**Official ASUS Striker II Formula Discussion/Review/Overclock/Guide/BIOS Thread**

[polar bear]

Rather quiet around the striker ii thread lately. Everyone busy gaming or have you guys given up on this board already?

I'm not ready to give up yet as I do quite like the board despite it's weaknesses - the biggest one IMO being the massive heat output of that pesky 780i chipset. Can't stand looking at that NB temp around 77-80 idle... surely it can't be good for stability. And thats with a modest 400FSB and 3x fans directly cooling the NB/mosfets - it's simply unbelievable how hot this chipset gets.

Also, 3-SLI can output some serious heat too, and as cool *looking* as the Zalman Reserator is, it's doing a rather poor job of trying to keep my dogs (xfx 8800gtx) cool. Hence, I am on the verge of doing a serious mod to my existing WC setup(s) - first the striker will get redone then the maximus will get a serious overhaul (EK and DangerDen have both released waterblocks for the 3870X2... )

So, I have found some waterblocks custom-built for the striker ii at mips - both NB, SB / PCI-E 2.0 chip as well as mosfets.

In my Tt Armor case I can fit one 3x120mm rad inside and I am also planning to attach another 3x120mm rad to the exterior.

I already have one swiftech pump (sig). It's certified for 1200LPH and 3.5 bar. Now, I am not at all sure if this pump will be sufficient if i decide to go for one loop i.e. CPU, chipset, GPUx3. Any thoughts on this? Will I require a separate pump and loop? Or maybe a total of 3 loops (i.e. one 3x120mm rad for each loop)? I dont care about noise anymore, I just want the most extreme cooling for all components. Space is a limiting factor though, as I dont think I will be able to fit more than 1 pump inside the case, and I have mixed feelings about keeping another pump at the desk outside the case.

Also, if i decide to go for multiple loops, I'm inclined to run the CPU as a separate loop, thus combining chipset+GPUs. It makes sense to me to do it this way to maximize the OC headroom for the CPU.

Looks like with the new setup I can safely retire the Reserator - or wait! Maybe instead of putting it away I might let it cool one of the mosfets just to keep it employed sort of... considering it's good looks after all. It will be much harder to retire the Reserator XT however as I've been very happy with this unit so far, but hey! That's what you get for hanging around these forums

Note: I decided to open a new thread on this topic in the liquid cooling section: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=178534