Asus Striker II Formula 780i Socket 775 Motherboard
Introduction & Specifications
Published: 8th January 2008 | Source: Asus | Price: £220 |
Introduction & Specifications
Back in August 2006, Asus unleashed their "Republic of Gamers" range of motherboards to the market. Designed to appeal to gamers and overclockers alike, the Nvidia 590 and 680i based "Crosshair" and "Striker Extreme" motherboards came complete with features such as on-board power switches, high quality "SupremeFX" sound, heatpipe cooling and overclocker-orientated BIOS's. However, after the release of the 680i Nvidia went a bit quiet on the chipset front, allowing Intel to steal the limelight with their extremely respectable P35 and X38 chipsets. Of course, Asus made full use of Intel's offerings by bringing some of their most overclocker friendly motherboards to date (codenamed the "Maximus" and "Blitz") into the market.
Now, after almost 2 years of waiting, Nvidia are once again back on the scene with their latest chipset dubbed the 780i. With full support for Tripple-SLI and PCI-E 2.0, the 780i certainly seems to have the right stuff. However, with reports of the chipset being nothing more than a "re-hashed 680i with PCI-E 2.0" floating around the internet, will the latest ROG motherboard from Asus - the "Striker II" be able to assist Nvidia in winning back some of the overclocking crowd? Here's what Asus have to say:
The Ultimate Gaming/Overclocking Platform
The Republic of Gamers consists only the best of the best. We offer the best hardware engineering, the fastest performance, the most innovating ideas, and we welcome the best gamers to join in. In the Republic of Gamers, mercy rules are only for the weak, and bragging rights means everything. We believe in making statements and we excel in competitions. If your character matches our trait, then join the elite club, make your presence felt, in the Republic of Gamers.
- Intel® Core™2 Quad / Core™2 Extreme / Core™2 Duo / Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 Processors
- Supports Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU
- NVIDIA nForce® 780i SLI chipset
- CPU Level Up
- Pin-Fin Thermal Module
- SupremeFX II 8-CH Audio
- Voltiminder LED
- LCD Poster
- Extreme Tweaker
- ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit)
The Republic of Gamers consists only the best of the best. We offer the best hardware engineering, the fastest performance, the most innovating ideas, and we welcome the best gamers to join in. In the Republic of Gamers, mercy rules are only for the weak, and bragging rights means everything. We believe in making statements and we excel in competitions. If your character matches our trait, then join the elite club, make your presence felt, in the Republic of Gamers.
- Intel® Core™2 Quad / Core™2 Extreme / Core™2 Duo / Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 Processors
- Supports Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU
- NVIDIA nForce® 780i SLI chipset
- CPU Level Up
- Pin-Fin Thermal Module
- SupremeFX II 8-CH Audio
- Voltiminder LED
- LCD Poster
- Extreme Tweaker
- ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit)
Unlike the previously reviewed "Blitz" and "Maximus" boards here at Overclock3D, the Striker II doesn't at present have an SE (Special Edition) or Extreme counterpart. This essentially means that the board doesn't come complete with the Asus "Fusion" waterblock system for cooling the Northbridge, Southbridge and Mosfets. For a large portion of readers I imagine this won't be an issue, however those of us who have had any experience with Nvidia's previous 680i chipsets will know that watercooling was almost a requirement to get any kind of reasonable overclocking on the board. It'll certainly be interesting to see how well Asus' "Pin-Fin Thermal Module" does at keeping temperatures under control.
A fairly new feature to appear on some of Asus' very latest motherboards is Energy Processing Unit (or EPU for short). The EPU is an onboard, hardware-based power saving IC controller that digitally monitors and fine tunes your CPU's power supply in real-time, providing improved VRM efficiency under light and heavy loads. This allows the EPU to provide up to 58.6% CPU power savings when running low-intensity applications.
