Asus Striker Extreme, E6600, small review

[zemzelett]

Hey All, this is a small attempt at a review since not many people have a retail board and might be interested in buying it but is not sure if its worth the money.

First of all, everything in my sig is retail parts bought from online stores (mostly newegg).

Lets get on with the little review.

Installing the board is just like any other board really, the main concern people have is the 8pin power connector under the heat pipe, its actually really easy to connect, only takes a couple more seconds then if the heat pipe wasnt there. The way screen shots was posted it looked horrable to install, but its really not, the heatpipe is slightly over the socket, but its not dramatic.

The board was a dream for phase change, theres is so much clean room around the cpu socket, you wont need to cut the foam around all the caps. like you normally do, which was nice for once.

The boards default memory voltage is 1.85 (1.88 overvolted) which was not enough for my G.Skill, so be aware of that, swapping a generic stick in and adjusting voltage solved the problem. But i had to disable the cpu fan monitoring to get it to save the voltage change (since im not using a cpu fan)

This board gets very hot, very. When checking stability later, i kept raising voltages to make it stable, turns out it was heat not making it stable, and dropping voltages helped alot, also for any serious overclocking, you will NEED fans, the heatpipes are fine up to about 450FSB or so, after that you need to put some fans over the heat pipes to get stability, i used a 120mm fan blowing over the northbridge, and a 80mm over the PVM area, if your using air cooling you may not have this issue as you would have air movement coming from your CPU fan. Also the board comes with a optional blower type fan that i used over the northbridge, and i used the one that came with my P5WDH and placed it over the heatsink closest to the I/O plate.

This board overvolts every voltage except cpu voltage which is undervolts, most voltages are overvolted .03, example 1.45nb will read 1.48 in bios and windows, but it undervolts cpu by alot, .1 actually, 1.60 set in bios = 1.5 actual, and then it will vdroop another .03 with load on it, so 1.47. Adjusting the voltages didnt have much effect for me, moving them up a slight helped, but moving them up alot made things much worse. Be careful about your voltages and heat buildup.

500 FSB was easy, but more then that takes quite a bit of work messing with voltages and dividers, 1T is also easy to do, but takes a slight bump in memory voltage to get stable.

SLI worked perfect, Ntune allows you to adjust a couple things, but not much, was easier to adjust everything in bios.

The board does do the shutdown thing, but only once, if you go from stock to 349FSB it never does the shutdown thing, once you go over 350 it shutsdown and saves, then after that it will never do it again, however, on a failed overclock, instead of it defaulting to stock settings, it defaults to 350 FSB, and it will also keep your memory voltage the same, so you dont have to keep swapping sticks in and out. Also on a failed overclock, almost always it will hang after you have saved the new bios settings, if you just push the reset button on the board, or your case, it will boot fine and will default to either stock settings or 350 FSB depending on if you had booted before with a FSB over 350. I never had to clear the CMOS, just a reboot.

Also under the CPU socket is clean, theres no parts there to smush. And the asus probe II software was very accurate for all readings which was nice, including cpu temps, almost exactly matching coretemp readings.

SS of 500 FSB
http://members.cox.net/zemzelettmail/4500.jpg

SS of 1T timings
http://members.cox.net/zemzelettmail/333%201t.jpg

Since i only have a pair of 7800's theres no point in posting 3d mark scores, as they are not as impressive the 8800's

My super pi times for 1M was always in the 11.5s - 12.5s range depending on what i was setting my memory at, which seems about right.

For now, i settled on 4.2ghz @ 1.52v as my 24/7 stable
http://members.cox.net/zemzelettmail/stable.jpg

i played with memory settings for about 3 days, and oddly enough, the best choice was default settings, 4-4-4-5 @DDR 1000, going more would change the divider giving less performace, upping it into the 1200+ range i had to lossen the timings which killed the bandwidth, at 3-3-3-5 1T @ 800 its almost exactly the same bandwidth as 4-4-4-4-5@ 1000 but it required more voltage to make it stable. After finals when i have more time ill mess with memory more and cpu clock speed.

Also, this might be worth mentioning, at one point i had set the 1.2vht voltage to 1.5 (1.55 overvolted) and the computer hated that, both of the ethernet ports stopped working all together, i messed with them for 2 hours but it seemed i killed them, i installed a pci nic card, and soon as i rebooted, they worked again, im guessing it was a IRQ conflict, even though windows said that there was no conflicts. Anyways, they work again now.

So there you go, some info on the board from just a normal person like yourself, for me, it was worth the 400 bucks, you will need to decide if its worth it for you, and i hope this info helps.

Hehe this post was suppose to be about the board, but since everyone is sending me PM's on the CPU, heres the info on the box.
L630A983 10/23/06 pack date..........got it from Newegg last week, shipped from CA

[vanovich]

nice post .nice cpu you have there . can you tell me if that cpu you have clocked better in other boards ,or vice versa?

[GAR]

nice cpu bro, how good does it clock on air?

[xgman]

Where did you buy the striker from?

[zemzelett]

Vanovich,
I dont have a answer for you, the cpu i had in my P5WDH was a week 27 and it died in the process of the motherboard swap, my only guess is from static, even though i was wearing a anti-staic bracelet at the time, bad luck i guess. So I had to buy another one from newegg last week and sent the other one back to intel for warranty (will go in my alt machine later)

GAR,
I dont know about on air, ive been using phase for a couple years now and dont own any aftermarket heatsinks, i could test it with the stock one that came in the retail box, but as you prolly already know, once you get have a cpu installed and its working really good, its best not to mess with it.

Xgman,
I bought it from newegg last week, at the time it was 399.99, an hour later it went up to 409.99 and a couple hours after that it was sold out. I know tankguys also had some last week but last i checked they was sold out now as well. I would think most retailers will have them back in stock in the next couple weeks.

[Speederlander]

Very nice.

[Ibinco]

Thanks for the review m8, i like the fact that you made clear that its an all retail board bought with your hard earned cash. Worrying are the heat issues and the undervolting of the CPU. I guess these two things simply dont justify its price tag.Nevertheless, i have mine arriving this week probably and ill give it a go till RD600 has come out :rolleyes:

[GrimReaper]

very nice :slobber: what week is that CPU? :eek:

[qk4723Deluxe]

very very nice~!:clap:
this is my ASUS 680i

http://home.pchome.com.tw/club/qk4723/680i/500x9.gif

[Venom-Crusher]

very nice mobo.

[BilLiZe]

very nice mobo.


What MOBO ??? :nono:

[Killnine]

Not one review to date has a picture of that LCD display on the back. ASUS acts like its this huge advance, not to have to use troublecodes, but not ONE friggin' person has shown anything about it. For a 400 dollar mobo, this should definitely be something that is brought up, as well as the cooling capacity of the NB/SB heatsinks. Sorta annoying.


Nice review, otherwise, though.

[Lestat]

for a 400 dollar board they could have had the stupid lcd in a place that was visible without crawling behind the desk to see it.
its retarded to put it on the back of the board.

[zemzelett]

Not one review to date has a picture of that LCD display on the back. ASUS acts like its this huge advance, not to have to use troublecodes, but not ONE friggin' person has shown anything about it. For a 400 dollar mobo, this should definitely be something that is brought up, as well as the cooling capacity of the NB/SB heatsinks. Sorta annoying.


Nice review, otherwise, though.

Umm this thread already has lots of pics of the board Link (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=122469)
so i didnt see the point of making more pics that everyone has already seen, asus also has pics of that little screen on their site as well.

qk4723Deluxe, is that just a max oc or are you stable right there? And what cooling was that, looks like DI to me judging by the cpu temp.

[ewitte]

Hehe this post was suppose to be about the board, but since everyone is sending me PM's on the CPU, heres the info on the box.
L630A983 10/23/06 pack date..........got it from Newegg last week, shipped from CA

Hmmm. I just got a 6600 from there around last week (maybe the week before) and it was a L626B089. I haven't tested it yet because I don't have a board that overclocks the CPU at the moment.

[bingo13]

I am air but the board has great FSB potential, still have some tuning left to do. ;)

http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/8097/srtiker7x534rp1.png

[qk4723Deluxe]

Umm this thread already has lots of pics of the board Link (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=122469)
so i didnt see the point of making more pics that everyone has already seen, asus also has pics of that little screen on their site as well.

qk4723Deluxe, is that just a max oc or are you stable right there? And what cooling was that, looks like DI to me judging by the cpu temp.

sorry!~
Stability I didn't do a test,Yes, what I use is a dry ice :toast:
http://home.pchome.com.tw/club/qk4723/3mmICE/di.gif

[audigy]

:toast: OMG.... :banana: :banana: :eek:

[Super Nade]

Looking good so far. ASUS have been very solid of late. Although expensive, I suppose you get what you pay for. Mate, can you please show us all the stuff the board came with. Does it come with Wi-Fi?

[dinos22]

500MHz FSB that's good to hear :toast: looks good on the 1T 467MHz too :eek: :)

[zemzelett]

Looking good so far. ASUS have been very solid of late. Although expensive, I suppose you get what you pay for. Mate, can you please show us all the stuff the board came with. Does it come with Wi-Fi?

It does not come with wifi, someone around here had some pics of what came in the box, think it was bingo13, its just the normal stuff, sata cables, ide cables, backplate, 3d mark 06 advanced, ghost recon, kaspersky anti virus, and some kind of huge mic that i havnt even taken out of the package, think that was most of the stuff anyways, just normal crap really.

