ASUS Striker II (NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI)

Last year, the Striker model (nForce 680i SLI) was ASUS' top-end model based on the NVIDIA chipset. Using the same PCB, the company released a couple more motherboards with similar specifications. At their capabilities, the boards were among the leaders, but nevertheless they aroused certain complaints among a part of the users. But even with its issues, the Striker series motherboard has proved to be in demand. The thing is, engineers at ASUS have developed their own PCB design and taken Intel's requirements regarding the compatibility to 45-nm Yorkfield and Wolfdale processors. Indeed, these processors start up successfully and run on motherboards of the Striker, P5N32-E SLI, and P5N32-E SLI PLUS models, unlike all the motherboards made following NVIDIA's reference design.

In 2008, ASUS has presented new motherboards based on the NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI chipset, and the top-end model has been codenamed Striker II. A few weeks back, we talked at length about this chipset, and now we are stressing out only its major distinctions from nForce 680i SLI. The new chipset supports 62 (!) PCI Express bus lanes, 32 of which meets the version 2.0 specifications. But to implement these lanes, the engineers at NVIDIA have added the additional chip - nForce 200.

In the end, the nForce 780i SLI is the most powerful and technologically advanced chipset in NVIDIA's produce assortment. NVIDIA has also debugged graphic and system drivers, which allowed the users to install the third video card and launch 3D applications in the 3-way SLI mode. All what is needed for that is to link them with a special bridge:

At the top, there is a bridge for 3-way SLI, in the bottom - one for the regular SLI.

In fact, right after the start of the tests we came across with the incompatibility of ASUS Striker II to Corsair overclocker memory modules. Precisely the same issues were there in the first Striker, so we came out for a new firmware version (we found version 902, as of February). However, it didn't help and only version 1101 eliminated the flaw. There were no other issues found, except the very low overclocking results (technically, there was no overclocking at all).

Normally, we treat overclocking as a nondocumented functionality of a motherboard which is able adding some performance boost. At the same time, the motherboard manufacturer does not give any guarantees as to the operational stability at increased frequencies and at the feasibility of attaining these frequencies. Therefore, while determining the overclocking capability of a motherboard, we don't make any conclusions regarding the pros and cons at that but simply express our impressions and overclocking results in the "Product Feature-set" section. Nevertheless, we can ignore the fact that Gigabyte 780SLI-DS5 based on the same chipset NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI successfully overcame the starting FSB = 500 MHz! The same can be said about motherboards of NVIDIA's reference design which run stably at speeds higher than 500 MHz.

ASUS Striker II Specifications

Package

The board is packaged in a rather impressive box of stylish design:

There is a handle to carry it around, and one page of the cover opens up like that of a book:

Inside the box, the user finds the motherboard in a plastic transparent box, as well as another box with accessories:

Package bundle

• motherboard;
• 1x software & drivers DVD;
• DVD with the Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts game;
• User's Manual in English;
• one ATA133 cable, FDD cable;
• 6x SerialATA cables + a power supply adapter (2 connectors);
• a cap for the rear panel of the housing;
• bracket for two USB 2.0 and one Firewire ports;
• SLI connector, 3-way SLI connector;
• kit of clamps;
• two additional fans;
• sound card SupremeFX II;
• Q-Connectors kit.

As compared to the previous Striker model, the package bundle has not been improved - just on the contrary. In particular, there is no SoundMAX microphone, no extra thermo-sensors (although the board does support them), the number of power supply adapters for SATA devices has gone down, and there is no disk with third-party software. Even no leather chain with the Republic of Gamers logo is missing! The only thing the Striker II board is more abundant in is that it comes bundled with two fans instead of one. In general, we make a conclusion that the package bundle of motherboards of this series is losing its exclusive traits and attraction, turning to look like that for ASUS' regular motherboards.

Now let's list the items inside the box. These are six SerialATA cables and one power supply adapter (two connectors), a bracket with a Firewire and two USB ports. Besides, the package bundle includes P-ATA and FDD cables, and a cap to the rear panel of the board (with noise-vibration-proof coating).