More information on the various features of the Striker II board can be found on Asus's website, but for the moment all we're interested in are the nitty gritty specs:
CPU | Intel Socket 775 Core™2 Quad/Core™2 Extreme/Core™2 Duo/Pentium® Extreme/Pentium® D/Pentium® 4 Processors Compatible with Intel® 05B/05A/06 processors Support Intel® next generation 45nm CPU * Refer to www.asus.com for Intel CPU support list |
Chipset | NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI |
Front Side Bus | 1333/1066/800 MHz |
Memory | 4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1066/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Dual Channel memory architecture *Refer to www.asus.com or this user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors Lidts). |
Expansion Slots | 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 , support NVIDIA® SLI™ technology, at full x16, x16 speed(blue) 1 x PCIe x16 , at x16 speed(middle) 2 x PCIe x1 ( the PCIEx1_1 (black) is compatible with audio slot) 2 x PCI 2.2 |
Scalable Link Interface (SLI™) | Support three identical NVIDIA SLI-Ready graphics cards (triple at x16 mode) |
Storage | Southbridge 1 xUltraDMA 133/100/66/33 6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports NVIDIA MediaShield™ RAID Support RAID 0,1,0+1,5,JBOD span cross Serial ATA drives |
LAN | Dual Gigabit LAN, both featuring AI NET2 Support Teaming Technology |
Audio | SupremeFX II Audio Card ADI 1988B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O ASUS Noise Filter |
IEEE 1394 | 2 x 1394a ports (1 port at back I/O, 1 port onboard) |
USB | 10 USB 2.0 ports (4 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel) |
Overclocking Features | Extreme Tweaker Loadline Calibration 2-Phase DDR 2 Intelligent overclocking tools - CPU Level Up - AI Gear 3 - AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner) - ASUS AI Booster Utility - ASUS O.C. Profile: overclocking configuration-sharing tool Overclocking Protection - COP EX (Component Overheat Protection - EX) - Voltiminder LED - ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall) |
Special Features | ASUS MyLogo 3 ASUS EZ Flash 2 ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2 ASUS Q-Connector ASUS Q-Fan 2 LCD Poster Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Cls CMOS (at rear) ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) BIOS Wallpaper |
Back Panel I/O Ports | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x IEEE 1394a 2 x LAN(RJ45) port 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 1 x Clr CMOS switch 1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output |
Internal I/O Connectors | 3 x USB connectors support additional 6 USB 2.0 ports 1 x Floppy disk drive connector 1 x IDE connector 6 x SATA connectors 1 x IEEE 1394a connector 1 x CPU Fan connector 3 x Chassis Fan connector 1 x Power Fan connector 3 x Optional Fan connector 1 x S/PDIF Out connector 1 x8-pin ATX 12V Power connector 24 -pin ATX Power connector 1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS connector 3 x thermal sensor connectors Chassis Intrusion connector System Panel Connector |
BIOS | 8 Mb Flash ROM DMI 2.0 AMI BIOS PnP WfM 2.0 SM BIOS 2.4 ACPI 2.0a Multi-language BIOS |
Manageability | WOL by PME,WOR by PME,Chasis Intrusion, PXE |
Accessories | User's manual Cable Ties ASUS Optional Fan I/O Shield LCD Poster ASUS Optional Fan SupremeFX II Audio Card 3 in 1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable Floppy disk drive cable 3-way SLI bridge ASUS SLI bridge SATA cables SATA power cables 2-port USB2.0 + IEEE 1394a module |
Support Disc | The hottest 3D Game: Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts Support DVD: - Drivers and applications ASUS PC Probe II ASUS Update ASUS AI Suite Futuremark ® 3DMark® 06 Advanced Edition Kaspersky® Anti-Virus |
Form Factor | ATX Form Factor 12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.5 cm ) |
As we've come to expect from the "Republic of Gamers" series, the Striker II comes with all the usual bells and whistles including: OC Profile (for saving settings), Voltminder LED (for displaying voltage status), Asus C.P.R (for recovering after a bad overclock) and the LCD Poster (for displaying any error codes during the startup process). Asus haven't skimped on I/O ports either with a total of 12 USB ports, 2 Gigabit NIC's with teaming capabilities, 6x SATA ports and a SupremeFX II High Definition add-in sound card.
There's also plenty of accessories and free software in the box, but let's cover that in the packaging section over on the next page..
Most Recent Comments
Nice review, shame it doesn't oc well. And the chipset coolers don't look pretty.. Kind of last minute job?Quote
Cheers guys. Yeah the cooling isn't the best looking or performing tbh.
I hear there's an Extreme version on the way tho (DDR3). So it'll be interesting to see if anything changes.Quote
I hear there's an Extreme version on the way tho (DDR3). So it'll be interesting to see if anything changes.Quote
CSS Valid
Great review
mmm Triple SLI connector