Asus Striker II Formula 780i

If the Striker II Formula is as reliable as the Striker Extreme was I'll probably go for it. I just want a board that will work and not die on me every two to three months.

I've blown out a couple strikers but nowhere NEAR the evga's. It's a solid product, though finicky.

Well the Striker Extreme is actually more full featured board than the Striker II Formula is. It has the internal LCD poster and eSATA ports which I prefer to have. The only thing the Formula has over the Extreme is a third full speed PCIe x16 slot and official 45nm quad core support. That's it. The Striker Extreme by most accounts has been improved by BIOS 1303 and 1301 by a large margin. Apparently they now overclock quad cores with the best of them.

Striker Extreme seems to be better unless you want tripple SLI. The best BIOS with latest rev boards do out OC the quads. Rumors are another BIOS will fix 45nm quad support but I can verify that the e8400 dual does indeed "work".

I'll say this. The striker was the worst board out of the box and a lot of the choices seemed asinine. However today, it's the best and they were smart. GOOD bios updates do take some time but ASUS has been on point with fixing issues.

I haven't been able to verify this as my Striker is probably the worst overclocking Striker Extreme out there.

But IIRC you have a REV 1. I fried some of those, the next REV is much better. And even some people with REV 1 have great results. I've hated this board since I bought it, but now it seems like the smarter choice. At it's current dropped price, it might just be the best SLI (not tripple) option. Toss in the EK mobo liquid blocks and it's golden.

I just don't like ASUS not putting eSATA ports on their Formula boards and only including that feature on their DDR3 Extreme boards.

I feel the same.
 
I've blown out a couple strikers but nowhere NEAR the evga's. It's a solid product, though finicky.

I wouldn't call a product that dies every two months a solid product. That's not even finicky. The ASUS and Gigabyte offerings aren't nearly as bad as the reference boards in regard to premature deaths. Finicky is a DFI, dying goes way beyond finicky.



Striker Extreme seems to be better unless you want tripple SLI. The best BIOS with latest rev boards do out OC the quads. Rumors are another BIOS will fix 45nm quad support but I can verify that the e8400 dual does indeed "work".

I think it is, but I am not sure why you say it isn't good for 3-Way SLI. My experience says it is. I don't think it has been proven that the reduced bandwidth of the middle slot amounts to jack.

I'll say this. The striker was the worst board out of the box and a lot of the choices seemed asinine. However today, it's the best and they were smart. GOOD bios updates do take some time but ASUS has been on point with fixing issues.

I do agree with this completely. That has been my experience as well.


But IIRC you have a REV 1. I fried some of those, the next REV is much better. And even some people with REV 1 have great results. I've hated this board since I bought it, but now it seems like the smarter choice. At it's current dropped price, it might just be the best SLI (not tripple) option. Toss in the EK mobo liquid blocks and it's golden.



I feel the same.

Again I think it's fine for 3-Way SLI. Otherwise you are correct. The post rev 1.00G boards were far better overclockers.
 
I wouldn't call a product that dies every two months a solid product. That's not even finicky. The ASUS and Gigabyte offerings aren't nearly as bad as the reference boards in regard to overclocking. Finicky is a DFI, dying goes way beyond finicky.

Not meaning to fight but... you did go evga for a while. You didn't deal with strikers failing left and right, that has been fixed, and evga has not, but the early revs do still fail (though granted not as massively).

I think it is, but I am not sure why you say it isn't good for 3-Way SLI. My experience says it is. I don't think it has been proven that the reduced bandwidth of the middle slot amounts to jack.

You brought up triple x16 slots, not me. I'm vouching for your claim as it is true, but as you say when you reverse it's pointless. IMHO Striker 680i is currently the board to get..

I do agree with this completely. That has been my experience as well.

we agree

Again I think it's fine for 3-Way SLI. Otherwise you are correct. The post rev 1.00G boards were far better overclockers.

I've got a 1.00g board here that runs, I'll toss it in and see what gives. However I think you might just have a crap board. I thought ASUS was nuts with their multi layer PCB and uber PWM, it just didn't make sense, and it fucked up a lot of crap.

However since then the promos RAM I I use (yes hate all you want but it won't fry like micron) and their BIOS fixes (granted it took OCZ to fix the idiocy) have unfucked most problems.