Besides, there are two mentioned fans, a kit of clamps, and the LCD Poster.

The latter appears to be a small screen meant to input diagnostic messages. Precisely the same screen was there in the first Striker. It was rigidly fixed on the rear panel, and the LCD Poster can be brought over to any convenient place (as long as the cable length allows that).

The user's guide stands out with deep coverage and quality of composition.

Apart from Windows and Linux drivers, the DVD contains a set of Asus' proprietary utilities (PC Probe 2, AIBooster, Update, MyLogo3 + a pack of screensavers). Besides, there is also Norton Internet Security 2005, and Kaspersky Anti-Virus, and - look out! - a licensed version of 3DMark 06 Advanced Edition! Another DVD contains the game Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.

Here is our view regarding bundling a motherboard with games. Needless to say, it is nice to get a fresh and licensed game. However, that does not add to the attraction of the motherboard. Tastes of users are highly different, and it is not certain that the game will please to the buyer. In particular, we completely ignored the game Ghost Recon which was shipped with the previous "Republic of Gamers" motherboards. But the game Company of Heroes has increased the time of testing the Striker II model by two times at least!

Now let's look at the flexible SLI connector aimed at joining two video cards.

Besides that, there is a rigid SLI connector to merge three video cards into a 3-way SLI array.

Finally, the board has an audio subsystem which is made as a separate board SupremeFX II:

ASUS Striker II Features and Layout

Once ASUS started integrating water-blocks into the cooling system of motherboards, no one is longer amazed by regular radiators. There are so many radiators and pipes on the Striker II motherboard: radiators are installed on top of all the major components of the board, with pipes interconnecting the radiators.

We should also note that positioning of the main components of the motherboard does not create any issues for the assembly operator. In particular, the main 24-pin power connector is installed on the board's bottom edge, with the additional 8-pin connector (the backward compatibility to the PSU with a 4-pin cable has been preserved) - on the right-hand edge:

For the convenience of plugging in a 4-pin cable, the "redundant" pins are closed with a plastic lid.

In fact, there can be found something to find fault with the PCB design: after installation of a full-length PCI-Express video card into the first slot, DIMM slots are partly blocked.

Near these slots there is a 4-pin CPU_FAN connector to plug in the processor cooler.

Besides it, there are seven (!) more 3-pin connectors: CHA_FAN1 and OPT_FAN2 -near the PCI-E x1 slots, OPT_FAN1 and OPT_FAN3 - near the PCI2 slot, CHA_FAN2 - in the bottom-left corner, with CHA_FAN3 and PWR_FAN near the DIMM slots. Note that the Striker II board not only determines the rotational speed of all the eight fans but also controls their speeds depending on the temperatures.

On the north bridge, there is an impressive radiator connected to the radiators of the south bridge and the power supply module with heat pipes.

There is also a small radiator on the nForce 200 bridge which is linked to the remaining cooling system via a heat pipe.

Under the north bridge, there are four DIMM slots. The maximum memory capacity makes 8 GB.

To enable the dual-channel mode, the memory modules should be inserted into the slots of the same color. Once voltage is applied to the board, illumination of the Power and Reset buttons, as well as that of the decorative block (with an illumination) lights up on the NB radiator.

As regards the expansion options, the board uses three PCI Express x16 slots (all with holders) as well as two PCI Express x1, and two PCI slots.

It should be noted that to the blue PCI Express õ16 slots there are 16 PCI-E version 2.0 bus lanes allocated, 16 - to the white PCI Express õ16 slot, albeit of version 1.0

Expansion options

ASUS Striker II supports 6 SerialATA-II links. The matching connectors are colored blue, positioned near the south bridge and are orientated in parallel to the board's plane.

Then, on the board there are two Gigabit LAN controllers 88E1116 made by Marvell:

The board supports ten USB 2.0 ports, six of which are positioned on the rear panel, with 4 more plugged in via plates (the board comes bundled with a bracket for two ports). Besides, the board offers support for the Firewire bus. For that, there is an additional VT6308P controller made by VIA. Therefore, the board offers support for two IEEE1394 ports: one on the rear panel, with the other one connected with a plate (available in the package bundle).

