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ASUS Striker Extreme Sneak Peek November 12, 2006 |
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Summary: Based around the nForce 680i chipset, ASUS' Striker Extreme motherboard is loaded with features. Its got heat pipe cooling, 3 PCI Express graphics slots, a built-in diagnostic LED panel on the back of the motherboard, and offers bus speed options up to 3.0GHz. Read our first impressions of this motherboard inside this article!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 2 ) |
However, there’s a subset of gamers and hardware enthusiasts who demand a little more from their motherboard. These users want no limits overclocking, that means a motherboard with more than just looks: it’s also got to have the bus speeds, voltages, and other settings in BIOS that allow them to push their CPU, memory, and other components to clock speeds that are higher than your typical user. But having a robust BIOS isn’t enough: many of the higher-end motherboards also come with other extras such as 5.25” front panel drive bays, LEDs, and other extras you wouldn’t find in your typical motherboard.
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To service this market, ASUS has created their Republic of Gamers line of motherboards.
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ASUS’ first Core 2-compatible Republic of Gamers motherboard is the Striker Extreme, which is built on NVIDIA’s recently released nForce 680i SLI chipset. The Striker Extreme supports some impressive specs, including three PCI Express graphics slots, an 8-phase power system with all-solid capacitors, heat pipe cooling on the North Bridge and South Bridge of the nForce chipset, and more. We just got our hands on a Strike Extreme board and will be providing our first impressions of the motherboard in this article, with a full review to come shortly thereafter.
LEDs and LCD Poster
Arguably one of the Striker Extreme’s most distinctive features is the LCD Poster on the back panel of the motherboard itself.
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The LCD Poster acts as a diagnostic LED display, only it’s about 2X more effective. Traditional diagnostic LEDs are simple LED panels that only display two-digit number codes. You must then look up the number code in your motherboard’s manual to figure out what’s going wrong. Say for instance, the code “00” could represent memory initialization, so if you see this code on your diagnostic LED display, that would tell you that your memory is either installed incorrectly or it’s dead. The problem with this method is sometimes the codes displayed by the diagnostic LED may not be in the manual, or perhaps you lose your motherboard manual entirely.
Well on the Striker Extreme rather than displaying a two-digit number, it actually lists the various stages during POST, ASUS’ LCD Poster isn’t limited to just two digits either. During memory initialization the LCD Poster will actually read “Det RAM” or “Det IDE” when it’s detecting the IDE drives. This means you don’t have to look up obscure numbers codes in the manual, all you have to do is read the display.
In addition, the LCD Poster is located on the back panel of the motherboard. Typically most diagnostic LEDs or located on the motherboard itself, so you have to keep your case open in order to read the LED display. With the Striker Extreme, you can read the LCD Poster without having to open up your case.
Located just below the LCD Poster is a button for turning on an array of blue LEDs. It turns out that ASUS has outfitted the Striker Extreme board with multiple blue LEDs which are placed on the bottom and right hand edge of the motherboard. Simply press the button below the LCD Poster and they all light up! ASUS says this is supposed to make component installation easier, but in practice we’re not convinced that the blue LEDs provide enough light to say, plug in a fan header in the dark. It’s a nice touch though, particularly if your system chassis has a case window.
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Also on the back panel of the motherboard you’ll find four USB ports, two eSATA ports, dual GigE, and your optical and Firewire connections.
| Impressions (cont’d) | Page:: ( 2 / 2 ) |
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Typically the solid capacitors are used to power the CPU, while the electrolytic capacitors are used for powering less intensive areas of the motherboard. On the Striker Extreme however, every capacitor is a solid capacitor. With all solid capacitors onboard, the idea is that the capacitors will last longer while also boosting system stability under extreme conditions. This is the first ASUS motherboard to support this feature.
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Another nice touch ASUS has added to the Striker Extreme is onboard switches to power, reset, and clear CMOS on the motherboard. This is particularly convenient for hardware reviewers like us, we typically have to short the pins on the motherboard with a piece of metal to perform these functions. With the Striker Extreme, you can turn the system on with the press of a button! Or if your overclocked settings don’t take, you can press the clear CMOS button to start over (although ASUS’ C.P.R. BIOS tends to be pretty good about resetting the system after an unsuccessful overclock). For added convenience the buttons are backlit, you can easily read them in a dark room for instance, so seeing them inside your case shouldn’t be a problem.
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Like previous ASUS motherboards, the Striker Extreme supports ASUS Q-Connector, which makes connecting the motherboard’s pins a snap, as well as Q-Fan for dynamic fan speed adjustment. Here we should note that while the Striker Extreme is cooled entirely passively with copper heat pipe cooling, ASUS still includes a small fan which can be attached to the motherboard to provide additional cooling, or for those of you using water cooling.
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Also shipping with the board is ASUS’ SupremeFX audio card. Honestly we’re not big fans on these riser cards, as most enthusiasts already have a good external sound card (you can find X-Fi cards for less than $70 on Newegg), but ASUS also an array microphone with the motherboard, so those of you who are into videoconference/Skype may no doubt enjoy this feature.
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BIOS
ASUS provides a wealth of voltage options in the Striker Extreme BIOS, particularly when it comes to the memory. DRAM voltage options range from 1.85V-3.425V in 0.025V increments, so those of you with RAM that needs 2.2V of juice (or more) to run should have plenty of options with the Striker Extreme.
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CPU voltages range from 0.83125V-1.6V in increments of 0.00625V, with increments that slim you can fine tune your CPU overclock without having to use too much voltage. You can also adjust voltages for HyperTransport (up to 1.95V), the North Bridge (2.75V) and South Bridge (1.85V) of the chipset, the memory controller, and even the individual DDR2 channels.
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In terms of bus speeds, you can type in FSB speeds from 533MHz-3000MHz on the Striker Extreme, and memory speeds up to 1400MHz. All this is available in increments of 1MHz. In fact, ASUS even states that the Striker Extreme will support 1333MHz FSB CPUs once they’re released.
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Overall we’re pretty impressed with this motherboard so far, the only disappointment we can note is that ASUS still doesn’t include round IDE and floppy cables with the Striker Extreme. Considering the high street price of this board (it’s currently listed at $400 on ZipZoomfly), this seems like it should be a standard feature. ASUS thought to include a package of zip ties, and the motherboard even comes with a copy of Ghost Recon, Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal, 3DMark 06 Advanced Edition, and even a small keychain, but no round IDE cables? Seems a bit surprising to us.
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