I can clear most FSB holes, with duals, I'd love to see what their BETA BIOS brings to the table, but IMHO my purchase has been saved.

I'll go one more, on the Striker 2. It's a POS. Lacks the options that made the first good, and uses the same chips.... ummmmm... yeah.....

Perhaps they really did know what they were doing.
 
Just to add, my evga 780i has been /rock/ solid since I got it. Booted right up on the 680i drivers and everything at first, which made the transition pretty damn easy.

The ESA/nTune that actually works right is pretty damn nice as well.
 
I would wait on buying the Asus II striker formula....

People are still having major problems with the P5NT-Deluxe 780i.. with 2 recently released bios updates.
 
I would wait on buying the Asus II striker formula....

People are still having major problems with the P5NT-Deluxe 780i.. with 2 recently released bios updates.

thanks for the tip. I need to figure out a mobo and GPU soon (next month).
I have my case (tjo9) PSU (Kingwin Mach1 1000watt) and a few 750g samsung spinpoints
 
Not meaning to fight but... you did go evga for a while. You didn't deal with strikers failing left and right, that has been fixed, and evga has not, but the early revs do still fail (though granted not as massively).

Well all the 680i SLI reference boards are the same. They overclocked better than the non-reference designed boards and were more compatible with more memory modules. Not to mention I have always been able to run my memory at full speed on the reference boards and can't go above 800MHz on the Striker Extreme. I stuck with them because they seemed like the lesser of the evils and provided more performance. Unfortunately out of 11 boards I only got 1 good one.

The Striker wasn't as failure prone but it was a pain in the ass just the same. It still is.

You brought up triple x16 slots, not me. I'm vouching for your claim as it is true, but as you say when you reverse it's pointless. IMHO Striker 680i is currently the board to get..

Currently the Striker or P5N32-E SLI boards are the ones to get as sad as that is.

I've got a 1.00g board here that runs, I'll toss it in and see what gives. However I think you might just have a crap board. I thought ASUS was nuts with their multi layer PCB and uber PWM, it just didn't make sense, and it fucked up a lot of crap.

In general ASUS does know what they were doing. They have always had a lower failure rate than the reference 680i SLI boards do.

I'll go one more, on the Striker 2. It's a POS. Lacks the options that made the first good, and uses the same chips.... ummmmm... yeah.....

I wouldn't call it a POS, but I do hate the fact that the Formula boards get less features than the Extreme boards do. I'd prefer it if they were the same except one supported DDR2 and the other DDR3. If it weren't for the fact that the Striker Extreme may not handle quad core 45nm processors very well, I'd have no reason to switch boards. The 780i SLI chipset based boards are just not very exciting.

If you have all 3 PCI slots being used by 8800ultras will that included adio card fit?

Yes it will.

I wouldn't see why not. It looks like it fits in-between the NB and first PCI-e slot.

It does.

The included will but it's absolute crap.

No it isn't. I have heard FAR worse cards than the Supreme FXII's. They aren't a match for the Creative X-Fi, but that's to be expected.

[RCKY] Thor;1031961735 said:
Just to add, my evga 780i has been /rock/ solid since I got it. Booted right up on the 680i drivers and everything at first, which made the transition pretty damn easy.

The ESA/nTune that actually works right is pretty damn nice as well.

Well the first 680i SLI boards were rock solid for the first couple of months and then they started frying RAM and themselves. I remain unconvinced considering the design of the 780i SLI is nearly identical to its' predecessor. The newer 780i SLI reference design uses essentially the same voltage components and 6-phase power design. Not only is it behind the times (traditional electrolytic capacitors) but seems woefully inadequate considering the high failure rate of the 680i SLI boards and poor overclocking performance with quad core processors.

I would wait on buying the Asus II striker formula....

People are still having major problems with the P5NT-Deluxe 780i.. with 2 recently released bios updates.

I've never heard anything good about the P5N-T as of yet. The Striker II Formula on the other hand isn't in enough people's hands at this point to draw any opinions on based on even those second and third hand experiences.
 
Dan is it worth it that I wait for the 790i?
DDR3 is getting hella cheap and it's only a matter of time before 2x2GB 1600MHZ DDR3 is viable..

The reason I was reading is one review said the Striker II is great but it's DDR2 limitation refrains them from a full recommendatoin... Is DDR3 going to be a huge boost (Like going from an X2 939 to a Conroe 2 1/2 years ago?

