VR Features
Cinematic Gaming: ASUS Striker II Triple SLI
Final Thoughts
Written by yantronic and filed under Reviews > Chipsets & Motherboards
Published on January 23, 2008, 12:41 am
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Slashdot Stability & Functionality
During the course of benchmarking, the Striker II Formula did not exhibit any quirks detrimental to system stability. That said, all the benchmarks ran normally without glitches. There was, however, a major issue regarding the 0501 BIOS. After changing the BIOS settings and saving the parameters, the board often refused to POST. Luckily, the BIOS still retains the parameters after power has been interrupted. Occasionally, our USB Everglide T-1000 would be lost in the BIOS pages too.
Asus dispatched the 0901 BIOS which solved the abnormalities mentioned. Performance appears to have improved too. It made the half-step CPU multiplier work, though not all the time. There's a chance a 9.5X settings boots up as a 9X setting. The half-step multiplier is rather useful for maximizing performance-per-CPU clock, through higher FSB usage. The way Asus's existing BIOS occasionally forgets it's half-step setting is indeed a letdown. Hopefully by the time this review is published, Asus would have worked on the half-step multiplier issue.
Blast From The Past
3-Way SLI is a novel concept that successfully increases the fillrate of the graphics subsystem. Where implementation is concerned, NVIDIA has done a great job with the drivers. Current WHQL drivers are already doing well for hardware this new. Asus, as a solution provider, has done a great job breathing new life into the jaded SPP/MCP combination. CPU clocking wise, it does extremely well for "old" silicon. Thanks to an effective CPU GTLref adjustment, the Asus Striker II actually does very well with Quad Core overclocking on the FSB front. The 456MHz FSB wall we achieved on the QX9650 via the Striker II is a fair lot higher than the 440MHz achieved with the Maximus Extreme. If not for the lack of DDRIII support, the Striker II would have easily matched up the performance of current top-of-the-line Intel X38/X48 motherboards.
Who Buys It
If you've got a cupboard full of performance DDR2 memory, and just itching for a Quad Core to overclock, the Striker II may not be very far away from your wishlist. Due to memory bandwidth limitation, the Striker II with it's DDR2 memory will not be able to trounce the best of X38/X48 DDR3 motherboards in the mainstream market. However, given the price of DDR2 memory today, along with Vista's RAM-hogging tendencies, you'd be safe investing in a truckload of memory with a 64-bit OS. If you're running a High Definition display and just itching to play your games on 3-Way SLI, look no further. This board smells of Asus reliability all over. The BIOS quirks and lack of DDR3 support takes a good few points off an otherwise stellar product. Keeping the limitations in mind, the Asus Striker II is a buy indeed.
Much thanks goes to Mr Hoi of MCP Computers for supplying the Inno3D 8800GTX graphics accelerators for this review. You lucky buggers won't get to see steamin' 3-Way action right here if not for his help! ;)
