Is the Striker Extreme finally ready for prime time?

[linflas]

I have lost my ABIT IN9 last week, and RMA is going to tke longer than I am willing to wait.

The Striker has a decent pricepoint for a premium full fledge 680i board now, just under 300 new now.

I am wondering if the bios has matured enough to be a good buy. I am also looking at the DFI but the LT chipset is slightly hamstrung, and the price is a bit higher. I may replace it with another ABIT, I will not go back to the EVGA even though they are getting good results right now, I do not trust Foxconn manufacturing or QC.

Let me know Striker owners if it is finally ready for prime time. Thanks

[Leeghoofd]

Pretty happy user here with 0402 and 1102 bios still beign the best, no idea still for quadcores and 4 gig probs....

[adamsleath]

where you get the 1102 bios??? Leeghoofd?

...and is there a dfi 680i coming out?

um ...yeah take your pick of bios's there are plenty on the asus website....and elsewhere also for striker.

0402 i found to be the best for non sli for oc and voltage (there is vdroop, but i have found any v dips under load negligible.)

for sli 0901/1002 onwards (there were some sound probs with earlier bios's with sli enabled)

onboard raid may be a factor in mobo choice.

i can't see any reason for me to change mobo's at this point in time

[billyboy]

hey adamsleath where do you get your parts from? I'm in brisbane too

sorry to change the subject!

[adamsleath]

"gamedude" in Springrood / Underwood (near Moss St) often has pretty good prices on some parts.

it's close for me to drive there so that's also a reason i go there.

What part of Brisbane you in billyboy...i'm in sunnybank (southside)

if you know any ultra cheap places let me know :D


i 've also gone to computer alliance at mt gravatt...they are not what you call cheap.

i've gotten stuff shipped from all over the country..even from western australia...just depends who has what and for how much:hehe:

but i try to buy locally regardless of price; sometimes local retailers dont have what other places do however.

places i have bought from:

techbuy
scorptech
mittoni
higher orbit
headphonic
i-tech
coolpc
itestate - low prices
below-0
velvet systems
computer alliance
gamedude
u-mart

[linflas]

Thanks, well pulled the trigger, and clicked on this one, so should be here on thursday.

Looks like recent bios for me then 1102, see how it works out.

[GAR]

The striker is a great board, as long as you do not use quad core, with a core 2 duo my striker extreme was really stable and a great motherboard, you will love it.

[linflas]

No quad on my personal roadmap until 08 when the on die memory controller and "hyperthreading" makes a comeback, can't remember the codename for the chip, but that will be my next CPU, my 30B E6600 does 3.8 on 1.47 actual so I am happy with it, a little toasty like all the B chips, but otherwise will easily get me through until then.

I am mostly a gamer so, massive CPU power is redundant, and provides very little if any benefit in current gaming models. Things will change at the end of 07 and through 08, but that will be my change over Q2, Q3 of 08.

[adamsleath]

...mm mtw2 needs all the cpu power it can get.

personally i cant get enuff cpu power for these 8800 beasts.

[linflas]

I have 2 8800's as well, I have not found anything they cannot handle at 1920 x 1200 on vista yet with my current setup, I am sure crysis and alan wake will make we wish for something better, but I made a single x1900xtx last for almost 2 years without much problem, so I see no problem getting 2 years outta these 8800's

[Leeghoofd]

[QUOTE=adamsleath;2162145]where you get the 1102 bios??? Leeghoofd?

...and is there a dfi 680i coming out?

um ...yeah take your pick of bios's there are plenty on the asus website....and elsewhere also for striker.

0402 i found to be the best for non sli for oc and voltage (there is vdroop, but i have found any v dips under load negligible.)

http://users.pandora.be/OAP/Striker/SE1102.zip

http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/Stricker%20Extreme/SE1102.zip (http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/Stricker%20Extreme/SE1102.zip)

There was a final on the FTP ( unaccessible again get that thing sorted out Asus ) this is the beta I got from Raberduck ( german Asus tester) works fine for me and is the same as the final release.... more stable NB and CPU VTT voltage...

Striker Extreme Release BIOS version 1102
1. Add new CPU uCode to support new CPU
2. Improve memory compatibility
3. Remove Linkboost support

And yes DFI has a 680ILT in the running , should be availble soon and the thing for me it has a decent looking NB cooler instead of some crazy heatpipe construction...

[linflas]

Very happy with the striker on my first day with it, 3.85 on water with E6600, temps under 60C load, 4x1gb D9gmh @ 944mhz 4-4-4-8 2T @ 2.25V, 12 hours orthos blend stable on Vista 64. Will go for a stable 4GHZ OC next week when I have more time. Will be thrilled if I can get there, was not able to with the EVGA, or the Abit IN9

[adamsleath]

good news linflas and thx leeghoofd

linflas; looks like you got a nice 6600 there ; mind if i ask your vcore?
...and lnflas re the graphics; i have found that i can easily run a first person shooter like bf2142 with high fps...but medieval 2 REALLY taxes the cpu and the gpu/s - i now run MTW2 at 1280x960 at all high settings/extreme shadows with 4x 4x aa/af and fraps will dip down to 20-25 minimum up to 75 fraps.

i have played it at 1600x1200 but i really have to lower all the eye candy settings to make it playable and smooth.

Anywho; I'll keep my eye on the 1102 bios and also hovering around for more multithreaded apps b4 going quad core.

[linflas]

Strange, I game always at 1920x1200 when the game allows it and have had zero problems with frame rates. I have not Played MTW2 in a few months, will put it back on, and run a few test games when I have a chance.

C&C3 is 60 throughout, it's lock out, R6 Vegas on 1920x1200 with all the eye candy you can run with the vista drivers on, runs high as well. Not had any issues with frames dropping, except when playing the KMOD of Company of Heroes with the draw distance highly expanded and about 600-800 units on the screen, that slows it down.

V-core is 1.525 bios, 1.47 by multimeter. Ram is 2.25V.

My water loop is cpu-gpu-gpu-nb so am cooling 4 things in one loop, I may go cpu independent in the coming months but we shall see, pretty happy so far, if I can keep load temps under 70C I am totally happy with that.

[adamsleath]

you have 2xgtx's i only have gts...plus signficantly higher clocked cpu....for what it's worth i changed to 1102 bios..didnt realise it was now on the asus website.

i bet yr 3d06 score is also significantly higher than mine....which makes all the difference with games settings :)

[linflas]

ahh, GTS, saw that now, yeah, SLI makes a difference for anything above 1280x1024, about the only good SLI does, SLI is never worth it unless you use high Resolutions.

I am hoping this is the end of my 680i road, went through 3 EVGA's right after launch, then went to the IN9 a few months ago, now the Striker, my luck has not been too good with the 680i chipset, all my other components are fine, but seem to be killing off mobos at an ugly rate. I will say I lost a kit of ram with one of the EVGA's though, the first board I had from them.