THanks
 
Dan is it worth it that I wait for the 790i?
DDR3 is getting hella cheap and it's only a matter of time before 2x2GB 1600MHZ DDR3 is viable..

The reason I was reading is one review said the Striker II is great but it's DDR2 limitation refrains them from a full recommendatoin... Is DDR3 going to be a huge boost (Like going from an X2 939 to a Conroe 2 1/2 years ago?

THanks

DDR3 isn't worth it right now as the performance boost is minimal at best and I've never seen the performance DDR3 modules "hella cheap". I don't see the Maximus using DDR2 as a limitation. In fact I think quite the opposite on the subject. The DDR3 motherboards I've tested all overclock poorly in comparison to their DDR2 counterparts. For example the Maximus Extreme only made it to 460MHz while the Maximus Formula made it to 547MHz. That is a huge difference and the real difference between those boards is the memory support. Even with the best DDR 3 memory out there the results just aren't that good. Basically right now DDR3 memory costs more and doesn't provide hardly any increase in performance. It will be a while still before that changes.

As for the 790i SLI, I would say that it isn't worth waiting for. Again if you aren't going for SLI there is no point in going with an SLI compatible chipset over an Intel chipset which will be superior. If you do want SLI then I'd still wait as none of the 780i SLI boards are what I would consider solid at present.
 
Well man the 680i is dying slowly and painfully. Sometimes I even get the "critical thread terminated" error and I'm getting annoyed.
Then buying a P5N-T in December where it just gets bricked updating to 0503 (0r whatever the one post-soft-launch was) isn't promising.

I need to use SLI and I need a god damn solid chipset :(
 
DDR3 isn't worth it right now as the performance boost is minimal at best and I've never seen the performance DDR3 modules "hella cheap". I don't see the Maximus using DDR2 as a limitation. In fact I think quite the opposite on the subject. The DDR3 motherboards I've tested all overclock poorly in comparison to their DDR2 counterparts. For example the Maximus Extreme only made it to 460MHz while the Maximus Formula made it to 547MHz. That is a huge difference and the real difference between those boards is the memory support. Even with the best DDR 3 memory out there the results just aren't that good. Basically right now DDR3 memory costs more and doesn't provide hardly any increase in performance. It will be a while still before that changes.

As for the 790i SLI, I would say that it isn't worth waiting for. Again if you aren't going for SLI there is no point in going with an SLI compatible chipset over an Intel chipset which will be superior. If you do want SLI then I'd still wait as none of the 780i SLI boards are what I would consider solid at present.


So Dan, with your experience with DDR3 and supporting mobos, at what price point for a decent set of DDR3 1600-1800 speed memory would consider low enough to give a recommendation for that setup?

Thanks
 
I wouldn't call it a POS, but I do hate the fact that the Formula boards get less features than the Extreme boards do. I'd prefer it if they were the same except one supported DDR2 and the other DDR3. If it weren't for the fact that the Striker Extreme may not handle quad core 45nm processors very well, I'd have no reason to switch boards. The 780i SLI chipset based boards are just not very exciting.

Maybe POS is to harsh but still. If ASUS does manage to get 45nm support, and they have said it's working, I see no reason to "upgrade" to a board that is essentially the same thing with less features.

No it isn't. I have heard FAR worse cards than the Supreme FXII's. They aren't a match for the Creative X-Fi, but that's to be expected.

How many people splurge on a 300+ mobo, SLI, and do not get a good sound card?
 
Maybe POS is to harsh but still. If ASUS does manage to get 45nm support, and they have said it's working, I see no reason to "upgrade" to a board that is essentially the same thing with less features.



How many people splurge on a 300+ mobo, SLI, and do not get a good sound card?

I don't have a sound card:D
 
Well my striker II formula was just delivered at home so will be building tonight.

Any advice? I never had a 680i and am jumping straight from the machine in my sig to DDR2 4GB, Q6600 and 8800GTS512 SLI with this board, on Vista 64.

Will let you know any issues I have.
 
So Dan, with your experience with DDR3 and supporting mobos, at what price point for a decent set of DDR3 1600-1800 speed memory would consider low enough to give a recommendation for that setup?

