Republic of Gamers Asus Striker II Extreme Motherboard
Last year, Asus created the ROG (Republic of Gamers) series of motherboards targeting the gaming community. This year, Asus adds another member to the ROG clan – The Asus Striker II Extreme based on NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI chip set.
Seems like just yesterday Asus announced the ROG Striker II Formula motherboard, which uses the 780i SLI chip set. However the nForce 790i SLI chip set has been completely re-engineered to accommodate technologies: such as PCI Express 2.0, Triple SLI or Quad SLI with qualifying video cards, incredible over clocking capabilities, and built-in support for DDR3 2000 MHz memory. The sporty 790i adopts Nvidia’s C73 north bridge and MCP55 south bridge, giving it 1600 MHz full support for the latest and greatest 45nm processors.
Above we see the 3 x PCI-Express slots, 2 x USB inputs, an optional fan, and battery. The two blue PCI Express x 16 slots will support PCIe 2.0 Devices. Instead of sticking the audio solution on the same PCB, ASUS has saved space by going with a sound card as you can see in the above photo on the left side. They call it the “SupremeFX II”, this PCI Express x1 card features an Analog Devices AD1988B HD Audio CODEC, supporting 10-Channels up to 101 dB performance.
You can see the Fusion Block on right side and the Republic of Gamers logo on the left which lights up via that small red and black 2-pin power plug running off to the left. The light can be unplugged or simply toggle to off in your BIOS if this bothers you. Back to the Fusion Block, basically it’s a water block that works as a passive cooler. The Fusion Block also known as a hybrid cooling system, using heatsinks, heatpipes and a D-Tek Fusion water block on the Northbridge heatsink and pipe assembly. This heatsink connects via a copper heatpipe to a smaller heatsink designed to cool the south bridge. Using this configuration with the liquid cooling option is said to offer 50 percent thermal improvement to the Northbridge. Knowing how much heat is generated from the Nvidia chip sets, this option is no doubt a worthy investment. With al this said, this configuration works very well, allowing the Striker II Extreme to maintain a reasonable operating temperature when under full load. Another close look from a different angle below.
Above we take a closer look at the backpanel of the Asus striker II Extreme motherboard which includes: a PS/2 keyboard plug (no PS/2 mouse support), 6 each USB ports, Dual gigabit LAN jacks, 2 each eSATA plugs, an IEEE 1394a plug, a clear CMOS switch and S/PDIF and optical output. Finishing the I/O panel is the specially designed ASUS Q-Shield, featuring a better electric conductivity, it protects your motherboard from static electricity and shields it against Electronic Magnetic Interference (EMI).
Here we take a closer look at the Southbridge. Notice all the vent slots, they help keep it cool by allowing heat to escape through. They really wanted the Southbride to stand head above sholders from the pack and they did a fine job.
The BIOS layout is well organized and impressive, offering every conceivably tweaking option that you can think of. I’m serious, the amount of tweak able options is crazy and most of them can be seen the moment you enter the BIOS configuration page. Main reason for this is because the very first menu is called “Extreme Tweaker” and everything you need to overclock this system is right there, starting with the processors, the memory and the PCI Express Bus.
Conclusion
In conclusion Asus has forged the ultimate gaming motherboard. The Asus Striker II has exceeded all our expectations, well beyond the call of duty with this masterpiece. can highly recommend this mother board. Seems they have thought of everything, who would have thought of a automatic CPU leveling up tool in the Bios? Pure Genius! This could easily become a platform of choice for gamers looking to build a SLI enabled system. I can’t think of any option that may have been left out other than the wireless networking. Howerver, this beauty of a motherboard will not be getting a perfect score from me due to the high cost. Nevertheless this amazing board will not becoming out of my machine for sometime. If you can afford the high cost and you want an magnificant gaming motherboard I highly recommend the purchase.
No PS2 support for Mice? WTF? Real gamers use PS2 mice with the roller ball!
Next you’re gonna tell me there isn’t support for AT keyboards!!!!