ASUS Striker II Extreme: Mucho Bang, Mucho Bucks
by Kris Boughton on April 11, 2008 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test System Configuration and Methodology
| Test System Configurations | |
| Processor(s) | Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (ES) Dual-core, 3.16GHz, 6MB Unified L2 Cache, 9.5x Multiplier, 1333 FSB Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (ES) Quad-core, 3.20GHz, 2x6MB Unified L2 Cache, 8.0x Multiplier, 1600 FSB |
| Motherboard(s) | ASUS Striker II Extreme (NVIDIA 790i Ultra SPP and
MCP) EVGA NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI (NVIDIA 790i Ultra SPP and MCP) EVGA NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI (NVIDIA 780i SPP and MCP, nForce 200) MSI PN7 SLI Platinum (NVIDIA 750i SPP and 480 MCP) ASUS P5E3 Premium (Intel X48 Experss MCH and ICH9R) |
| DDR2 Memory | 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix PC2 8500 (DDR2-1066) |
| DDR3 Memory | 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix PC3 12800 (DDR3-1600) |
| Graphics Card(s) | MSI 8800 GTS 512MB (G92) - single and SLI
configurations 675MHz core, 1625MHz shader, 970MHz (DDR-1940) memory |
| Cooling | D-tek FuZion CPU block, EK-FC88 GT/GTS full coverage GPU blocks, ThermoChill PA120.3 radiator, 3x SUNON KDE1212PMB3-6A 120x38mm fans, Laing D5 pump, 1/2" ID (3/4" OD) Tygon tubing |
| Power Supply | OCZ EvoStream 600W Modular PSU |
| Hard Drive | WD 74GB Raptor, 10K RPM, SATA 3Gbps, 8MB buffer |
| Video Driver | NVIDIA 169.25 (WHQL) |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate (x64) SP1 with DirectX 10.1 |
Each motherboard was flashed with the latest available BIOS - some of which were still labeled beta at the time of testing - and any unneeded functionality was disabled (unused serial ports, onboard HD audio, IDE controllers, etc.). This streamlined the OS and driver installs for optimum performance.
Prior to each round of motherboard testing we loaded a fresh install of Windows Vista Ultimate (x64), followed by platform drivers, then Service Pack 1 (SP1) including all patches and hot fixes currently offered by Microsoft's online Windows Update service. We made sure that our hard disk's write-back caching was enabled and the prefetch folder was cleared before each test run.
The latest WHQL-certified video drivers for our pair of MSI 8800GTS 512MB (G92) cards were then installed and all NVIDIA control panel settings were left as-is with the exception of SLI functionality, which was selectively enabled and disabled depending on which round of benchmarks were being run. Additionally, rather than deal with comparison issues arising from GPU core, shader, and memory clocks speed discrepancies seen from card to card, depending on the vendor, we chose to flash our pair of graphics cards to the NVIDIA reference clocks as listed on their site. Therefore, if some of our scores seem low to you it may be because the cards you have been working with come factory-programmed with higher clock frequencies.
Our test suite consists of Futuremark 3DMark 2006, a popular 3D benching program, Futuremark PCMark Vantage (x64), Crysis (32-bit executable), Unreal Tournament 3, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, and Lavalys' EVEREST Cache and Memory Benchmark tool. All game benchmarks are run at a higher resolution (1920x1200) and a lower resolution (1280x1024), always on "High Quality" settings - with the exception of Crysis that was run at "Medium" settings - and in each case results are reported with and without SLI enabled, whenever possible. In addition, these tests used our Core 2 Duo E8500 dual-core CPU as well as our quad-core QX9770. Finally, we show scores at both stock processor frequencies and rated bus speeds and when overclocked to 4.00GHz (8x500MHz for the E8500 and 10x400MHz for the QX9970).
We ran each test five times, threw out the high and the low score, and then averaged the remaining three. These results fully qualify the advantages (or not) of purchasing a more powerful CPU - whether that means higher frequencies or more cores - along with any real-world benefits of NVIDIA's SLI Technology.
There is one exception to this: the ASUS P5E3 Premium. Although a worthy contender, the P5E3 Premium is not SLI-capable due to drivers, and as such we do not provide SLI results. Future testing using Crossfire-capable ATI/AMD HD 3800-series cards will be completed in the next roundup, but for now we're concentrating on SLI. We've really added the P5E3 Premium to the mix just to get a feel for how X48 stacks-up against NVIDIA's 750i, 780i and 790i Ultra when it comes to single-card graphics performance. This will be good information for those that are not necessarily in the market for an SLI-capable motherboard or feel gaming may not be their top priority.
Before we get into the specifics let's look at overall system performance. We chose PCMark Vantage for this task as it does an excellent job of documenting the performance of nearly every subsystem and then combines the results in a meaningful way. This allows us to conduct a broad sweeping check of the system as a whole; then, if the score is unusually low, we can decide whether investigation and further testing may be prudent.