Thanks

I was just looking at DDR3 pricing and though the really high end stuff is still outrageous that holds true for DDR2 modules as well. Some of the lower end DDR3 modules are getting to more reasonable prices. Even some of the DDR3 1600 modules are somewhat reasonable. Really I won't start recommending DDR3 modules until the DDR3 motherboards start overclocking more like their DDR2 counterparts. Right now I've yet to see any DDR3 motherboard get to 500MHz FSB. With DDR2 boards I see that nearly every day.

Maybe POS is to harsh but still. If ASUS does manage to get 45nm support, and they have said it's working, I see no reason to "upgrade" to a board that is essentially the same thing with less features.

I agree. However I have my doubts about how well the Striker Extreme will overclock the 45nm quad cores even if they do end up with support for them.

How many people splurge on a 300+ mobo, SLI, and do not get a good sound card?

Well I have a good sound card but since I'm running 3-Way SLI I have no choice but to use the included Supreme FXII which really isn't all that bad.

I don't have a sound card:D

I do but since it isn't in my machine I might as well not have one.

Well my striker II formula was just delivered at home so will be building tonight.

Any advice? I never had a 680i and am jumping straight from the machine in my sig to DDR2 4GB, Q6600 and 8800GTS512 SLI with this board, on Vista 64.

Will let you know any issues I have.

Good luck with that. So far what I've heard about the 780i SLI boards in general hasn't been encouraging.
 
Welcome to the hell I've been enjoying for the last 14 months. :eek:
Problem is that my hell got worse once my instant replacement warranty wore off man. I regret paying 400 bucks canadian for the striker 2 weeks after launch, and i regret only getting 1 year instaswap- i also regret demanding an evga to run 1066 ram (which i didn't snice the evgas go retarded after 3 months) :(

I HATE BEING AN EARLY ADOPTER
 
I have three way SLi and use an X-Fi sound card, too.:D

Yes its a pain in the ass. I had to watercool the "middle" card with a DangerDen 8800 cooler, but it cleared the way for the sound card slot; and the combination works flawlessly.

I left the other two cards to air cooling under the direction of RivaTuner.

I also have seen nothing comforting about the 780i boards, thats why I dressed up my 680i.
 
Problem is that my hell got worse once my instant replacement warranty wore off man. I regret paying 400 bucks canadian for the striker 2 weeks after launch, and i regret only getting 1 year instaswap- i also regret demanding an evga to run 1066 ram (which i didn't snice the evgas go retarded after 3 months) :(

I HATE BEING AN EARLY ADOPTER

After more than a year the 680i SLI should be PERFECT. It still isn't even passable. ASUS has a passable board as does Gigabyte but the reference board sucks. Plain and simple. As for yours not running your RAM over 1066MHz mine always did. I ran 1143MHz on two different machines and in my gaming machine that worked over the course of a year with 9 other 680i SLI reference boards without issue. I think it's either a setting or your RAM.

I have three way SLi and use an X-Fi sound card, too.:D

Yes its a pain in the ass. I had to watercool the "middle" card with a DangerDen 8800 cooler, but it cleared the way for the sound card slot; and the combination works flawlessly.

I left the other two cards to air cooling under the direction of RivaTuner.

I also have seen nothing comforting about the 780i boards, thats why I dressed up my 680i.

I had been water cooling which made things easier, but I won't do that again. Too much trouble to swap hardware. I simply change out hardware too much to bother with that.
 
my striker sometimes just died after days (early rev) running1066
My 680i was fine until I put 4sticks at 1066-- then the board started giving up on even 2
 
I really dont get all the problems with 680i boards.......

Is it OC?
Is it OC + SLI????
Is it just bad manufacturing?
I mean 14 months after release some of these boards just plain suck, I'm really lucky, my board has been very nice to me, but all I OC is my CPU and I leave the RAM alone.

I want a 780i but this 680i stuff has me very reluctant.
 
I really dont get all the problems with 680i boards.......

Is it OC?
Is it OC + SLI????
Is it just bad manufacturing?
I mean 14 months after release some of these boards just plain suck, I'm really lucky, my board has been very nice to me, but all I OC is my CPU and I leave the RAM alone.

I want a 780i but this 680i stuff has me very reluctant.