[ShoNuff]

zemzelett...very nice job w/ the review. You answered many of the practical questions I had about the Striker board. Based on your results I now have a reference point to start tweaking the board. In addition to that it was good to hear from an "average Joe" sorta speak, using retail gear. :clap:

[barzi]

nice review :) but very expensive board(in holland over 300 euro)

[sdumper]

Is there room in between the heatpipes to maount an evap head using a standard Jinu117 style mounting kit?

[zemzelett]

Is there room in between the heatpipes to maount an evap head using a standard Jinu117 style mounting kit?

I cant say for sure, im using the standard mount for the vapochill, but judging by the pics ive seen of the Jinu kit, i would say it would fit.

Thanks everyone for the kind words and the PM's, I appreciate that.

[Kakulukia]

This board is Awesome.

Except the price, 300 euro is just too much money for a motherboard.

I'd rather wait at the RD600's boards till I buy new hardware (gfx and mobo).

-one other point; you say that the pc didnt boot with ur gskill memory at default Vdimm, which is 1.8V. I have got the same memory, and it boots well at defaults.
Or does the bios set it manually to highest freq (400= more volt)?

[Burnmaster]

Nice Board. nice oc

[zemzelett]

This board is Awesome.

Except the price, 300 euro is just too much money for a motherboard.

I'd rather wait at the RD600's boards till I buy new hardware (gfx and mobo).

-one other point; you say that the pc didnt boot with ur gskill memory at default Vdimm, which is 1.8V. I have got the same memory, and it boots well at defaults.
Or does the bios set it manually to highest freq (400= more volt)?

I dont really have a answer for you, it could be that my particular ram just takes a bit more to boot, i beleave its 1.9v for mine.

[SchiuZ]

Nice CPU and mobo :D. Do you suggest it for 4core Kentsfield?

[zemzelett]

Nice CPU and mobo :D. Do you suggest it for 4core Kentsfield?

I cant answer that right now, i dont own a quad core right now as i would have very little use for one until more software becomes multi-threaded. Now if someone wanted to give me one to test, well then, i wouldnt refuse :), cant blame me for trying hehe.

Im sure someone will be able to answer that soon though.

[Senater_Cache]

so DOES it come with temperature probes in the bundle?

[zemzelett]

so DOES it come with temperature probes in the bundle?

Yeap it sure does, comes with 3 or 4 of them, although i didnt hook them up, my fan controllers have 8 of them and even then i only use 2, and a special one for water temps for video cards.

[SchiuZ]

I cant answer that right now, i dont own a quad core right now as i would have very little use for one until more software becomes multi-threaded. Now if someone wanted to give me one to test, well then, i wouldnt refuse :), cant blame me for trying hehe.

Im sure someone will be able to answer that soon though.

Thanks anyway. I’ve read that this mobo should support very well the quad core processors. I hope that’s true and I also hope that my CPU is lucky, because on actual mobo I can’t go more than 3Ghz @ default vCore (or something more like 1,35 in BIOS witch is about 1,30v in CPUz monitor).

[sdumper]

now for the 400.00 question who has this mobo in stock today i cant find anyone selling it...even NewEgg at 409.00 is back orderd until 12/4...

[raju]

my board has arrived, I will be doing my ususal orthos blend drill with it this weekend, I wanna see if it'll upstage my infinity...

I think I'm gonna have to hack the heatpipes though, I have a custom acrylic mounting for my ss, the clearance is gonna be tight...

regards
raja

[sdumper]

my board has arrived, I will be doing my ususal orthos blend drill with it this weekend, I wanna see if it'll upstage my infinity...

I think I'm gonna have to hack the heatpipes though, I have a custom acrylic mounting for my ss, the clearance is gonna be tight...

regards
raja

Ok i'll bite where did you buy it?

I cant find anyone that has it in stock.

[Phil The Greek]

Just got my new E6700 and started playing with my STRIKER:D

[xgman]

now for the 400.00 question who has this mobo in stock today i cant find anyone selling it...even NewEgg at 409.00 is back orderd until 12/4...


It seems like a total of about 3 people got one on the first go round. I hope more show up next week.

[Speederlander]

Just got my new E6700 and started playing with my STRIKER:D
volts and temps?

[vladimir]

It seems like a total of about 3 people got one on the first go round. I hope more show up next week.
There was a minor "second go round" that Newegg got in on the 22nd, I was lucky enough to be able to grab one. I'll be assembling this weekend.

Matter of fact, I just checked Newegg, and they have stock! 5:07 PST

[Senater_Cache]

my board has arrived, I will be doing my ususal orthos blend drill with it this weekend, I wanna see if it'll upstage my infinity...

I think I'm gonna have to hack the heatpipes though, I have a custom acrylic mounting for my ss, the clearance is gonna be tight...

regards
raja

If you do, please cut them pipes open and tell us if ASUS finally deceided to use wicked pipes that actually contain liquid.
the eVGA I know contains a wick system and liquid.

all ASUS pipes I have seen cut, had no wick nor liquid in them.
just curious, cause no liquid=no evap :slapass: = no workie upside-down (or rather no worky at all past the actual sinks)

[Grinch]

now for the 400.00 question who has this mobo in stock today i cant find anyone selling it...even NewEgg at 409.00 is back orderd until 12/4...



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131074

says in stock:woot:

[xgman]

just got stock notice at zip also and ordered up. I'll be happy to get past this evga even though the striker is overpriced, it's worth it to me.

[raju]

Ok i'll bite where did you buy it?

I cant find anyone that has it in stock.


tekheads.co.uk

I guess that's no use to you as I live in the UK...

I've had it on preorder for a while now and it came through yesterday.

Just a quick question here, if I use something like arcronis or ghost and copy my current raid array (from an intel chipset) to a single sata hard drive, will the new board be able to read the installation?

I'm thinking of porting everything over and then doing a repair install.

regards
Raja

[bingo13]

my board has arrived, I will be doing my ususal orthos blend drill with it this weekend, I wanna see if it'll upstage my infinity...

I think I'm gonna have to hack the heatpipes though, I have a custom acrylic mounting for my ss, the clearance is gonna be tight...

regards
raja

Be sure to use the 0505 BIOS. ;)

[safan80]

for a 400 dollar board they could have had the stupid lcd in a place that was visible without crawling behind the desk to see it.
its retarded to put it on the back of the board.

personally I'd prefer if they would just make the lcd separate from the motherboard but still powered via the board so there's no need to take up an extra power connector like the MSI LED poster that was on my nforce2.

[lowdog]

Be sure to use the 0505 BIOS. ;)


And where might one get this bios from :rolleyes:


The bios that ships with the board is 0302 and this is the only bios rev on Asus download site atm. :fact:

[zemzelett]

And where might one get this bios from :rolleyes:


The bios that ships with the board is 0302 and this is the only bios rev on Asus download site atm. :fact:

Actually the bios that my board was shipped with was 0202, i updated mine to the 0302 soon as i installed windows though, never actually tested the 0202, but i have it saved still.

[lowdog]

Woops my mistake, mine shipped with bios 0402.

[TankGuys]

These things are *EXTREMELY* hard to get right now (hence the high prices). Since launch, I've gotten very few, and it's sporadic when they do show up. I'm guessing there will be more wide-spread availability in mid December.

[sdumper]

It seems like a total of about 3 people got one on the first go round. I hope more show up next week.

Got lucky and bought one from Ben {TankGuys} I think it was the only one he had though...

[ShoNuff]

And where might one get this bios from :rolleyes:


The bios that ships with the board is 0302 and this is the only bios rev on Asus download site atm. :fact:

Bump for a good question. I'm sure the 0505 bios addresses the sound issue. The bios can't be found via the FTP site either.

edit: so who has a link to the 0505 bios?

[raju]

lets hope the oc ability of this board goes even a small way to justifying it's price. I hope the new bios surfaces soon.

regards
raja

[Robilar]

Got lucky and bought one from Ben {TankGuys} I think it was the only one he had though...


Good find Sdumper. I was planning on gettin the striker as well but canada has even less stock. Settled for the Asus P5N32-E. With the new bios I've seen 532 FSB on air so I'm hopeful

[xgman]

Bump for a good question. I'm sure the 0505 bios addresses the sound issue. The bios can't be found via the FTP site either.

edit: so who has a link to the 0505 bios?

I hope the bioses are more forthcomming than the evga ones were.

[icon57]

Got lucky and bought one from Ben {TankGuys} I think it was the only one he had though...

...lol...these days we consider ourselves "lucky" to buy a mobo for 410.00, whatever happened to the good old days?

anyways as soon as tankguys or newegg get em in stock, i am gonna add this mobo to the arsenal, as they seem to all be hitting 500fsb :woot:

[xgman]

0505 bios link (i haven't tested it yet)

http://download.popsoft.com/download.aspx?id=64923

[bingo13]

And where might one get this bios from :rolleyes:


The bios that ships with the board is 0302 and this is the only bios rev on Asus download site atm. :fact:

Apparently it has already leaked out. ;) Oh well, using the 0508 now. :fact:

[bingo13]

I hope the bioses are more forthcomming than the evga ones were.

Asus has done nine different BIOS releases since 0202. They are working on it night and day currently.

[ShoNuff]

Apparently it has already leaked out. ;) Oh well, using the 0508 now. :fact:

...and you are not sharing it because? :stick:

@xgman thanks for the link Bro!

