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Asus Striker Extreme Review
[Abstract]
IntroductionThe Republic of Gamers (R.O.G.) motherboard series marked a move away from lifestyle computing for ASUS (the AI Proactive and AI Life product lines) into the realm of enthusiasts an...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
Overclocking
FSB Settings: 166MHz to 750MHz (533MHz to 3000MHz QDR Mode)
DDR Settings: DDR2-400MHz to 2600MHz
PCIe 1/2/3 (GPU lanes) Frequency: 100MHz to 200MHz
SPP/MCP HT: 200 to 500MHz
SPP/MCP LDT Frequency: 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x (default), 6x, 7x, 8x
CPU Voltage Settings: 0.83125V to 1.90000V (in 0.00625V steps)
CPU VTT Voltage Settings: 1.20V to 1.55V (in 0.05V steps)
Memory Voltage Settings: 1.850V to 3.425V (in 0.025V steps)
DDR2 Controller Ref. Voltage (DDR2_Vol/2): -30mV to +30mV (in 10mV steps)
DDR2 Channel A/B Ref. Voltage (DDR2_Vol/2): -30mV to +30mV (in 10mV steps)
SPP Voltage Settings: 1.20V to 2.75V (in 0.05V steps)
MCP Voltage Settings: 1.50V to 1.85V (in 0.05V steps)
HT Voltage Settings: 1.20V to 1.95V (in 0.05V steps)
Multiplier Selection: Yes (CPU dependent)
The Striker Extreme has its own BIOS, which is a mix of NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI BIOS and ASUS' own Extreme Tweaker extension. Besides a few additional memory timing options, the Striker Extreme basically offers much higher top range voltage and frequency options than the standard NVIDIA BIOS. For example, FSB allowance goes all the way up to 750MHz (3000MHz QDR) and DDR2 memory up to 2600MHz. CPU voltage can be adjusted to 1.9V and memory to 3.425V. ASUS also allows pushing the SPP/MCP HT multiplier to 8x. Talk about being ambitious, but how well will the Striker Extreme actually do under overclocking?
All our previous attempts in overclocking an Intel Core 2 platform have hit a ceiling at around 490MHz with both the Intel P965 chipset and NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI OEM boards. The ASUS Striker Extreme is the first board in our labs to hit the magic 500MHz FSB, requiring only a boost to SPP voltage. We managed to POST all the way up to 515MHz with insane amounts of voltage to the SPP, MCP, HT and CPU VTT, but even then, the board wasn't stable in the very least. In the end, our maximum stable overclock with the Striker Extreme was a 'modest' 504MHz (2020MHz QDR).
Overclocking CPU-Z screenshot. Click for full size image. |
Test Setup
Overclocking is certainly the Striker Extreme's forte, but now its time to see how well the board performs in our battery of benchmarks. The performance comparison table will be the same as our previous two nForce 680i SLI boards reviewed, so you should be able to gauge the board's relative performance against the competition.
The following test bed configuration will be used for all boards in this article unless explicitly stated:-
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor (2.93GHz)
2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 @ 12-4-4 CAS 4.0
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)
MSI GeForce 7900 GT 256MB - with NVIDIA ForceWare 91.47
NVIDIA nForce 9.53 driver set (for NVIDIA chipset boards only)
Intel INF 8.1.1.1001 and Intel Matrix Storage (AHCI) 6.1.0.1022 driver set (for Intel chipset boards only)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (and DirectX 9.0c)
Additional Notes
LinkBoost and GPU Ex features are disabled for the Biostar TF680i SLI Deluxe in our benchmarks.
The MSI P965 Platinum defaults to CAS 3.0 even if CAS 4.0 is selected in the BIOS, though we've noted minimal impact on performance results.
Benchmarks
The following benchmarks will be used to gauge the performance of the ASUS Striker Extreme:-
BAPco SYSmark 2004
Futuremark PCMark05
SPECviewperf 9.0
Futuremark 3DMark05
AquaMark3
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