ASUS Striker II Forumula (780i) Experiences

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
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Well, I have been beating on a ASUS Striker II Formula now for about 3 weeks, and I am not feeling really good about it. Every nForce 780i (out of 4 total) that I have used has had some sort of our issue or oddity. The EVGA and XFX boards have shown to be much easier to work with over the ASUS boards we have had in hand.

The issue with the Striker II Formula is a simple one. It will NOT run a QX9770 stable at stock 3.2GHz with 1600MHz FSB. It will run a QX9650 stable at 3GHz/1333. It will not run a proven overclockable QX9650 at 3.2/1600.

I know the QX9770 has still not been released by Intel, but we are using it as our base testing processors now on motherboards. We know it is coming, and there is not a reason in my book to ignore it. You may have other thoughts.

Still, at 3.2GHz with a multitude to voltage settings and tweaks, I cannot get the board stable enough to even not lock up sitting idle at the desktop sooner or later. I hope other folks have better results. This is the first time I have thrown in the towel on a ASUS board in a long time, but this one just is not worthy of fighting with any longer.
 
That's sad to hear, I've been hearing good things about this board from a friend who has it. He of course doesn't have the QX9770 but I hope Asus gets on this so it wont be a problem at launch of the processor.
 
I did mention this problem to Asus and its reply was to send me screen shots of a QX9650 running, so obviously they don't know if a QX9770 works either. That all said, I have had no issues with QX9770 in anything but nForce 780i boards.
 
yeah I had issues with an Asus 780i board, for some reason I dont think they are putting as much effort in these boards as they are the intel chipset counterparts. The evga 780i I own has been chugging along great with my qx9650 at 4ghz. Also just as a heads up I slapped a 60x10mm fan on top of the northbridge and it runs alot quieter when set to 50% fan speed then the one that came with mine and my temps are about 3 to 4c lower on the northbridge.
 
That's alright, the EVGA 780i SLI wasn't 100% stable with the QX9770 in my experience either. It was certainly workable however. It only freaked out on my once in awhile. A reboot fixed the problem and I was off and running again.
 
are there any other problems this board besides not being able to run the QX9770? (such as heat or poor overclocking and that kind of stuff)
 
are there any other problems this board besides not being able to run the QX9770? (such as heat or poor overclocking and that kind of stuff)

Dunno, spent weeks trying to get it stable with at 3.2GHz, was not happening, so it is going back in the box. I am not going to spend time with a board that will not OC a Q9650 200MHz.
 
Sorry to hear about the problems Kyle. I hoped the Striker II would become a standard bearer of sorts for Core 2 SLI setups -- a board where one could reach a high OC easily and not worry about reliability issues. From what I've read around the net, the reference boards seem to be as easy to OC as their 680i predecessors. However, I've seen a lot of issues cropping up with C1 and FF errors, which seem to be resolved more often than not by RMAs. Definitely not a good sign. If the Striker II was a champion OCer, it would be a very compelling product (at least for me) due to the solid state caps and 8 phase power design.

As for the Striker II, your results seem to be in line with everything else I've read: the board is a very mixed bag. I've seen success stories and a positive review or two, but a lot of people are having problems OCing or even just booting up. I wonder if you or Dan will take a look at the MSI P7N Diamond -- another non-reference design sporting better quality materials. So far there is almost zero info on the net, and I know at least a few of us are curious :) Any word?
 
I had an awful time with my ASUS P5NT-DELUXE 780i motherboard....

Couldn't install windows xp or windows vista without it immediately crashing with a Q6600 processor...

I haven't bothered to look on the support forums in a few weeks since I returned it to see if the bios updates ever fully resolved the problems, but it was just post after post of instability problems.

In any case I'm running great now on a Gigabyte x38 motheboard. I decided to throw in the towel on ASUS.. FOR GOOD! and the nvidia chip set based motheboards.
 
I had an awful time with my ASUS P5NT-DELUXE 780i motherboard....

Couldn't install windows xp or windows vista without it immediately crashing with a Q6600 processor...