[lowdog]

Apparently it has already leaked out. ;) Oh well, using the 0508 now. :fact:


How about giving it out :fact:


What fixes does it incorperate :fact:


And wtf does DDR termination voltage mean in asus probe and where/what should it be adjusted to in the bios, cause I'm sick of the warning messages probe keeps giving about this, it's at 1.01 atm :confused:

[426hemi]

I think I am happy I waited for a mobo now!:D

[bingo13]

...and you are not sharing it because? :stick:

@xgman thanks for the link Bro!

NDA.

[Babsy]

i ordered this mobo from newegg.will be arriving monday i'm gonna see if it's gonna make me a very happy man with my current hardware

[ShoNuff]

NDA.

Bummer.:( Why did I know you were going to say that? Does the 0508 or better yet, the 0505 bios address the sound/SLI/PCI issue(s)?

[raju]

well I had the board running fine until I used asus update to flash to 0505. shipping bios was 402. I tried different sticks of ram, discharging psu every time. have any of you gus flashed yet to 0505?

I will have to reinstall the infinity and try a hotflash, unless someone knows of a workaround?

regards
raja

[Pt1t]

well I had the board running fine until I used asus update to flash to 0505. shipping bios was 402. I tried different sticks of ram, discharging psu every time. have any of you gus flashed yet to 0505?

I will have to reinstall the infinity and try a hotflash, unless someone knows of a workaround?

regards
raja

:( mine is dead before i flash it ! when i turn on power , it stay on CPU INIT.
Just after a boot @ 500*9 ...

[lowdog]

Never flash using windows utilities or when sys is overclocked :slapass: Always use dos flash utility when bios has been set to failsafe defaults. :fact:


If the flash went bad then pull everything off the board, clear cmos and remove the battery and leave the board overnight then try it again the next day.....has worked before. :fact:

[raju]

cpu was at defaults!!!!:fact:
ez flash shouild work if asus provide it, I have my infinity back online now, so will attempt a hotflash..

regards
raja

[xgman]

NDA.


please . . :rolleyes: since when are asus beta bioses really nda? They leak them regularly for testing here. That is why I prefer the asus to the evga etc.

[raju]

well ez flash definatley sucks for bios flashing on this board, I am now stuck, I can't hotflash the chip, i tried forcing it on a different motherboard but the softwwrae won't allow it due to incompatibilty. I will have to wait until I can get hold of a new chip, or this one will come back to life. Oh well..


Initial experiences; (while I had the board working on 0402 bios), the heatpipe blocking the atx 2.0 socket is definatley a hinderance for some connectors, I cannot get the connector to home square, as the heatpipe blocks the housing of the connector from sitting true. The board will still power up of course, but the connection itself does not inspire confidence.

Secondly the whole cooling array (heatsink.heatpipe) get's very hot, most of the heat is from the chipset which then spreads to the mosfet areas too via the heatpipes, in essence actually raising the temprature of all other connected devices. A lone solution for the nb would have been appreciated as it would have undercomplicated the fitting of a superior cooler by the user. The reason the issue is sensitive is that I noticed that stability anywhere over 1600fsb is directly dependant on how cool the board is running (more so than on other boards), the stock solution is a complete hinderance for extreme overclocking tbh, you'll need to hack up those pipes and seprate the nb or remove the whole assembly and go for single heatsinks in each area. Only other solution is to cover the whole board with fans at full blast. Asus do privide a clip on fan, but it does not look like it will really cool the chipset very well.

Hopefully I can get hold of a new bios chip soon...


regards
Raja

[bingo13]

please . . :rolleyes: since when are asus beta bioses really nda? They leak them regularly for testing here. That is why I prefer the asus to the evga etc.


They are not coming from me anymore unless there is a written release from Asus. They are under NDA and there is a stringent list now about who gets the betas. :fact:

[Phil The Greek]

This is what I got with my board so far.This is with watercooling on cpu and 2x90mm Tornados @low rpms on chipset heatsinks.
vcore=1,7(1,55reading)
nb=1,4
cpuvtt=1,4
The interesting is that when you find a wall on fsb,you symply have to find the memory settings that it likes.It might be 3-3-3-9-1T@800 or maybe 5-4-4-12-2T@1200 or somthing else...really confused.I am looking on my notes and I get more confused:confused:

[raju]

I got the board to boot finally, a single stick of ram in the farthest slot allowed the board to boot.

the issue was the low ddr voltage upon boot, around 1.8v only.

using 0505 bios now, finding a few knots over 1740fsb.


regards
raja
#11

[xgman]

well ez flash definatley sucks for bios flashing on this board, I am now stuck, I can't hotflash the chip, i tried forcing it on a different motherboard but the softwwrae won't allow it due to incompatibilty. I will have to wait until I can get hold of a new chip, or this one will come back to life. Oh well..


Initial experiences; (while I had the board working on 0402 bios), the heatpipe blocking the atx 2.0 socket is definatley a hinderance for some connectors, I cannot get the connector to home square, as the heatpipe blocks the housing of the connector from sitting true. The board will still power up of course, but the connection itself does not inspire confidence.

Secondly the whole cooling array (heatsink.heatpipe) get's very hot, most of the heat is from the chipset which then spreads to the mosfet areas too via the heatpipes, in essence actually raising the temprature of all other connected devices. A lone solution for the nb would have been appreciated as it would have undercomplicated the fitting of a superior cooler by the user. The reason the issue is sensitive is that I noticed that stability anywhere over 1600fsb is directly dependant on how cool the board is running (more so than on other boards), the stock solution is a complete hinderance for extreme overclocking tbh, you'll need to hack up those pipes and seprate the nb or remove the whole assembly and go for single heatsinks in each area. Only other solution is to cover the whole board with fans at full blast. Asus do privide a clip on fan, but it does not look like it will really cool the chipset very well.

Hopefully I can get hold of a new bios chip soon...


regards
Raja

It's sounds like some customizing of the heatsinks might be in order. I don't like the all tied together solutions either. At least the reference boards separated the mofsets out.

[xgman]

I got the board to boot finally, a single stick of ram in the farthest slot allowed the board to boot.

the issue was the low ddr voltage upon boot, around 1.8v only.

using 0505 bios now, finding a few knots over 1740fsb.


regards
raja
#11

I had something like this happen on the EVGA version of the 680i. If you run your ram at a prolonged period at 2.4v+, then I think sometimes the low boot voltage can be a problem. I wonder why running one stick in a different slot boots it though.

[Bootsy]

I got the board to boot finally, a single stick of ram in the farthest slot allowed the board to boot.

the issue was the low ddr voltage upon boot, around 1.8v only.

using 0505 bios now, finding a few knots over 1740fsb.


regards
raja
#11
Raja

Thanks for all your hard work with the DFI board:toast:

I am dying to see if you are able to hit 500+ FSB with this board. It seems all of them can hit 500 fsb but there are just to few in play to trust. You always do a real orthos run to see if its really stable. I am subscribed!!

Boosty

[raju]

The nb works best with 1.5v and downwards, over 1.5 is not as stable on my board even with a good fan and airflow (using stock heatsink with fans).

atm i'm running orthos belnd at around 1775, with loose timings at 900mhz 2T. Any tighter and orthos fails quite quckly (blend test). the best way for noobs to oc on this board unlinked for orthos is to use spd timings first to get a feel for the cas at relative cpu fsb. I hope the 0508 bios bingo has is better..

to be blunt it's not as easy as knowing your max ram speed from the intel chipsets and setting the same unlinked and maxxing out cpu fsb, single pi runs aside any stringent load and the board bsods or borks loading xp and that's after intensive fiddling with all individual voltages.

regards
raja

[Babsy]

The nb works best with 1.5v and downwards, over 1.5 is not as stable on my board even with a good fan and airflow (using stock heatsink with fans).

atm i'm running orthos belnd at around 1775, with loose timings at 900mhz 2T. Any tighter and orthos fails quite quckly (blend test). the best way for noobs to oc on this board unlinked for orthos is to use spd timings first to get a feel for the cas at relative cpu fsb. I hope the 0508 bios bingo has is better..

to be blunt it's not as easy as knowing your max ram speed from the intel chipsets and setting the same unlinked and maxxing out cpu fsb, single pi runs aside any stringent load and the board bsods or borks loading xp and that's after intensive fiddling with all individual voltages.

regards
raja
sounds like this mobo isnt gonna be the golden one....how sad!

[Bootsy]

Yea, I managed 1880 fsb on my BFG 680i before the raid problems forced me to return it after 3 bad boards. I was hoping the ASUS would be better.

[raju]

on the 9x multi, I can boot up to around 1830 and around 1900 on the 8x. orthos blend wise you're looking at a max of around 450 or so with the current bios. some users have already noticed a strap change at the 1700 mark on the evga board. I have found that so far these boards with solid caps are great for big boot ups (solid caps are great in pulse applications), though absolute stability is a little lower.

regards
raja

[revenant]

wow- not looking too great for this overpriced monster.. gah! well.. we have a few more boards which are due out soon(ish). the Abit.. and the MSI! Then DFI in Jan?? I am personally hoping the MSI 680i variant with the onboard X-Fi will be good.. fingers X'd!

[Babsy]

wow- not looking too great for this overpriced monster.. gah! well.. we have a few more boards which are due out soon(ish). the Abit.. and the MSI! Then DFI in Jan?? I am personally hoping the MSI 680i variant with the onboard X-Fi will be good.. fingers X'd!
yeah and i thought it was gonna make a big difference.Maybe the DFI is gonna do some wonders i hope since it's been delayed soo much!

