to the highest bidder, I want this one instead. Crap, and I just bought a new PC.

 

[PCFlip]

okay I read your review and WOW this mobo is sick, if I was a nVidia SLI fan I would be all over this board....

 

[Mullet]

Ohhhhhh very nice board indeed...and there I was considering flogging some of my kit...

Awesome review Jim, cracking shots of the board - thorough job as ever!!

Pricey tho innit.

 

[Mr. Smith]

Ohhhhhh very nice board indeed...and there I was considering flogging some of my kit...

Awesome review Jim, cracking shots of the board - thorough job as ever!!

Pricey tho innit.

How long ago did you get your sli set-up and it is still the best performing thing you could have? (except quad sli/gx2)... Lucky bar stool...

 

[Mullet]

He he he... I see you've eclipsed me in ye olde 3D Mark 06 benchie....

I've had 8800GTX Sli running for about 12 months now, and am well happy to be honest. Opens up some additional settings in COD4 graphics and seems to cope with Crysis pretty well at 1920x1200 with everything set to "high".

Bang for buck...this new striker is a crock of ROG sheeeite, but, me being me I am sort of tempted to ditch DDR2 and hop on the pricey Taxi to a new life with DDR3 arm in arm with the new striker.

Only problem is this, if anything I need to downsize bud as my kids need somewhere to eat the grub as much of the dining table is being hogged by my l33t G70.

 

[PP Mguire]

I think nvidia know this about the community and are charging a premium for it :/

Its the price Asus put on it, not Nvidia.

 

[n0nsense]

Nice Board with normal price

The thing is, that this is quite normal price behavior.

First, very high end part with lot of unnecessary features.

Second, same chipset/performance board with affordable price.

Exactly like it was with 680i.

First there was Striker Extreme,

then just Striker,

and then, P5N32-E SLI, which even has same PCB as strikers.

From my personal experience with the cheapest 680i from Asus, this one is perfect 680i board. It's cheaper then reference boards, and still has many Striker bonuses :worship:

The same will happen with 790. There is 790i Ultra, and just 790i.

 

[Toxcity]

Mmm... everyone seems to be going crazy over this board. Im not sure why?

Can someone enlighten me as of why this majorly overpriced motherboard is so good when it was getting beaten by x48 chipset board which is a fraction of the price?

The only up side to it is SLI.. which lets be honest doesn't have the price/performance ratio.

But as I said earlier.. NICE REVIEW JIMBO!

 

[Bungral]

Mmm... everyone seems to be going crazy over this board. Im not sure why?

Can someone enlighten me as of why this majorly overpriced motherboard is so good when it was getting beaten by x48 chipset board which is a fraction of the price?

The only up side to it is SLI.. which lets be honest doesn't have the price/performance ratio.

But as I said earlier.. NICE REVIEW JIMBO!

Well it trashes the other chipset on the memory fronts and now its caught up with all the other aspects its a serious contender apart, obviously, from the price.

It also overclocks better than any of the others on that chip with a brand new bios so with updates to that there could be even higher results.

And the option of SLI is nice even if you don't currently plan on using it.

Just my thoughts

 

[Toxcity]

Well it trashes the other chipset on the memory fronts and now its caught up with all the other aspects its a serious contender apart, obviously, from the price.

It also overclocks better than any of the others on that chip with a brand new bios so with updates to that there could be even higher results.

And the option of SLI is nice even if you don't currently plan on using it.

Just my thoughts

Well said Bungral!

Still personally the place to be for overclocking is Intels side.

 

[n0nsense]

Mmm... everyone seems to be going crazy over this board. Im not sure why?

Can someone enlighten me as of why this majorly overpriced motherboard is so good when it was getting beaten by x48 chipset board which is a fraction of the price?

The only up side to it is SLI.. which lets be honest doesn't have the price/performance ratio.

But as I said earlier.. NICE REVIEW JIMBO!

Because this is best memory handler. It can work with any type of memory.

Even ECC. It automatically select the best profile (even on non SLI/EPP memory). The overclocking to 450 (1700) (on dual cores) FSB is simple selecting the desired FSB.

Easy life for lazy people that do want to get all possible of there hardware

 

[Bungral]

Well said Bungral!

Still personally the place to be for overclocking is Intels side.

I'm on the side of whoever gives me the best.. If the P45 comes out and wipes the floor with the 790 then fair play.. P45 it is.

Anyway aint you a green lover??

 

[Toxcity]

I sure am a Green lover.

But after the 680s not so much a fan of their chipsets. GPUs oh yes.

I just encountered little problems that annoy.

You don't spend loads of money on a board that has lots of errors/boundaries.

So Jim advised me on my next motherboard (some awesome advice) and switched to intel.

 

[PP Mguire]

The only up side to it is SLI.. which lets be honest doesn't have the price/performance ratio.

Not unless your using 9600GTs. About 80% scaling on any res. Im thinking of going this route.

 

[Toxcity]

Not unless your using 9600GTs. About 80% scaling on any res. Im thinking of going this route.

Good point.. SLI = not worth it unless you have 2 9600s.

 

[breadloaf]

Help please

"Is nVidia's latest 790i chipset an X48 killer? We put it through its paces on Asus' latest Republic of Gamers motherboard."

Asus Striker II Extreme Review

Digg It

Jim - Great review

I have just purchased one of these boards. I have water cooled the Chipset too as I am aiming to push my Q6600 to the limit. However I cannot even get it to run stable at 3.2Ghz I have had the chip running stable in a Striker II 780 at 3.2 but that was the max I could get - I thought this was down to the incredible heat from the NB etc so I opted to RMA the board and swap it for the 790

Can I ask what settings you used for a 3.2 - 3.4 and 3.6 Ghz overclock please

I am using Corsair 1333mhz Memory

Asus Striker II 790i

Q6600 G0 Stepping

4 x 250GB Hard Drives RAID 5

900W Targan PSU

2 x Geforce 8800 GTX

Sound Blaster Xfi Platinum

I cannot even run a memory test @ 3.2 Ghz without the machine resetting

Prime 05 crashes the machines (it hangs or resets)

However the machine seems to run fine using stock clock of 2.4Ghz

I have tried setting the NB to 1.5V memory to 1.7V and 1.45V/1.5V for CPU

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

 

[Luigi]

Have you tried upping the FSB voltage?

 

[JN]

Hi breadloaf. What BIOS are you running on the board. I might be able to give you some nice beta ones if Asus give me the thumbs up.

Another thing. Are you sure its not just a real dodgy CPU you've got there? I can get past 3.2 with a retail Q6600 on an ancient chipset.

 

[breadloaf]

Hi breadloaf. What BIOS are you running on the board. I might be able to give you some nice beta ones if Asus give me the thumbs up.

Another thing. Are you sure its not just a real dodgy CPU you've got there? I can get past 3.2 with a retail Q6600 on an ancient chipset.

The one that shipped with the board (0402)

I have had the chip up to 3.2 on another board

I can get 3.4 and 3.6 but not stable

I think I have had a probem with the memory

just tested it as 3.4 Ghz and it crashed - set the correct timings for it manually test is running now and has been for 40 mins (before it crashed before 5)

I am hoping that the memory has been my problem - I am sure the chip will go higher - just need to get it stable

Thanks for the rapid reply too - how can I get the bios updates off you ?

Breadloaf

 

[Luigi]

Thats wierd, the memory is unlinked on nvidia chips so that shouldnt matter

let us know your thoughts on the board.