The problem can't be narrowed down to a specific cause. They do however seem slightly more problematic with the quad core CPUs than with dual core CPUs. In any case the boards just fry. The north bridge will get fried or start actiing screwy and before you know it you've got fried RAM and a dead motherboard. This happens less with the Striker Extreme, P5N32-E SLI, GA-N680SLI-DQ6, and abit IN9-32X MAX. All of which are not reference design boards which use superior cooling for the north bridge and all have a better power design and power component selection. If I had to narrow it down on the 680i SLI reference boards I'd say their crappy 6-phase power design is to blame. As I have stated before their voltage components are at least a generation behind those of everyone else. The 780i SLI is just as bad. Even EVGA seems to have recognized this fact since they hired motherboard engineers and they are bringing out their EVGA 780i SLI FTW Edition motherboard. It features an 8-phase power design, solid state capacitors and superior voltage regulation. In addition they've realized that 6 SATA ports doesn't cut it and they've bumped the number up to 8.
 
The problem can't be narrowed down to a specific cause. They do however seem slightly more problematic with the quad core CPUs than with dual core CPUs. In any case the boards just fry. The north bridge will get fried or start actiing screwy and before you know it you've got fried RAM and a dead motherboard. This happens less with the Striker Extreme, P5N32-E SLI, GA-N680SLI-DQ6, and abit IN9-32X MAX. All of which are not reference design boards which use superior cooling for the north bridge and all have a better power design and power component selection. If I had to narrow it down on the 680i SLI reference boards I'd say their crappy 6-phase power design is to blame. As I have stated before their voltage components are at least a generation behind those of everyone else. The 780i SLI is just as bad. Even EVGA seems to have recognized this fact since they hired motherboard engineers and they are bringing out their EVGA 780i SLI FTW Edition motherboard. It features an 8-phase power design, solid state capacitors and superior voltage regulation. In addition they've realized that 6 SATA ports doesn't cut it and they've bumped the number up to 8.

For overclocking with a single card, do you think X38/48 would be a better choice?
 
I never imagined the day that I had such low hope on a product..
So many stable builds and this happens... I want to cry.

Now with Skulltrail and the Striker II within the same month or allegedly (Striker II's launch date was at-latest feb 4th-- the same day as skulltrail) I have no choice but to abandon 775 and ASUS :'(

Goodbye Striker, nvidia and your shitty boards..

Still an nVidiot though
 
Yes. Way better choice. The x38's are overclocking monsters :D

Yes they are. They are also more stable and a whole lot less picky. They are also faster given similar circumstances. Additionally the Intel chipsets run slightly cooler and are far more compatible with different memory modules.

I never imagined the day that I had such low hope on a product..
So many stable builds and this happens... I want to cry.

Now with Skulltrail and the Striker II within the same month or allegedly (Striker II's launch date was at-latest feb 4th-- the same day as skulltrail) I have no choice but to abandon 775 and ASUS :'(

Goodbye Striker, nvidia and your shitty boards..

Still an nVidiot though

Well the Striker II Formula is available now. I saw them for sale on Newegg. You still can't get me to drop one in my system. Since the 3870 X2 seems to be kicking the crap out of the 8800GTX and Ultra I'll probably get at least a pair of those and switch to an X48 motherboard. The one I'm working on right now is fantastic. It even handles 4x1GB over 1066MHz just fine!

heh.. nice. they might have to arm wrestle BFG for that trade mark. ;)

I don't think BFG actually trade marked that. They just include the stickers with all their video cards. (Which I've never applied before.)
 
Dan we're proud nVidiots... Please don't abandon the ship man I"m not ready to take the wheel yet... Just give it timeeeeeeeeeeee PLEAASE DAN I CAN'T DO THIS ALONE
 
Dan D

I know your the man for this question :)
so dont let me down : P


what is the best motherboard you would suggest for someone building a brand new system?
 
?

Don't ask a question Dan has answered in this thread.

Go for an X38 board if you don't need SLI-- Simple as that.
 
I had a feeling that someone would have asked it. I skimmed but did not see it. Also... I dont have time to read every single line here... Im sorry if i missed something :eek:
 
You're an obnoxious kid who registered today expecting immediate help from one of the most knowledgeable people on the board who is always busy. You need to do your homework before you ask a question, don't waste anyones time with questions that get asked day in and day out.
 
WOWZERS!!! :)
nice to meet you to. Please if you have a problem do not lay it out for everyone here to see.. EMAIL ME!!


btw...
I have been a member around her for a long time. Though, I have a new nickname and
made a new account to change my name because of my new nick name.
 
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