[zemzelett]

The nb works best with 1.5v and downwards, over 1.5 is not as stable on my board even with a good fan and airflow (using stock heatsink with fans).

atm i'm running orthos belnd at around 1775, with loose timings at 900mhz 2T. Any tighter and orthos fails quite quckly (blend test). the best way for noobs to oc on this board unlinked for orthos is to use spd timings first to get a feel for the cas at relative cpu fsb. I hope the 0508 bios bingo has is better..

to be blunt it's not as easy as knowing your max ram speed from the intel chipsets and setting the same unlinked and maxxing out cpu fsb, single pi runs aside any stringent load and the board bsods or borks loading xp and that's after intensive fiddling with all individual voltages.

regards
raja

Spend more time with it, some of the straps are not as stable as others, takes alot of time, and keep the volts down. At 1864 x 9 i can run blend as long as you want with the memory at 1000+, but if i set the memory to 999, it wont even post. If you move the fsb up or down a little, then you can run 999 all day long again, its all about the straps. Ive tested as much as 2120 fsb without issues as well, but after that the nb wants more volts for stability and the heat really starts coming up causing it to bsod quite often, after finals ill mess with it more. Also, i dont know if you noticed or not, but the board is very power hungry, so a good powersupply is a must.

[raju]

Spend more time with it, some of the straps are not as stable as others, takes alot of time, and keep the volts down.



The nb actually works better under 1.5v, infact 1.2v-1.4 is best.

At 1864 x 9 i can run blend as long as you want with the memory at 1000+, but if i set the memory to 999, it wont even post.



I will try that myself, I have around 12 hours here at 1775 with 2t timings at 1100mhz. I have noticed a few issues, how many hours can you run for and can you please post up a run of 8 hours on blend test for me at your highest fsb for me, I wanna see maybe I'm doing something wrong?


If you move the fsb up or down a little, then you can run 999 all day long again, its all about the straps. Ive tested as much as 2120 fsb without issues as well, but after that the nb wants more volts for stability and the heat really starts coming up causing it to bsod quite often, after finals ill mess with it more. Also, i dont know if you noticed or not, but the board is very power hungry, so a good powersupply is a must.


I have a 900w Tagan PSU, so plenty of spare power per rail...


Also My fsb is lower than others as I don't concentrate on superpi as much. Only really Orthos blend for at least 12hours, after that I do some work with superpi. ATM the only results that interest me are screenshots at 9xmulti and over for at least 8hours using blend and cpu-z showing motherboard, cpu and ram.

I will post my results here soon.

This chipset is new to me and I definatley am willing to give it time, I worked on the infinity for 3 months and it finally came real good.I'm hoping that we see the same with this.

thanks man
raja

[The Nemesis]

@Raju

My evga is 12 hours orthos stable @ 1860FSB using P19 bios E6400 & G. SKill. I can't seem to get 2000FSB linked, unlinked, P21 or P20 bios. All my voltages were set to auto except cpu, mem & FSB. If the Striker suppose to be the best, I'm not very optimistic about the current 680i boards. I too am waiting for retail boards from DFI's 680 or RD600. Im very hopeful of Abits IN9 32-Max though.

[raju]

thx buddy, that sounds about right for a e6400. BTW the lower I drop the multi the higher it'll go (to an extent, at 7x I should nbe able to get to your mark stable) but it defeats the object tbh. I'm looking at the 9x multi atm, and I can boot all the way upto 1887 it just fails to get into xp. I also find that the ram timings need to be stupidly loose to get there. Where Orthos blend is running upto 1775 on the 9x multi which is plenty for air and water, but certainly not enough for phase.

I just wanna see someone else Orthos blend on the 9x multi and see whether my failure us ram or bios related. I already know the minimum my cpu can do.

regards
Raja

[The Nemesis]

@Raja

Added link to 6400 on Evga 680i in sig. My E6600 L628B070 should be here just before Xmas. I'll see what I come up with then. Of course we will all be playing with the retail RD600 by then. :)

[raju]

maybe it's my es cpu.. lol..

regards
Raja

[icon57]

nice results raja(the screenie in your sig) of the evga mobo....465fsb and 12 hours orthos stable...very nice...would you care to share some mem sub timings?

[Babsy]

nice results raja(the screenie in your sig) of the evga mobo....465fsb and 12 hours orthos stable...very nice...would you care to share some mem sub timings?
it's not an evga it's an asus striker xtreme!mine on the way anyway too
nice raja

[zemzelett]

I will try that myself, I have around 12 hours here at 1775 with 2t timings at 1100mhz. I have noticed a few issues, how many hours can you run for and can you please post up a run of 8 hours on blend test for me at your highest fsb for me, I wanna see maybe I'm doing something wrong?

So far the highest ive tested for orthos for any amount of time was 1864, have screenie of 4 hours of small fft, did blend for 4 hours as well but lost the screenie to a corrupt windows on a higher overclock. If you want more then that id be happy to do it, but your gonna have to wait until after finals, as i just dont have the time right now. Max fsb i tested was 2000, but my cpu wasnt quite stable with 1.5v, and i ran out of time for testing, needed this computer back up for finals.

During spring break though, id be happy to work with you and see what we can do with these boards. One thing i noticed though, you said you needed loose timings for higher fsb, The timings for my memory had no impact on the fsb though, they had a dramatic impact on bandwidth, and not all THAT much on super pi, this was unlinked by the way. Highest i really tested memory to was 1200 and that was with loose timings, 5-5-5 and the bandwidth sucked like that, so for now i left it at the default 4-4-5-8 @ 1002 until spring break.

[raju]

what bios are you using?

I am using 0502, if you have 0402 please let me know.

regards
raja

[JWilson]

Could someone post links to the BIOS please... Thanks!

[icon57]

it's not an evga it's an asus striker xtreme!mine on the way anyway too
nice raja


http://img.techpowerup.org/061204/12%20hours.jpg


i was referring to this...

[xgman]

Could someone post links to the BIOS please... Thanks!


The 0505 bios link went down for some reason. There has not been a link to 0508 yet. I hope asus will let us test some of these new betas. I think it would be mutually beneficial.

[sdumper]

Im looking for the latest greatest bios too. It seems like everytime I have a boot problem i have to reset my bios and it getting pretty old. Im using the bios that was on the board when shipped. Also what voltage are you guys using for the high FSB's? They go up so high i am really nervous of giving it to much juice but I have run my es e6700 at 4.6 ghz with my modded mach II but so far am hitting stability walls at NB = 1.65, SB = 1.65, HT = 1.55, no clue what that last setting is cpu VTT but gave it 1.55 and ran into stability issues at 4.4ghz... Also does anyone know a vdroop mod for this board?

[sdumper]

Not one review to date has a picture of that LCD display on the back. ASUS acts like its this huge advance, not to have to use troublecodes, but not ONE friggin' person has shown anything about it. For a 400 dollar mobo, this should definitely be something that is brought up, as well as the cooling capacity of the NB/SB heatsinks. Sorta annoying.


Nice review, otherwise, though.

For what its worth the LCD display actually is useful...surprize surprize. I was having posting problems and thought my CPU was the culprit well i just for kicks checked out the lcd and it stated vdimm init err. Well I pulled a stick of the team extreem and it booted fine...not sure if the ram really has a problem or if something else is causing it but it did at least identify a real issue that gave me a clue for resolving.

I still would like to see someone share some of the voltage settings they safely used for the higher FSB's...

[raju]

try vnb at 1.2v or 1.4v max, you might find more stability believe it or not...

regards
Raja

[JWilson]

Com'on guy's, take a break from posting how great the BIOS is and post a link...

Could someone post links to the BIOS please... Thanks!

[sdumper]

thanks im looking for something better than the 402...

[JWilson]

The 0505 bios link went down for some reason. There has not been a link to 0508 yet. I hope asus will let us test some of these new betas. I think it would be mutually beneficial.


Thanks!

[sdumper]

Could you e-mail it to me and I'll host it... my e-mail is jwilson@fiyrra.com
Thanks!

Sure ill get it tonight it came with the mobo...ASUS only shows 0302 so not sure why i have a more recent one on my board...

[JWilson]

Ah,... you do know it's the 505 BIOS I'm begging for.... :)

[sdumper]

lol...i thought so but i wasnt sure so i responded ;)

Im in the same boat and cant find it anywhere :(

[xgman]

Could you e-mail it to me and I'll host it... my e-mail is jwilson@fiyrra.com
Thanks!


sent. Someone PLEASE post 0508. I really don't undrtestand why asus has gotten so tight about releasing test bioses lately. The beta bios releases are one big reason I dumped the evga for the striker. I hope asus takes some note of this. This is an entusiast board and "entusiasts" especially the "Xtreme" ones, generally know how to test a beta bios and understand the risks. If they are going to market these as such, then sus should understand that this is part of what we expect to have access to. This is not the Dell forum here. :rolleyes:

[sdumper]

sent. Someone PLEASE post 0508. I really don't undrtestand why asus has gotten so tight about releasing test bioses lately. The beta bios releases are one big reason I dumped the evga for the striker. I hope asus takes some note of this. This is an entusiast board and "entusiasts" especially the "Xtreme" ones, generally know how to test a beta bios and understand the risks. If they are going to market these as such, then sus should understand that this is part of what we expect to have access to. This is not the Dell forum here. :rolleyes:

i hate to bug you but what is 0508 suppose to offer?
Im having problems witha bank of dimms using 0402 and am hoping this will be resolved by a bios update.

[Babsy]

pretty nice results there..i'm going noob for a min,with phase are you able to to leave the pc on 24/7 or is it just for benches?