I haven't bothered to look on the support forums in a few weeks since I returned it to see if the bios updates ever fully resolved the problems, but it was just post after post of instability problems.

In any case I'm running great now on a Gigabyte x38 motheboard. I decided to throw in the towel on ASUS.. FOR GOOD! and the nvidia chip set based motheboards.

ASUS is generally one of the best manufacturers out there for motherboards. They have a few lemmons out there but generally speaking they have a solid lineup. I wouldn't give up on ASUS over the 780i SLI offerings. Those boards are using a substandard chipset in my opinion. This is evidenced by all the 680i SLI & 780i SLI board problems from all manufacturers not just ASUS. Swearing off NVIDIA chipset based motherboards I can certainly understand.
 
I haven't tried overclocking my Q6600 yet since I have some heat issues with the NB at the moment. in the Antec P182 I had an Akasa Orange 120mm fan inlet into the motherboard chamber and it wasn't enough. The GFX cards are running fine (75ish under load) and the cpu at about 46 under load but the NB went over 80C and shut the machine down. I have uprated the fan to a panaflo and the temps have dropped between 3-5C which isn't to be sniffed at.

Still have issues with the NIC. ANY change in the bios results in the NIC dropping to 100MB and a cmos reset is required to get it back to 1GB.

hasnt been a new bios in quite a few weeks now, maybe working on the QX9770 issues...
 
Your problems have been discussed on a german forum by a few Striker II users. Changing the default thermal grease by custom one helped in many cases to drop the NB temperature by almost 10°C.
You might try that...... anyways, it is simpley disappointing to see out of the box boards shutting down because they reached the temperature limit without overclocking. For a 250,- Euro mainboard, this is simply wrong. In this pricerange, I want good quality components and not faulty pre-applied thermalgrease and bad cooling solutions.
 
You're not the first to suggest that course of action. A few friends suggested that this is their routine now to rip off the stock coolers and replace the thermal grease or pad with something more useful. I assume AS5 is okay for going direct onto chips or does it need to be Ceramique or something?
 
Have you tried any other quads? Personally, I'd like to see if it plays nice with the q6600 (most common). More over, it would be interesting to see if you can get the qx9650 (best currently available on the market) running stable as ASUS claims they do.

I understand, and agree, with your "qx9770 is coming" mentality, but it would be interesting to see how the board works with other chips. God knows you have plenty of time on your hands to wrestle with this thing ;)

Personally, I'm starting to lose patience on these NVIDIA chipsets. I've never had a problem with mine, but I have the old C1, and it doesn't play nice with quads. It sucks wanting to upgrade but having to wait considering these chips have such healthy support from Intel chipsets and have had it for so freakin' long...
 
Have you tried any other quads? Personally, I'd like to see if it plays nice with the q6600 (most common). More over, it would be interesting to see if you can get the qx9650 (best currently available on the market) running stable as ASUS claims they do.

I understand, and agree, with your "qx9770 is coming" mentality, but it would be interesting to see how the board works with other chips. God knows you have plenty of time on your hands to wrestle with this thing ;)

Personally, I'm starting to lose patience on these NVIDIA chipsets. I've never had a problem with mine, but I have the old C1, and it doesn't play nice with quads. It sucks wanting to upgrade but having to wait considering these chips have such healthy support from Intel chipsets and have had it for so freakin' long...

The EVGA 680i SLI boards that don't play nice with quads are part#'s 122-CK-NF68-AR and 122-CK-NF68-TR. There is no C1 part as far as I know. I'm only familiar with C1 errors on the 680i SLI.

As for messing with the board using other chips, that would kind of suck. The fact is the QX9770 is the standard CPU that LGA775 boards are tested with now. Going to another processor would make the results incomparable to other boards already tested. Again there is nothing appreciably different between the QX9770 and the QX9650. The fact that it doesn't work with the QX9770 sucks and frankly it doesn't make much sense.
 
The EVGA 680i SLI boards that don't play nice with quads are part#'s 122-CK-NF68-AR and 122-CK-NF68-TR. There is no C1 part as far as I know. I'm only familiar with C1 errors on the 680i SLI.

