Testing Report: Asus Striker II Extreme

[BenchZowner]

In this thread I will be providing you with feedback from my tests on this board.
I just unpacked it some hours ago, and finally set up the system...with my SuperPi bench PCI Card since all my Twintech GeForce cards that I have here with me are incompatible with this board ( grrrrrr ).

Very similar to my first experiences with the first Striker Extreme ( 680i )... tried various BIOSes... and all of them seem to have their problems.

I'm using 0511 at the moment... the board ignores me most of the time.
Changes the CPU Multiplier at will... boots & runs fine with the given FSB & RAM Frequency & Timings... Whenever I reboot my windows it will hang during POST before detecting the SATA drives... with the LCD Poster at "TEST MEM" [ not DRAM_DET ]

Another reboot and the board sets its own stuff in BIOS ( without notifying me or giving me a overclocking failed message ) and POSTs & boots fine...

I'm going to get inside the BIOS again now, set the system at stock settings ( 333MHz FSB, DDR3-1333 RAM and relaxed timings ) and see if the board is corrupting my OS or not.
If my files are ok, I will move to 400MHz FSB & DDR3-1600 RAM and check for the SATA data corruption issue again.

p.s. I also had some weird POST failures with the LCD Poster stopping at "INIT8042"... even at stock settings or with the "Load Default Settings" option.
I think it happens after saving and exiting the BIOS sometimes.

...glory times...

[eternal_fantasy]

Good luck! looking forward to your results.

[BenchZowner]

Couldn't resist posting this:

This board is already pissing me off!
It keeps disobeying me!

One more try...and I'm reverting to a older BIOS...

[BenchZowner]

Just got my first SATA Data Corruption.
Yay!

Windows installation #2 here I come...

[BenchZowner]

Max FSB with my E8400 is around 580MHz

[eternal_fantasy]

Just got my first SATA Data Corruption.
Yay!

Windows installation #2 here I come...

Have your RAM set unlinked at 1800 and see if that prevents OS corruption. It seems to help on my tests...

[RAID]

i've reinstalled OS twice so far

[Achill3uS]

okay, today i joined the data corruption club with the S2E too when testing ddr3 over 2000mhz mem clock i think 790i is a wonderful chipset, but this problems make it unuseable, so i take the mobo in the corner till this problems will assolve i dont wanna lose my data's or hdd's

Max FSB with my E8400 is around 580MHz

same here

[BenchZowner]

A note for everybody ( it applies to the 790i as well... it's nothing new, just a trend from 680i )

The FSB holes seem to depend on the Memory Clocking mode ( linked/unlinked ) and your selections.

For example ( hypothetical numbers, didn't take any notes or did many tests ) [ but this theory comes from my experience with the 680i ] 400MHz FSB with the RAM at 1777 won't work, while it works with the ram at 1600 and 1866

[Justifire]

Why not just use the thread there already is? http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=180445
Not much results till now in this thread.
This board has a huge learning curve, just like the 680i
Am playing around with it for 3 weeks now and everyday i get one small step further, and i love it!!
This board is so much better than the Striker Extreme 680i and Striker II Formula 780i i had before.
Give it some time and you can achieve very good overclocks.

[BenchZowner]

Why not just use the thread there already is?

Because I plan to get things a bit more organized

This board has a huge learning curve, just like the 680i

Huge learning curve, huge buglist, and pretty much like the Striker Extreme.

I've already experienced the "girlie" attitude of this board already.
Yesterday it wouldn't treat me nice at some specific settings...and today it behaves fine at the same settings it refused to work yesterday ( exact same settings... not even a single change )

[BenchZowner]

Flaw #1:

BIOS: v0511
Issue: Cannot run DDR3-1333 5-5-4-15 at all.
Resolution: Still working on it
ETA: The day sun will meltdown

[BlueAqua]

Sounds like fun times. Buy the girl some jewelry and maybe she'll start working better(for a while at least).

[BenchZowner]

Flaw #1:

BIOS: v0511
Issue: Cannot run DDR3-1333 5-5-4-15 at all.
Resolution: Still working on it
ETA: The day sun will meltdown

As suspected... it's a BIOS bug...
Once you set tCL ( CAS Latency ) to 5 the system fails to POST.

Video capture ( click to view / right click to download )

[BenchZowner]

Note to self

Linked - Synch - 1900 doesn't work.
However... Unlinked - 1600FSB - 1920MEM works fine [ 7-6-5-18 2T ] [ 1.40/1.60/1.40/2.16/1.66/1.60 ]

[Leeghoofd]

Hope you get this tease working Bill and some nice benches afterwards... I'm skipping 780i and 790i for 24/7 rigs after my 680i quest...

[BenchZowner]

Thank m8.
Yeah, I'm hoping for some good SLI benching sessions with this board.

I'm currently memtesting the **** out of it

BIOSes 0511/0512 are ignoring the tRFC setting.
Don't remember if the previously used ones ( 0507,0508,0509 ) did that too.
Will have to check.

[Lu(ky]

Hey BenchZowner

What would be the best or more stable 4.0 + Quad BIOS out right now? 0511 or 0601? Also what is the safe MAX CPU VTT settings? I see on another review site saying not to go over a 1.36V or say goodbye to your CPU if you do? LINK

Thanks...

[BenchZowner]

I've been using 0601 lately, and it looks ok ( apart from the irritating bug ignoring my tRFC setting in BIOS [ but thanks to memset I do set it to what I want it to be when I get in windows ] ).
Max SAFE VTT for a 45nm Quad I'd say 1.42V
Usually at 1.35V you get your "max" FSB for the QX's, so you shouldn't worry about not going higher.

[Leeghoofd]

Any updates there Bench ? Wrestling with my old buddy the Striker Extreme, heheh board was flawless for 3 days with the E8400 at 4ghz and 1504 bios, yesterday she didn't even get me into winblows, till now 1501 does the trick... awaiting next error code....

Really wondering if it's Asus or Nvidia craptacular design lol

[BenchZowner]

I left the asus to rest a bit as I was busy testing and writing the 3D Mark Vantage review.
Tomorrow I'll start testing the S2E again and simultaneously write the review of the gigabyte board.

The S2E review will probably be ready in 2 weeks

[BenchZowner]

If you're having corruption and/or video freezing issues with the Asus Striker II Extreme, visit the "Asus Striker II Extreme Corruption and/or Freezes Troubleshooting Thread"