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23 Comments
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Rodriguez - Friday, June 20, 2008 - link
Can anyone here indicate how to reach FSB 500 (2000) with Striker II Extreme & QX9770 C1, most I can get is 1900FSB.I've seen Kris reach this speed in this article & was eager to get to this speed as soon as I received my new CPU, but it has been more difficult than I thought, I was sure that if with my previous Q6600 G0 y could easily get 1900/1950FSB, now with QX9770 would be peanuts. The main reason I bought this CPU was to run 2000FSB linked & synced with Ballistix 2000 SLI.
Please give all detailed BIOS setup options for this CPU if possible
Nobody in Asus forum using this setup has been able to reach 2000FSB, but I have seen a few reviews (like Anandtech's) & posts showing it's possible
By the way, memory has been tested unlinked at 2000Mhz 9-8-8-24, 1.9v P1/P2 Enabled & works great
System:
QX9770 rev. C1 3.2Ghz (watercooled)
Asus Striker II Extreme BIOS 801, ver 1.02G (watercooled)
PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1200W
4 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix PC16000 SLI EPP2 , 2000Mhz 1800 8-7-7-24- 1T - 1.9v
SLI Leadtek PX8800 Ultra Leviathan (factory watercooled)
SLI Leadtek PX8800 Ultra
Asus Physx card (removed)
Dlink DWA556 PCIx Xtreme N Wireless card
2x WD Raptor 150GB Raid 0 300GB
1x Seagate 400GB Sata
X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion
24' Benq FP241VW Gamer
Innovatek XXD Rev 2 + G-Flow water cooling
CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000 case
Saitek X52 Flight system
TrackIR 4 + Trackclip Pro
Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit
parkerdw - Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - link
I used the same motherboard and cpu, but I liquid cooled it using the gigantic Kandalf Liquid Cooled case. My memory is different as well since I use 4 GB of Patriot Viper memory (2 x 2GB). Other than the memory settings in the BIOS, I set everything to match this guide. My system runs at 4.0Ghz and the cpu runs at no more than 88 degrees fahrenheit even while playing something like Crysis with everything set to Very High. Crysis runs between 35 and 60 fps on Very High on my system using a single 9800 GX2 at 1280 x 720. It's a HTPC connected to my older 56 inch DLP set via DVI, so I can't go any higher than that, but I fully expect to run great at 1080p when I get my new large screen set later this year. I don't have my bios settings in front of me, but setting everything to Auto for the memory works PERECTLY at 4.0 ghz. Pretty cool. I think it's running at 8,8,18 or so and 1.9v.Also, Asus just released a patch to the bios that fixes the data corruption issue mentioned in this artcle. Released on 5/29/08 I think.
hardist - Monday, April 21, 2008 - link
The water block seems to have leaking issues , I am wondering why it was not covered in this review since it is a major feature of this board ......Heatlesssun - Sunday, April 20, 2008 - link
This is a sweet motherbaord! Now I've not overclocked the FSB, just bumped up the multiplier of my QX9650 from the default of 9.5 to 10, and I'm not running RAID. We shall see but I feel good. To get this up and running with Vista x64 in a day so smoothly was pretty good I thought.electricx - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
So this board is going for the aforementioned amount on newegg... The EVGA and the XFX 790i boards are going for $350... The ROG name carries that much of a premium? I mean, come on?! I'm sure ASUS will fix this data corruption issue and you typically do pay more for the privilege(?) of being a beta tester for high end hardware but $1000 over competing products seems a bit much... The EVGA board is looking to be a clear winner here to me. Time will tell I suppose.FightingEagle - Friday, April 18, 2008 - link
After the second EVGA 790i and full of bugs I just sent it back. I was interested in the ASUS X48 and the 790i, but the 790i over $400 is hard to grasp. EVGA has good looking heat sink but not very good at cooling. I may wait for all the bugs to leave but as now im sitting on $320 dollars worth of DDR3 and a E8400.electricx - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Edit: That should have been $100 not $1000UK1Man - Sunday, April 13, 2008 - link
Help please!!I'm currently in the process of building a computer but can only afford to buy a couple of parts a month, I have already purchased some DDR2 (1066) memory for an FXF 780 motherboard (not yet purchased) but am now considering the Asus striker II extreme.
Will my DDR 2 memory work with this?
seamusmc - Monday, April 14, 2008 - link
This board/chipset, 790i, only supports DDR3.ianken - Saturday, April 12, 2008 - link
Can it go into S3 suspend and come back out and have the NICs still work? The Striker 2 Formula cannot.Can the SATA controller handle hot swap? The Stiker 2 Formula and the previous 680i boards could not. The 680i bios even had an esata setting that did NOTHING.
The latest crop of Asus boards, particularly the NV chipset rigs, have been pretty buggy and basic functionality has been borked.
But hey, who cares of the basics don't work right? it's got a water block for X-TREME OVERCLOXORS! YO! VTEC!