My bad, I should really read my posts before hitting submit... I editted a long winded rant regarding AR's, quad issues and C1 errors and made a typo.

As for messing with the board using other chips, that would kind of suck. The fact is the QX9770 is the standard CPU that LGA775 boards are tested with now. Going to another processor would make the results incomparable to other boards already tested. Again there is nothing appreciably different between the QX9770 and the QX9650. The fact that it doesn't work with the QX9770 sucks and frankly it doesn't make much sense.

I couldn't agree more with all of the above. I'm just saying if the company (ASUS) claims it works with their configuration, it would be interesting to see if you could replicate their results within an identical environment.

Either way, that eVGA is looking better and better...
 
I understand, and agree, with your "qx9770 is coming" mentality, but it would be interesting to see how the board works with other chips. God knows you have plenty of time on your hands to wrestle with this thing ;)

Board worked fine with a QX9650, but OCing it to 3.2GHz, it would immediately get un-stable. Did not seem to be a temperature issue either. Think would lock up idling on the desktop.
 
so I guess for now the EVGA 780i is the way to go now, glad I have another one as a backup in case this one goes down.
 
so I guess for now the EVGA 780i is the way to go now, glad I have another one as a backup in case this one goes down.

It would seem like the way to go for now. I think really the one to watch though is the EVGA 780i SLI FTW Edition.
 
Wow, that's great news. The information on that board is pretty sparse. I'm just about to abandon my 780i plans altogether.

If you aren't going SLI there is no reason to go with an SLI compatible motherboard.
 
If you aren't going SLI there is no reason to go with an SLI compatible motherboard.

I do want to go with SLI but I just keep hearing bad things about the 780i chipset.
I have most of my new build complete. I need to pick a mobo, chip, gpu.
I'm not opposed to ATI, so going with an X38 and that new ATI card is looking good.
One thing I do need is the ability to run 3 or 4 monitors for productivity. That Quad DVI ATI card would fir the bill.
 
It would seem like the way to go for now. I think really the one to watch though is the EVGA 780i SLI FTW Edition.

Yeah, but I bet that bastard is going to cost an arm and a leg.
 
I do want to go with SLI but I just keep hearing bad things about the 780i chipset.
I have most of my new build complete. I need to pick a mobo, chip, gpu.
I'm not opposed to ATI, so going with an X38 and that new ATI card is looking good.
One thing I do need is the ability to run 3 or 4 monitors for productivity. That Quad DVI ATI card would fir the bill.

Dual 3870 X2 is about to be a reality. And two of those now idle at less than 50w each, so it is not that bad in terms of heat.
 
Then i would definatly go for the Asus Striker II Extreme 790i instead of EVGA FTW
Same cooling system and a nice 790i chip
btw, I love my Striker II Formula, just use good cooling paste, remove plastic cover thats on mosfet heatsink tape and use some fans on the NB, and your good to go :)
 
Then i would definatly go for the Asus Striker II Extreme 790i instead of EVGA FTW
Same cooling system and a nice 790i chip
btw, I love my Striker II Formula, just use good cooling paste, remove plastic cover thats on mosfet heatsink tape and use some fans on the NB, and your good to go :)

I tell you what, I am not betting anything on the 790i till I have one in my possession that works perfectly.
 
I think that FTW edition looks about as good as a 780i board is going to get.......

But I wager it will cost as much as the Black Pearl MB; roughly 400 clams (no pun intended.)

I'm disappointed the Striker II is such a POS......I was almost ready to jump on it, guess I keep my 680i board for a while longer......man, 14 months with my current stuff and still going strong. Good for the bank account I guess.:D
 
Probably. I'm thinking $349.99.



Amazing. I'm surprised they use so little power idle.



I wouldn't call the 790i SLI chipset nice. We haven't seen it yet so I wouldn't make bets on it. NVIDIA's track record for Intel processor compatible chipsets isn't the best right now. As for ASUS' 790i offering being better than EVGA's we'll wait and see.



The Maximus Formula. Without a doubt it is one of the best boards I've ever used.