[sdumper]

pretty nice results there..i'm going noob for a min,with phase are you able to to leave the pc on 24/7 or is it just for benches?

im running folding both cores at 4.4 ghz but do so from 6:00am to 12am the rig is in my room and i turn it off when i sleep ... the wife insists lol

I did insulate the back with tape as well as around the socket...no big deal but on post 1 and 3 i have some picts of the insulation...crude but effective as well as removable with some QD quick contact cleaner...

http://www.blazingpc.com/showthread.php?t=1273

[xgman]

i hate to bug you but what is 0508 suppose to offer?


"Memory compatibility is further improved with 667/533 modules, overclocking is a little better with the 4MB cache chips and with audio enabled."

Excatly what I need. :(

[sdumper]

man that sounds good..if you get it please share :)

[JWilson]

sent................

Thanks!

[xgman]

I don'T know what's going on, but it's almost 1 hour since you sent. Nothing arrived. Please try 1 more time. Thanks!

jwilson@fiyrra.com


sent again from another email acct. Sometimes the spam detectors see a bin file inside the rar and block it thinking it's trouble.

[xgman]

I haven't had a chance to really test out my striker yet, but I took one look at those heatpipes and ripped them right off off the board. They are really cheesy thin metal material,. I replaced the two chipset ones with better chipset coolers and cut the mofsets ones off the pipes abnd just placed them back on the mofsets. I have heard that the NB temps on the striker were higher than the evga and this maty be simply due to a flimsy cooling design compared to the evga, which in my op, was done quite a bit better. I'll see if the chipset coolers help any.

[JWilson]

Got it that time :D

Thanks, my friend...

Here's what I have so far:

ASUS Striker BIOS (http://www.lejabeach.com/ASUS/Striker/)

[xgman]

Got it that time :D

Thanks, my friend...

Here's what I have so far:

ASUS Striker BIOS (http://www.lejabeach.com/ASUS/Striker/)


With reviews that trash the board like the "H" one, I can't understand why asus doesn't spread some of these bioses around to see if they can help matters somewhat. They didn't even send them an update for the review. I don't think the are even paying attention to their won marketing. In fact the bios posted on the asus site is older than the shipping bios. :rolleyes:

[sdumper]

xgman thanks!!!!! for the link

[Babsy]

Ok i have my board and it's all setup now
i used 4gbs ram initially but wouldnt go past boot screen so i used 2gbs of ram.When it gets to booting into windows it just restarts and it's been doing that no matter what i do.I dont know if i'm doing anything wrong here
your input much appreciated

[xgman]

Ok i have my board and it's all setup now
i used 4gbs ram initially but wouldnt go past boot screen so i used 2gbs of ram.When it gets to booting into windows it just restarts and it's been doing that no matter what i do.I dont know if i'm doing anything wrong here
your input much appreciated


Up the voltage on your ram and maybe cpu a bit and try again. If not try boot with one stick in black slot.

[sdumper]

Ok i have my board and it's all setup now
i used 4gbs ram initially but wouldnt go past boot screen so i used 2gbs of ram.When it gets to booting into windows it just restarts and it's been doing that no matter what i do.I dont know if i'm doing anything wrong here
your input much appreciated

Set your NB at 1.4 and your HT at 1.5

also check your ram voltage like suggested and try the ram as suggested...

[JWilson]

Here's what We have so far:

ASUS Striker BIOS (http://www.lejabeach.com/ASUS/Striker/)

[lowdog]

Ok i have my board and it's all setup now
i used 4gbs ram initially but wouldnt go past boot screen so i used 2gbs of ram.When it gets to booting into windows it just restarts and it's been doing that no matter what i do.I dont know if i'm doing anything wrong here
your input much appreciated


Lower NB, SB and most other voltages, they all default to high values that tend to make the system less stable when set high, also they all overvolt by around .03 V. CPU Vcore undervolts by around .10 V so check that as well. If you want 1.3vcore you'll need to set around 1.4 V in bios, want 1.4 V then set 1.5 V in bios for vcore etc.


Up ram voltage to 2.03


Set cas latency etc to speced speeds eg; 5.5.5.15 or whatever then try adjusting these first.


TRD-Read Delay - 7

TRFC-Refresh Cyclic Time - 30

[Babsy]

thanks all,now it worked ..havent tried to overclock yet but i'm able to boot into windows
Another thing happening now is with 4gbs of ram it just BSOD's over and over again.I dont know if anyone els has tried that but that's what happens with 4gbs and asus techs were no help at all

[sdumper]

It looks like i may need to RMA this board...both slots of my first bamk of ram gives me a long beep whenever I insert ram into them...ie no dual channel :(

Both dimm slots of the second bank work fine...I flashed to a new bios and reset the cmos, upped the voltage you name it but so far nothing seems to work so it looks like i will need to send this back as an RMA :(. I just hope i can get a replacement ASAP.

[lowdog]

thanks all,now it worked ..havent tried to overclock yet but i'm able to boot into windows
Another thing happening now is with 4gbs of ram it just BSOD's over and over again.I dont know if anyone els has tried that but that's what happens with 4gbs and asus techs were no help at all


I'm running 4gig of Gskill BHZ without any issues @ 2.03 V 4.4.4.12, TRD-7, TRFC-30 @ 800Mhz.

[Babsy]

I'm running 4gig of Gskill BHZ without any issues @ 2.03 V 4.4.4.12, TRD-7, TRFC-30 @ 800Mhz.
so then it must be my ram
thanks for confirming that

[zemzelett]

JWilson,

I emailed the SE202 bios to you thru the contact us on your web page.

Zem

[raju]

I am running orthos just past the 8 hours barrier now at 3-4-3-8 a ddr 800 1T. FSB is around 1778.

Around 440-450fsb on the 9x multi is tops for this board running orthos blend test at these timings. ..

The board likes looser ras-d a nd ras-p than we are sometimes used to, even at 2T.

Chipset runs great even at 1.2v, no difference in oc ability on my board right upto 1.5v, after that the oc stable ability diminishes(even with active air cooling). I will have the nb under water cooling soon.

regards
Raja

[JWilson]

JWilson,

I emailed the SE202 bios to you thru the contact us on your web page.

Zem

OK, thanks my friend, but there is something wrong with it. It is only 850kb instead of 1 meg like all the Striker BIOS files..... :confused:

[zemzelett]

OK, thanks my friend, but there is something wrong with it. It is only 850kb instead of 1 meg like all the Striker BIOS files..... :confused:

Not sure why, it was a direct copy saved from bios to disk.

[Babsy]

I am running orthos just past the 8 hours barrier now at 3-4-3-8 a ddr 800 1T. FSB is around 1778.

Around 440-450fsb on the 9x multi is tops for this board running orthos blend test at these timings. ..

The board likes looser ras-d a nd ras-p than we are sometimes used to, even at 2T.

Chipset runs great even at 1.2v, no difference in oc ability on my board right upto 1.5v, after that the oc stable ability diminishes(even with active air cooling). I will have the nb under water cooling soon.

regards
Raja
which ram are using with this board??

[JWilson]

Not sure why, it was a direct copy saved from bios to disk.

Huh! Somehow the end must have gotten lopped off. Too bad... :(

But thanks for the effort. Maybe someone else has a copy of the 202 BIOS.... :D

[sdumper]

Interesting I hit a wall at 449 to 451 and then am stable again at 452 and up...
No clue why. I left the settings the same and tried different multis but no matter what settings i tried I could not boot between 449 and 451.

Bios used: 0402 and 0505...

[sdumper]

Sorry to double post but with bios 0505 my speedfan (i believe correctly) shows a vCore of 1.65 and a vDroop to 1.63. But the ASUS probe show 1.71. This is a beta bios and at these same settings on 0402 I was correctly showing vCore of 1.65 and vdroop under load to 1.63.

Im praying that the 0505 bios is reflecting the vCore in ASUS probe incorrect voltage settings since im running at this folding today at my house and cant turn it off and risk leaving my phase running on an unheated chip.

[raju]

which ram are using with this board??


HI,

I've used Team Group 667 3-3-38 kit and also crucial 3-3-3-12 kit, the board is more stable using the team group. I can boot my board anywhere right upto 1900mhz, just that orthos stable over 1775-1785 is a no go, upto 1800 I can get a few hours stable, after that it becomes no more than a few minutes.

In it's current state the best place to run this board is with cas 3 timings @1T (if your ram allows) in the sub 800mhz region for 24/7, that'll give the best performance I feel.

I will post my results when my 8800gtx arrives..

Of course if the rd600 lands, I'll be on to pastures new...

btw the 0505 bios does not have the bootup knots of the 0402 bios..

regards
Raja

[raju]

OK finally some progress, basically what's holding this board and it's fsb back is the stock cooling solution. I just cut off the entire assembly and seperated all the heatsinks by cutting off the connecting 'heat' pipes. The stock nb heatsink has been replaced with a thermatake extreme siprit II and an extra 90mm fan blowing over it a full speed.

I am already going past previous orthos attempts, but will hold back verdict unitil I reach a few target figures.

Expect any good results to go up in a seperate thread.

BTW I am absolutley positive now that more vnb is not the way to oc this board, even keeping the nb real cool the board does not stabilise well with over 1.4v on the chipset, 1.2vnb still works best. I am running orthos blend at 1830 as I type. Memory spped is low atm just so I can get a feel, I will try to push out a few barriers to make up for the chipset latency deficit over 1699 fsb somewhat...