The last thing to dwell on is the integrated High Definition Audio. The ADI 1988B chip is used as the codec which supports output for 8 channels.

Recall that the audio subsystem is on a separate board.

The board's rear panel looks like this:

You can notice see a complete lack of LPT and COM ports. At the same time, most part of the rear panel is not used up. We note a connector to plug in a LCD Poster, optical and coaxial SP-DIF outputs, a Firewire port, as well as buttons to clear the CMOS settings.

Traditionally, a jumpers layout diagram:

The diagnostic LCD Poster screen allows keeping track of all the stages of system start-up, which allows localizing a fault whenever a trouble comes up. Engineers at ASUS have implemented an additional feature that prevents the LCD screen from running idle upon successful start-up: the screen displays a user line or the current time. Both can be selected from the BIOS:

Unfortunately, you can't enter a long line (although it can't be simpler to implement scrolling), and in the line itself you can't input many characters (e.g., "-" or space).

Now on to the BIOS settings.

BIOS

The BIOS of ASUS Striker II is based on the Award BIOS Phoenix version.

The extended pack of memory settings is in the "Extreme Tweaker/Overclocking/Memory Timing Settings" section:

The parameter in charge of selecting the memory operating frequency is in the section dealing with overclocking settings:

The frequency values are displayed in the quadruple form. By the way, the user does not have to rack brains but simply choose the required memory frequency multiplier:

Now move on to the section to do with the system monitoring.

This section is really powerful. First, the board is able monitoring the current temperature of the CPU and the system, as well as three temperatures from three additional thermal sensors. The user gets the unique opportunity to keep track of the temperature of any system component within reach of these sensors (unfortunately, these sensors are missing in the package bundle).

Secondly, the board monitors all whatever voltages of the system:

Thirdly, the board monitors the speed of all the eight(!) fans which can be plugged in:

and controls their speed using the Q-Fan feature.

In the end, the prize for the best system monitoring now moves to ASUS Striker II ! We also note that you can do the system monitoring from within Windows with the PC Probe2 utility.

It should be noted that the user gets access to all the technologies supported by modern processors:

as well as displays the BIOS settings in multiple languages:

Another point to note is the support for the MyLogo 3, a feature for changing the boot-up image (POST-screen), as well as the CrashFree BIOS 2, which allows restoring the damaged BIOS firmware using the image on a diskette, flash disk, or a CD (note that the first Striker supports the more advanced Crashfree BIOS 3 which allows restoring the firmware via a flash drive as well).

The BIOS version can be updated in a number of ways. First, let's make use of the AFUDOS (DOS) and ASUS Update (Windows) utilities, and in the latter case the POST image can be recorded into the BIOS with the MyLogo 3 feature.

The user can resort to the EZ Flash 2 utility integrated into the BIOS.

In conclusion, we note the OC Profile technology which allows saving all the BIOS settings into memory and loading them on demand.

Overclocking and stability

Now let's look at the power converter. It uses a 8-phase power scheme, in which there are two 270 mkF and eleven 560 mkF capacitors.

As we already stated, there are massive radiators on the power components. On installing a powerful CPU cooler, these radiators are cooled by the incident air flow. In other cases (e.g., with a water-powered cooling system on) the user can install additional radiators (available in the package bundle).

Now move on to examining the overclocking features which are gathered in the "Extreme Tweaker" section.

Below listed are the overclocking features. First off, ASUS Striker II allows adjusting the FSB speed within 133 to 800 MHz in 1 MHz increments. It is convenient that you can enter the required value which has to be divided by 4 to know the precise value of FSB speed.

The user can change the HyperTransport bus multiplier on the section between the NB and CPU:

Besides, the PCI Express bus speed is adjustable within 100 MHz to 200 MHz (also in 1 MHz increments). In so doing, the bus speed can be set independently for each PCI Express x16 slot.