Agreed. I'm skeptical as well.

I was refering to the watercooled NB on the board, the mean reason to take a FTW.
I'm not saying the 790i is good, the NB cooling will be on par with the FTW.
As long as ddr3 is very expensive with little performance over ddr2 I'll stay away from 790i.
 
Amazing. I'm surprised they use so little power idle.


Keep in mind though that they can draw up to 200w each when running wide open...

Here is a single card config...

12012045286jZMQmN9sX_7_2.gif


So we were seeing 173w draw consider in PSU efficency, our card was drawing about 140w from the PSU....So I would suggest an extra 400w on your PSU for CrossFire R680. (but AMD spec max draw is 200w per card, so that is something to think about as well, maybe smart to go 500w+ PSU, might get GPUs with a lot more leakage, who knows)
 
Is it just too coincidental that these procs are having probs on the 780i? The whole 680i debocle was/is still hard for me to swallow. Is there any industry buzz that Intel is indeed effing with Nvidia? Sorry, a little off topic, but I'm feeling like Intel chipsets are the way to go for a near future build.

EK2K
 
I'm so stuck between EVGA 780i or Asus Maximus Formula.

I already have a 8800GTX and a 8800GT, I was thinking buying another 8800GT and SLI.

So many inconsistent reviews, and bad past experiences with 680i puts me on the fence.



If I am going to get a 780i definitely an EVGA and no more Asus, bad reviews around the board -___- What do you guys think? The EVGA 780i FTW looks very promising, if it doesn't take too long maybe I'll wait for that. Is the 790i going to be DDR3?
 
I'm so stuck between EVGA 780i or Asus Maximus Formula.

I already have a 8800GTX and a 8800GT, I was thinking buying another 8800GT and SLI.

So many inconsistent reviews, and bad past experiences with 680i puts me on the fence.



If I am going to get a 780i definitely an EVGA and no more Asus, bad reviews around the board -___- What do you guys think? The EVGA 780i FTW looks very promising, if it doesn't take too long maybe I'll wait for that. Is the 790i going to be DDR3?

If you have an 8800GTX I'd use that and get a Maximus Formula. I wouldn't bother with the 780i SLI at all.
 
If you have an 8800GTX I'd use that and get a Maximus Formula. I wouldn't bother with the 780i SLI at all.

Thanks I think that made up my mind, now if I can only find the SE edition somewhere -_-

What about the P5E? According to bit-tech they actually reccomend that over the Maximus Formula, and save some dough!
 
Thanks I think that made up my mind, now if I can only find the SE edition somewhere -_-

What about the P5E? According to bit-tech they actually reccomend that over the Maximus Formula, and save some dough!

I've never worked with the P5E. In fact I've never even seen one. So I can't comment on them.
 
I wrote about a half page of my results with the Striker II, regarding fsb speeds / memory speeds / timings / voltages / temps / asus support and the like only to have the post lost because of having to log back in.

To sum it all up:

Striker II currently sucks ass. Perhaps bios updates can help but more than likely this chipset has surpassed its lifetime.
 
I also got my hand on a Striker II few weeks ago.

Am no master in OC, but damn, am having hard time with this MB.

Am running an E2140 (in the wait for the E8400 am getting soon). Running water-cooling in a Cosmos case with 2 MSI 8800GT in SLI with Tracer PC8500

And i just can not get over 1500fsb... the card will just not boot...I got it stable at 1400fsb DDR at 996 for a good 2.8 speed (with stock vcore, which is very indeed). I get it running at 1500fsb but it crash on Prim95 after 30min

After that, took me over 10 try to get any OC, even at 1066fsb the card would not boot.... Am running the 0901 BIOS (didn't get the 0902.. the date on it set to 2007...:confused:)

Anyways, am no OC pro, but i should be able to get over 1500fsb with this proc on water cooling. I even try pusshing 1.5vcore and set the ddr at 667 and it wont boot over 1500fsb.
 
I am not a fan of NVIDIA chipset (except NForce 4 which was great).
I had too many issues with NVIDIA motherboards that left a bad taste in my mouth.
 
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