Things are looking up sorta..

regards
Raja

[raju]

I'm trying to get around 1880fsb stable now. I had one failure at 11mins with ht voltage at 1.5v, now trying 1.6...

regards
Raja

[raju]

1874qfsb so far, timings are a little loose but still ok for 24/7..


http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/1347/orthosstrikerbc2.jpg


regards
Raja

[ShoNuff]

Have any of you guys had any problems getting the Striker to boot from a single SATA drive? I just got the board and I get an "ERROR LOADING OPERATING SYSTEM" message when I attempt to boot from the SATA drive. Note, I've tried two different drives with the same results. I can see and use the SATA drive from within windows when I boot from my IDE drive.

The same set of SATA drives worked perfectly with my P5W64 and evga 680i board.

Weird and frustrating.:confused:

edit: using bios 0505 with the following hardware:
8800 GTX in SLI, 2GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR2, PCP&C 1KW-SR, WD 150GB Raptor, WD 400GB (storage), Plextor 716A and Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

edit#2: Fixed problem. The hard drive was bad and was replaced. New drive...no more problem. ;)

[raju]

I use single sata's for xp loading etc. Remove the first device as removable in the boot up priority set it to hard drive as 1st. Also got to the hd boot order page and change the priorities if you have more than one sata disk.

[Babsy]

raju
can you show settings and screenshots if you can of how you got that sweet overclock...maybe we need a mini overclocking guide for the asus striker :)

[raju]

yeah buddy it's coming...

I just went tighter on the ram and restarted the run last night, so far so good...

the rest of te the stuff goes up in my db at wol.

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/372/orthosstrikeryk4.jpg


regards
Raja

[Speederlander]

What kind of 1M pi does that oc give?

[raju]

dunno buddy have not tested that yet.

It's quite easy to pass so I ususually do those things last if at all.

You'd be able to go tighter on the ram by a long way than what I've got above for 1m...

regards
Raja

[Ibinco]

I have been testing the board for the past 2 days... Getting to 1600 was easy...but anything after that has me puzzled..I cant get my E6600 to run 3.7ghz stable for the life of me! And i know that chip is 3.8ghz orthos stable on air! One thing i dont understand on that board are the Vcore read outs! ow and can someone post the 0508 bios please.

[raju]

I have been testing the board for the past 2 days... Getting to 1600 was easy...but anything after that has me puzzled..I cant my E6600 to run 3.7ghz stable for the life of me! And i know that chip is 3.8ghz orthos stable on air! One thing i dont understand on that board are the Vcore read outs! ow and can someone post the 0508 bios please.


0508 has not been released to anyone here yet only Bingo has it and he's under nda.

0505 leaked out, but has a start up issue as you know, once you get past that it's fine.

lock mcp to 250mhz (in system clock screen)

vnb 1.2-1.35 works fine

Keep ram speed at 1000mhz or just under, depending on fsb.

Just set your cas first and leave the other timings on auto first to see if it's the ram tripping you up (the bios will auto set those way loose first).

Refresh rate too tight causes reboots too, you might want to hard set that lower down the scale (towards 2.5) initially.

great board for overclocking this one as it has a real hard learning curve, but is fun to learn on..

regards
Raja

[Ibinco]

0508 has not been released to anyone here yet only Bingo has it and he's under nda.

0505 leaked out, but has a strat up issue as you know, once you get past that it's fine.

lock mcp to 250mhz (in system clock screen)

vnb 1.2-1.35 works fine

Keep ram speed at 1000mhz or just under, depending on fsb.

Just set your cas first and leave the other timings on auto first to see if it's the ram tripping you up (the bios will auto set those way loose first).

Refresh rate too tight causes reboots too, you might want to hard set that lower down the scale (towards 2.5) initially.

great board for overclocking this one as it has a real hard learning curve, but is fun to learn on..

regards
Raja


Thanks for the info Raja...i can stop my search for the 0508 :)

[Babsy]

my white memory slots dont work,wld updating the bios fix this or i definitely have to rma this board back?just a little tired of this out boards out of the case and waiting a week for a new board
Any other options ?

[UmbraSprite]

Interesting I hit a wall at 449 to 451 and then am stable again at 452 and up...
No clue why. I left the settings the same and tried different multis but no matter what settings i tried I could not boot between 449 and 451.

Bios used: 0402 and 0505...


I have heard this on several forums. Seems there are gaps where you get nothing and if you keep going you get stability back.

Does anyone remember seeing this elsewhere or have any personal experiences?

[sdumper]

Well am RMAing this board back today but cant wait to get a replacement this board is one heck of an overclocker...4.4ghz orthos stable for over and hour until i shut it down and temps remained reasonable on SS. This is the first board i have been able to do this on using this particular chip which lends me to believe its the mobo :)

RMA reason: Bank 1 of the DIMMs not working at all ... log beep on start up.

[raju]

I can run orthos right upto 4.3ghz for a few hours, but anything around the 6 hours mark fails, my db has stringent 12 hour requirements, so I have had to peg back to 4.108ghz, trying again now..


regards
raja

[sdumper]

Using an e6600 (ES) and a SS I assume?

[raju]

yep..

[Yoxxy]

Raju. Try 4-4-4-8-1T @ 950-970 mhz. That gives me the best scores. I am orthos stable 5 hours (I turned it off) on 950 4-4-4-8-1T with C2D at 3.6 ghz (waiting for Single Stage back from Jinu :)) You will also notice it gives quite the bandwidth though. It beats 1150 CAS 4-4-4-8 or 1300 CAS 5-4-4-8 across the board, SPI, 3d, Gaming, *.

[Babsy]

Well am RMAing this board back today but cant wait to get a replacement this board is one heck of an overclocker...4.4ghz orthos stable for over and hour until i shut it down and temps remained reasonable on SS. This is the first board i have been able to do this on using this particular chip which lends me to believe its the mobo :)

RMA reason: Bank 1 of the DIMMs not working at all ... log beep on start up.
r u rma'ing directly to asus or reseller?

[raju]

Raju. Try 4-4-4-8-1T @ 950-970 mhz. That gives me the best scores. I am orthos stable 5 hours (I turned it off) on 950 4-4-4-8-1T with C2D at 3.6 ghz (waiting for Single Stage back from Jinu :)) You will also notice it gives quite the bandwidth though. It beats 1150 CAS 4-4-4-8 or 1300 CAS 5-4-4-8 across the board, SPI, 3d, Gaming, *.


it's the combo of high fsb and mem speed that's killing the orthos run, try running fsb 1874 on the 9 x multi, with that mem speed and you'll see what I mean, after the 5 hour mark, it'll fail or the comp will crash...


regards
Raja

[Lood007]

Just got my striker in from canada today.
Will be building and benching tomorrow afternoon...

:woot:

[sdumper]

r u rma'ing directly to asus or reseller?

Back to reseller unfortunately he has no more in stock so is just doing a refund. But NewEgg has them in stock for the same price so im going to pick one up the same day my refund goes through.

[Lood007]

I built my system, got it watercooled and... 1 RAM module was bad. Awesome.

[Lood007]

BTW, My board came with BIOS 0402 loaded on it. Has anyone seen or used this?

[Babsy]

mine came with 0402 too but i havent done anything with it yet.Prolly gonna try pverclocking by the weekend

[sdumper]

I built my system, got it watercooled and... 1 RAM module was bad. Awesome.

Just out of curiosity how did you verify that one of your ram modules was bad?

I had a bank of dimms out and thought at first stick of ram was bad until I swapped the sticks and the same thing happened. It turned out that as long as I use bank 2 I had no issues...

BIOS 0402

[raju]

I am having some werid issues


First my xp install borked during an orthos run.

So I resinstalled xp, only to be met with bsod's during the install process..

returned to stock, just got egg timers froazen at the registry point.

Eventually got xp installed, now I'm back at stock, even ram, and after a few hours I can't get things like outlook express or mozilla firefox to even open and run, I just get an egg timer which reverts back to a pointer after a while..


Even at stock...

The reason I have not presented orthos screenshots yet is because the board either resets after 5 hours, or bsod's when I wake up the pc from display power saving etc by moving the mouse.


People with the evga version are having sata issues too.

I have noticed that when overclocked, the computer will randomly spin up my cd rom from time to time (during orthos runs too).

Also the crash during wake up from display power saving seems to happen when the hd's are accessed again from the sleep.

Anyone else have any issues?

regards
Raja

[sdumper]

Sounds like corruption of you os to me....

Are you running Raid0 or just a straight SATA connected HD?

I had no such issues prior to my RMA...bios used 0402 and 0505.
I didnt run orthos for 5 hours though. What I did do was leave it folding for 48 hours at 4.3ghz and 1.62 real vCore...no issues like that were observed but then again folding doesnt stress like orthos does...

[raju]

I am talking fresh installs after full reformats of hard drives, no raid just single sata buddy...

Even now evrything is at stock, I leave idle and try to load something like mozzilla or outlook express and I get an egg timer, without any software running. process manager shows the exe files though.

You wanna read more like this go to the evga forum, there's users there with the same probs...

The chipset behaves weird after a while..

regards
Raja

[sdumper]

Man your getting me nervous...

I jut RMAed the board for a refund and was planning on buying another as soon as the refund goes through but now im getting nervous.

Dont get me wrong I didnt experience that issue but I did have a bank of DIMMs out. It seems like this chipset is not really ready for prime time and thats a shame because it has such great potential :(

[raju]

honest buddy, I would not have written it unless I had experienced it to this extent myself, even at stock...


today not even a single thing has been adjusted that could have caused the issue, but it surfaces even at stock...

regards
Raja

[Babsy]

i havent tried anything with mine ,still using it at stock and works fine.Not that i dont believe you but i'm a little freaked out here was waiting on you to post some screenshots anyway like you said you would
So what's next ?