If necessary, the user can change the processor's multiplier (which is locked towards the increase in all Intel processors):

The adjustment range is within 6 to 50 in 1 increments. The next feature allows adjusting voltage on the CPU (Vcore) within 1.1V to 2.4V in 0.00625-0.025V increments.

The next feature raises voltage on the memory modules:

The adjustment range for Vmem is extremely wide (within 1.8V to 3.4V in 0.02V increments)! Moreover, there are a few more settings to raise voltage on the memory controller:

(which can be done independently for each line).

There is also a couple of useful features for adjusting voltage on the chipset. The north bridge voltage adjustment range is within 1.2V to 3.0V in 0.02V increments:

The voltage adjustment range on the south bridge is is within 1.5V to 1.875V in 0.05V increments:

Then, ASUS Striker II allows adjusting voltage on the HyperTransport bus within 1.2V to 1.95V in 0.05V increments:

Besides, the overclocker can adjust voltage on the CPU VTT within 1.2V to 1.55V in 0.05V increments:

Finally, there is a feature for adjusting voltage on the nForce 200 bridge within 1.2V to 1.55V in 0.05V increments:

The board does not support the CPU dynamic overclocking feature ("NOS") which was implemented on the Striker model.

However, there is a feature for automatic setting of all the required parameters during overclocking to a fixed value (selection of overclocking rate is defined in percentage).

But overclocking from within Windows is done with the Ai Suite utility. In any case, the current version of the utility allows adjusting only the FSB speed.

Now on to the practical overclocking.

We used the most recent BIOS (902) firmware, tried various memory modules, and even replaced two PSUs. But in the end, the board failed to overcome the FSB = 400 MHz in the end. 400 MHz is not overclocking but the nominal frequency of Intel processors which are to be released in a few weeks. If we compare this result versus the other, we should note that MSI P7N Diamond also failed to overcome 400 MHz, and Gigabyte 780SLI-DS5 easily got over 500 MHz (524). That is, NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI is not to blame here (although we can't rule out its contribution) - engineers at ASUS should go on improving the overclocking tools.

In a couple of weeks, we have come back to tests of Striker II and tried the fresh BIOS (1101) version. But we found not substantial increase in the overclocking results.

Performance tests

Interestingly, ASUS Striker II is quite precise at setting the nominal FSB speed:

During the performance tests, we compared ASUS Striker II versus ASUS P5E64 WS Professional (Intel X38) and Gigabyte X48-DQ6 (Intel X48).

In our test setup, we used the following hardware:

Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.

Now on to the gaming benchmarks.

Tests of application software.

Video encoding (DivX, Xvid) was measured in seconds, i.e. the less the better.

Data compression (WinRAR) was measured in MB/sec, i.e. the more, the better.

Final Words

To start with, the package bundle of the Striker II is worse than that of the first Striker (based on 680i SLI), the expansion options are weaker, and the overclocking results won't hold water! (perhaps because of the flaw in the chipset). The only thing the board can boast is the chipset which gives support for the PCI Express v2.0, as well as the 3-way SLI.

Conclusion

• excellent stability and performance;
• support for SLI, 3-way SLI (3 PCI Express x16; 2x16 v2.0+1x16 v1.0 slots);
• support for SerialATA II (6 links, RAID);
• support for ParallelATA (1 link);
• two Gigabit LAN controllers and integrated 8-channel High Definition Audio;
• support for USB2.0 (10 ports) and Firewire (2 ports);
• wide selection of ASUS' proprietary technologies (PC Probe II, OC Profile, CrashFree BIOS 2, MyLogo2, Q-Fan 2, etc.);
• additional set of features - AI Proactive (AI Overclocking, AI Net 2,);
• passive system for cooling the board;
• eight connectors for plugging in fans with support for Q-Fan 2.

• overstated price.

• low overclocking capability (FSB ~400 MHz);
• additional LEDs and Power, Reset, Clear CMOS buttons;
• diagnostic LCD-Poster screen and backlight of the board;
• the audio subsystem is implemented as a separate board.