[Lood007]

Just out of curiosity how did you verify that one of your ram modules was bad?

I had a bank of dimms out and thought at first stick of ram was bad until I swapped the sticks and the same thing happened. It turned out that as long as I use bank 2 I had no issues...

BIOS 0402
Yea, it was a module. I switched banks and checked several times. One DIMM was bad.

Also, has anyone had the issue with the mobo not reporting motherboard temp in BIOS? Mine says -55c. Asus probe shows 201c. Obviously this is in error.

In response to SATA issues, I have had none. I have all 6 ports occupied, all are working fine.

Currently, I am just getting a feel for the board. ATM, I am at QDR1620, with a 6x multiplier. This e6300 does not OC as well as I had hoped... I've only gotten to 2.8 GHz at 1.4v.

Still playing around with it...

[raju]

dude it's getting worse, all at stock,

cas 5-5-5-15 at ddr 667,

was browsing the web and I get a quick besod, when I reopen mozzilla.


upon reboot I get the message

'One of the files containing the systems's registry data had to be recovered by use of a log or alternate copy. The recovery was succesful.'

All at stock..

I'll try running unlinked intstead...

Now I know my 4.2ghz oc's were not failing, but were hitting this strange issue..

regards
Raja

[Hemi]

I was just getting ready to go back to my local dealer and pick up the asus striker. after your last post I'm telling myself no way. you have the same problems i have on my evga board. chip set going bad on boards in a week or two, makes me wonder ? i think i will look at the badaxe 2 and see what guys think of that board

[raju]

needs some time I think...

Hopefully they can nail the twitchy nature of these 980i boards, we had to pay I guess for jumping so soon..

regards
Raja

[Ibinco]

This Striker is turning out to be a pain in the behind. Im thinking it has to do with voltage regulations... Ive primed 8 hours stable.. and then the next run it craps out wiithin 2 minutes...They need a major bios fix. I sent asus a mail(for all thats worth) telling them to get their act together and to feel ashamed for marketing this as the OC beast.

One thing i cant understand is how they provide such a :banana::banana::banana::banana: tool to see what ur actual voltages are.. i mean asus probe is crap when it comes to vcore! Why cant they for once in their freaking production line take care of that. Im serious this is going to be my last asus board for now.

[raju]

This Striker is turning out to be a pain in the behind. Im thinking it has to do with voltage regulations... Ive primed 8 hours stable.. and then the next run it craps out wiithin 2 minutes...They need a major bios fix. I sent asus a mail(for all thats worth) telling them to get their act together and to feel ashamed for marketing this as the OC beast.

One thing i cant understand is how they provide such a :banana::banana::banana::banana: tool to see what ur actual voltages are.. i mean asus probe is crap when it comes to vcore! Why cant they for once in their freaking production line take care of that. Im serious this is going to be my last asus board for now.


I was real peeved yesterday during those xp installs.

today I have enough heart to crack a joke...

this is going to be my last asus board until the next one, I'm dead serious..lol..

Seriously though we're all addicts of supremely early adoption and were paying the price of the addiction..

Seems a better now unlinked..

Sod it just upped the fsb/cpu to around 3.5ghz again, just awaiting a new bios. I know a new one is coming, eventually..

regards
Raja

[shmadz]

I have heard this on several forums. Seems there are gaps where you get nothing and if you keep going you get stability back.

Does anyone remember seeing this elsewhere or have any personal experiences?

I had a chance to play with a friends board for a couple days and had a similar issue, i belive it was ASUS P5N32-SLI wifi edition or something like that. It had issues over a much larger FSB range though... started crashing at 280 or 290 and I refused to believe that his core 2 couldn't go past that so I made a huge jump to 310 or something and then it started working fine again. It was my first attempt at an intel OC so I have no idea if this is common or not.

[sdumper]

Call me crazy but im going to buy another one...
I really liked this board with the exception of the bad bank...

[raju]

I like the board it has great potential, but it needs a few bios fixes first, so we'll have to be patient I guess..

[Lood007]

I like the board as well. Has some kinks, but nothing serious. I am having fun OCing this thing.

At the moment, I am at 1700QDR, CPU at 3GHz. I was expecting more from watercooling, but I am still not quite at 'the end' yet. Only pumping 1.3V into this baby.

What I am noticing is how much more power this rig is using than my old nF4 rig. Currently logging about 40-50W more power consumption (at 340W total), most likely due to the crazy power-chiggin 680i chipset.

[sdumper]

Another thing...just mentioning this in passing really but I have heard from several folks how hot the passive cooling was getting. I put two of the mount on fans (I had an extra from another mobo) and the radiators never got hot to the touch...

[Lood007]

I use the 'optional fan' on the northbridge's heatsink, and it keeps that section relatively tolerable. My case fan blows some air around the top of the CPU area, cooling that sink. I put thermal probes on the sinks... most hover from 45-65c.

Anyone else getting a faulty mobo temperature reading in BIOS?

[Babsy]

no more updates on this board?

[Pedro Rocha]

Just received a Striker, I may do a mini-review this weekend.

The area around socket seems not to be a big problem..

TuniqTower 120 fits with no problems:

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/StrikerTuniqTower1.jpg


Also no probs with VapoChill / Cascade

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/StrikerVapoTamanho.jpg

Don't have time for testing - just mount my E6700 and managed to boot at 500FSB at 1st atempt..not bad ;)

The bios is yet more complex than the EVGA 680i bios - definitively this is not a motherboard for newbies;)

[Ibinco]

Pedro what bios settings did u use m8, could you please post them....im having a biatch of a time trying to get this stable @ 1650 3.7ghz.

Thanks

[sdumper]

Ok folks here I go again...just purchased my second Striker Extreme and with luck this one will work longer than the first. LOL

[Ibinco]

Ok folks here I go again...just purchased my second Striker Extreme and with luck this one will work longer than the first. LOL


Go for it dumper :) Let us know where ur adventures leade u!

[Ibinco]

Ok this board defenately needs BIOS revision! 500FSB!!And for some reason my 3,9ghz stable E6600 wont even do 3.7ghz. I think due to Vcore droop being all funked. :stick:

CPU vcore 1.4375(bios)
Vdimm 2.3v(bios)
NB core 1.45(bios)
1.2VHT 1.55(bios)
CPU VTT 1.55(bios)


http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/2854/strik1000mhzni2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Pedro Rocha]

E6700 b1, 1.63v Air cooled - Tuniq Tower

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/Striker4075Ar_DDR453_1T.jpg

In the Striker Corsair C3 go easy to 450Mhz 3-3-3-9 with 1T, the same Corsair in EVGA tops around 410Mhz with 1T ...

[sdumper]

great post looks good...

[Ibinco]

@ Pedro...What bios u running...and is this a retail board?!

[Babsy]

Ok folks here I go again...just purchased my second Striker Extreme and with luck this one will work longer than the first. LOL

nice!did you try the white ram slots to see if they work yet?
go for it

[Pedro Rocha]

@ Pedro...What bios u running...and is this a retail board?!

Yes, retail board

Bios is 0402 that came with this board

[sdumper]

Pedro do me a favor and try 450 fsb straight up ;)
I couldnt get it to post for the life of me but 453 and above were fine all the way to 500fsb...

[Ibinco]

Pedro do me a favor and try 450 fsb straight up ;)
I couldnt get it to post for the life of me but 453 and above were fine all the way to 500fsb...

Dumper....453SFSB is a no go..theres a hole there.

[sdumper]

The hole is a bit lower and goes away at 453 and above...see my earlier post.

Wait let me check my numbers and make certain it was 453 and above :)

Ok the hole was a little different for me see this post:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1880675&postcount=133

[Pedro Rocha]

Good memory bandwith, specially for air cooled CPU ;)

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/Striker4060Ar_DDR1220EverestRead.jpg

[GAR]

Just got this board to replace my EVGA, hope i made the right move, anyway........ i got my E6700 L627 to 3.7ghz stable at 1.55v but im having a hard tmme with my g.skill HZ ram, i cant seem to get it to boot at ddr1200 wich i had in the evga running at 5-4-4-8 2t @ 1200mhz, any help? also does anyone have the 0508 bios, im currently using the 0505 bios. tanks

[SteveS]

It seems like everytime I have a boot problem i have to reset my bios and it getting pretty old.

Thank god for that, and I thought it was something I had done. Is this the norm or will a bios update fix this problem?

I just put mine together see sig, not started to play with the overclocking yet really, the Bios looks to be pretty full on. Anyone like to give me some pointers to what I need to do to get the best results with my set up?

Graphics cards have been delayed so I am using my 7800GTX watercooler card at the moment.

[sdumper]

SteveS: Seems to be fixed after it sets itself with a solid save...weird.

Has anyone run this with phase yet and 4.5 or higher?
Im looking for some comparative numbers. Is it faster than 975x?

[SteveS]

Sdumper: Please explain, I have had this thing sitting here "Shut down" for 45 min and it still doesnt power down correctly. No Idea what is going on with it. Maybe I just have a flakey board.

[Mayk-Freak]

My ASUS Striker Extreme with 515 MHz FSB 1:1 1M and 32 M stable

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/997/wr231415xf2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

[raju]

SteveS: Seems to be fixed after it sets itself with a solid save...weird.

Has anyone run this with phase yet and 4.5 or higher?
Im looking for some comparative numbers. Is it faster than 975x?


Sdumper how are you finding that second board?

Mine is dead due to condensation, so I might get another towards the end of next month depending on the ICFx3200.

I still think the bios needs work, and looking at all the 980i boards so far (whcihc are good no doubt), it's takeing all the manufacturers time to work out all the knots.

In truth most seem to have been solved, but there's a few still needing work..

regards
Raja

[sdumper]

Absolutely wonderful...

4.4ghz orthos stable 6 hours...i terminated
Also 4712ghz OC

[raju]

Well done man that is a great oc, I got my x6800 coming soon. Will test on rd600, maybe striker later if Ineed to buy another, my first one died...

Still a great 24/7 oc. Is there any chance you can stick up an 8 hour blend test run? I found I was having probs on/around the 6 hour mark...

regards
Raja

[sdumper]

Well done man that is a great oc, I got my x6800 coming soon. Will test on rd600, maybe striker later if Ineed to buy another, my first one died...

Still a great 24/7 oc. Is there any chance you can stick up an 8 hour blend test run? I found I was having probs on/around the 6 hour mark...

regards
Raja

Ill kick it off tonight...

do you want to see the 6 hours?
its post 3 on this thread i started along with a running diary of my trials and errors with this board...

http://www.blazingpc.com/showthread.php?t=1273

Heres the 4715: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=149488

[sdumper]

Well done man that is a great oc, I got my x6800 coming soon. Will test on rd600, maybe striker later if Ineed to buy another, my first one died...

Still a great 24/7 oc. Is there any chance you can stick up an 8 hour blend test run? I found I was having probs on/around the 6 hour mark...

regards
Raja

as requested:

http://thumbsnap.com/t/GfWJfZpI.jpg (http://thumbsnap.com/v/GfWJfZpI.png)

NOTE: I use different drives for benchmarking. The high mem timings will corrupt the install pretty quickly if you tighten too much but notice the desktop icons and you will see its still me...

Also heres a superpi at 4.6
http://thumbsnap.com/t/dFNQNBiw.jpg (http://thumbsnap.com/v/dFNQNBiw.png)

[raju]

:clap:

well done that's my kind of overclock. A great speed for 24/7 use...

regards
Raja

[sdumper]

Thank you sir...great mobo and still a lot of tweaking to be done :)

[vanovich]

hi all,ill be setting mine op this weekend ,wanted to know which controller is best to use for 4x disks in raid 0? nvidias or image sil 3132? nice results there sdumper ;)

[ZeroOne]

hi all,ill be setting mine op this weekend ,wanted to know which controller is best to use for 4x disks in raid 0? nvidias or image sil 3132? nice results there sdumper ;)

The onboard 3132 controller supports the 2x eSATA ports at the back panel. So the fact that its external, and only 2 ports basically answers your question.

The nvidia controller has 6 ports (internal). I've got 2 raptors (ports 1 & 2) in raid0 and another 2 500gb's in raid1 (ports 3 and 4) with no problems. Performance was as expected when tested with HDTach.

Keep in mind, when loading your OS, (I'm assuming you're using some form of XP), you may have to slipstream the nvidia drivers for it to load properly. I used nLite v1.2.1 found here: http://www.nliteos.com/

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1920254&postcount=85

[vanovich]

The onboard 3132 controller supports the 2x eSATA ports at the back panel. So the fact that its external, and only 2 ports basically answers your question.

The nvidia controller has 6 ports (internal). I've got 2 raptors (ports 1 & 2) in raid0 and another 2 500gb's in raid1 (ports 3 and 4) with no problems. Performance was as expected when tested with HDTach.

Keep in mind, when loading your OS, (I'm assuming you're using some form of XP), you may have to for it to load properly. I used nLite v1.2.1 found here: http://www.nliteos.com/

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1920254&postcount=85
ok thanks ,so nvidia it is .slipstream the nvidia drivers .is it not enough with setting the raid drivers from asuses cd on a diskette enough?and install them when installing xp?thats how ive always done it on 975 chipsets .

[andyr(uk)]

hi all,ill be setting mine op this weekend ,wanted to know which controller is best to use for 4x disks in raid 0? nvidias or image sil 3132? nice results there sdumper ;)
Hi, can i ask did you just purchase your striker as here in the uk they dried up a month or so ago and just wondered if they have just resurfaced where you are ?

[vanovich]

Hi, can i ask did you just purchase your striker as here in the uk they dried up a month or so ago and just wondered if they have just resurfaced where you are ? got mine from holland, its with 701 biose. sorry for ot a bit in this forum guys.

[andyr(uk)]

Hi , got mine setup on the nvidia chipset on raid 0 seems fine running 24/7 at 500fsb , when i got the board i had data corruption at high fsb but as long as ram timimgs are not too tight it is fine. With your late bios on the board looks like more are coming through , stock cooling isnt too good on this mobo as you already probably read but if you change to another cooler for nb and sb its quite good , good luck

[simonk]

Anyone tried the 0802 bios? I get horrible vdroop set 1.768 bios for 1.44 (everest)

[andyr(uk)]

Hi Vdroop should be less in 0802 , that seems a bit bad !

[Leeghoofd]

It isn't the Vdroop that is causing this, the mobo bios has an issue that it locks the Vcore at a certain strap eg I don't Overclock that high (my cpu doesn't like it :( ) so I run 24/7 at 9 x 400 with bios 0802 it hardlocks at 1.37 volts no matter what I put into the bios. if you go higher on FSB it hardlocks at 1.44-45 volts. I reverted back to 0402 bios that one gives some heavy vdroop but at least you can fiddle around with the voltages like you want it !! Read up here

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=130329

Andy can you post your settings to boot at 500mhz plz, would be fun to compare, my highest yet was around 476 but it wasn't stable enough

Currently testing 8 x 450 ( infact it's 453 Thx Raja had some issues booting up at 1800 strap lol due to the hole) Mem is all still set on auto, survived an 8 hour Orthos prime and now folding for about 12 hours, no issues..., I needed to up the NB voltage to 1.45 otherwise windows wouldn't load, I tried your settings Raja but at 1.4 it's a no boot it locks up at the loading screen. I put a big 120 mm fan blowing over the memory and the Northbridge...

http://users.pandora.be/OAP/Hardware/452.JPG

[andyr(uk)]

Hi , It would only boot at 500fsb once i had changed the northbridge cooler for an alternative solution , first used swiftech mcx159 and now on mcw30 both worked fine but the water is a bit better. bios nothing special there in the setting but if you want me to but some pics up ill do it later


http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/589/500fsbqv1.png

[vanovich]

anyone tell me which clkgen works with this mb? im up at 445x9 atm ,still testing .

[OBR]

Post someone BIOS settings with these high Overclocks, please ...thanks.

[andyr(uk)]

Hi , this is most of it

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/5660/picture174rq1.th.jpg (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture174rq1.jpg)


http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/7139/picture177oz2.th.jpg (http://img251.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture177oz2.jpg)

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7738/picture182ah1.th.jpg (http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture182ah1.jpg)

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/8168/picture185cx8.th.jpg (http://img250.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture185cx8.jpg)

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/6379/picture186xe2.th.jpg (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture186xe2.jpg)

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5670/picture181hh2.th.jpg (http://img443.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture181hh2.jpg)

[OBR]

Thanks, but how Unlinked mode works? I have not problem, but friends mobo is after Unlinked unstable at any settings ...

[andyr(uk)]

Hi , i will try it again later , but i think for me its the same , wow just noticed you got a lot of mobo's

[Leeghoofd]

Thx for sahring info Andy, I'm still on 0402 bios as it gives me control over the voltages (although with massive Vdroop) will ahve to wait then for my MC30 to arrive then I wil get rid of this ineffective dreadfull spaghetti junction...

Hope Asus delivers a decent bios 2 in the near future

[ZeroOne]

ok thanks ,so nvidia it is .slipstream the nvidia drivers .is it not enough with setting the raid drivers from asuses cd on a diskette enough?and install them when installing xp?thats how ive always done it on 975 chipsets .

For some reason, it tends to blue screen for some people when loading the drivers normally during windows installation. You could always try it the normal way first and see if it works for you. If not, slipstreaming will solve the problem. Sorry for the late reply... you might have already done all of this.

[andyr(uk)]

Hi , trying unlinked at the moment , booted ok and seems stable so far , the mcw30 fits without modification but isnt exactly in the middle but i recon if you turned over the brackets it might be ok , mine in pic is as out of the box and works fine

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4215/picture174ma3.th.jpg (http://img407.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture174ma3.jpg)

[andyr(uk)]

Hi , anyone running nvidia raid array with vista 32 , if so where did you get the drivers , like the make disk ones as for xp. thanks

[vanovich]

ive heard you dont need them for vista ,not sure though .dont asus have them on the download section?

[andyr(uk)]

Hi yes they do its called RAIDnVIDIA116 but it threw me as i was expecting a make disk application but there is just setup exe ,so i guess your right

[sdumper]

I thought Vista wouldn't run on the 680i chipset?
http://www.blazingpc.com/showthread....ista-3059.html

[Atom]

I thought Vista wouldn't run on the 680i chipset?
http://www.blazingpc.com/showthread....ista-3059.html
your link doesnt work

[sdumper]

Try it now:
http://www.blazingpc.com/showthread.php/nvidia_and_vista-3059.html

[andyr(uk)]

Hi Gar is running home premium ok its in this thresd

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=132619