ASUS Striker II Forumula (780i) Experiences

SB and NB are way too hot reaching 80 for SB and over 90 for NB in Celcius which really bites. I may take assemble apart and apply better paste like Artic Silver but I can't understand why Nvidia motherboard manufactures use crappy compounds when it only makes their customers mad.

I am not happy with 780i and when you buy a premium board should cool adequate or at least active cooling on NB and SB.

Only good part is my cpu is 60 degrees when running my qx 6700 at 3.2

Need better idea for cooling.

For me gonna maybe RMA it or take heat sinks off and reapply Artic Silver.
 
Night_Hawk-19 said:
SB and NB are way too hot reaching 80 for SB and over 90 for NB in Celcius which really bites. I may take assemble apart and apply better paste like Artic Silver but I can't understand why Nvidia motherboard manufactures use crappy compounds when it only makes their customers mad.

I am not happy with 780i and when you buy a premium board should cool adequate or at least active cooling on NB and SB.

Only good part is my cpu is 60 degrees when running my qx 6700 at 3.2

Need better idea for cooling.

For me gonna maybe RMA it or take heat sinks off and reapply Artic Silver.
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What's fucked up is that some 680i SLI boards and 780i SLI boards run fairly cool compared to others even with the factory TIM applied. The ones that run way too hot even after you re-apply thermal paste properly, and ensure good contact, I think are the ones that have the short life span.

I have no proof of this, but I suspect poor chipset QC may be responsible for some of these board issues. I say this because the problems with reference and non-reference 680i/780i SLI boards alike all seem to be very similar. The ASUS boards should have nothing in common with the reference boards yet they both have some of the same problems and some that are unique to each brand and design. The common variable is the chipset itself.
 
Dan I'm running my xfx 780i rock stable at 1400 FSB on my q6600 and 1T on my ram. prime Stabled max heat on all 4 cores for 12 hours man. unbelievable how stable this board is. I think it's just because the fan is better for the heatpipe and now that the heatpipe goes over the NB it makes a diff. Just my 2c.
 
McCartney said:
Dan I'm running my xfx 780i rock stable at 1400 FSB on my q6600 and 1T on my ram. prime Stabled max heat on all 4 cores for 12 hours man. unbelievable how stable this board is. I think it's just because the fan is better for the heatpipe and now that the heatpipe goes over the NB it makes a diff. Just my 2c.
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What are your north bridge temperatures like?
 
McCartney said:
The new lamesauce nV control panel says 51 degrees.
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I think you got a good board and you are in good shape. It is when they report 70c or 80c no matter what you do that they are destined for early failure. That's been my experience anyway.
 
So 680i problems still exist inthe 780i? That's pretty lame. Oh well with that recent CSI thing i heard of intel withholding from nVidia, this is good since nV won't be able to make chipsets for nehalem and nforce will go belly up unless they license SLi properly and fairly.
 
McCartney said:
So 680i problems still exist inthe 780i? That's pretty lame. Oh well with that recent CSI thing i heard of intel withholding from nVidia, this is good since nV won't be able to make chipsets for nehalem and nforce will go belly up unless they license SLi properly and fairly.
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The 780i SLI chipset isn't new. It uses the same MCP and SPP that the 680i SLI chipset had. The only difference is that there is a third chip added to the mix which adds extra PCIe lanes and PCI-Express 2.0 support.
 
I thought that the whole getup with the requirement of the new 780s for 45nm would have required a subtly revised northbridge.. Guess not. Thank god mine was an upgrade for a dead 680i +40 bucks.
 
McCartney said:
I thought that the whole getup with the requirement of the new 780s for 45nm would have required a subtly revised northbridge.. Guess not. Thank god mine was an upgrade for a dead 680i +40 bucks.
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Nope. The problems with the 680i SLI reference boards not supporting 45nm quad core processors is electrical in nature. It has nothing to do with the chipset itself.

Ced-G60 said:
I hit 80°c en Nb with stock voltage...
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That isn't good. That is way too high a temperature for your north bridge. If you don't get those temps down your board probably won't last very long.
 
I just can't figure out this board, the specs in my sig are stable for a few days then it will not boot. 12 hour prime runs are fine at many different cpu/fsb/mem settings then a few days later it craps out. I have used many different cpu/fsb/mem configs and it just when I think I have it nailed the board craps out, even at almost stock settings. Memory tests fine with memtest86, even tried 3 different sets. Temps are not bad, 50-65 on NB & SB, I have replaced the factory TIM which always pisses me off on nvidia chipsets as this is not something I should have to do to make a $300+ product stable. Mem is also stable in a 680i board, with the 780 I have to run everything much lower than a 680 and even then out of the blue it will crash. I can not get the memory bus stable at anything above 950mhz, this is with trying 3 diffent sets of 1066c5 at their stock settings that test fine and work fine in other systems.

Another thing is that with this board nvlddmkm errors have returned. I have run my 680i system for 6 months without the errors and if I put the 2-gtx's back in my 680i there are no issues but with the 780i anytime I enable SLI and run a game the error occurs.

I was hoping to have this system hold me over till nahelem but if my problems don't get better I will be going to an intel based solution and never turning back. I will miss SLI, know it is not looking that way but hoping ATI will be able to make a comeback. I have been chasing the top end for a while and am getting tired of non stable products and of being used as a beta tester.
 
i dont get 65. I'm at a constant 50. as Dan said, if your'e in 60-70s at ALL then your'e in trouble
 
I like this board Dan, took a while but man it's so quiet when I'm not using my PC hardcore. No more jetsound from the case. It's quite pleasing, really. My GTXs are crapping out on me though. Have you had that issue? I prime stabled for 24 hours again on a different setting to test my RAM and it passed with flying colours on all 4 cores. It seems when I play something like source sometimes my computer just freezes without Vista realizing it, so if I hard reset it can't tell me what crashed it because it's like it never happened. Everything else is checked out via memtest, etc.
 
McCartney said:
I like this board Dan, took a while but man it's so quiet when I'm not using my PC hardcore. No more jetsound from the case. It's quite pleasing, really. My GTXs are crapping out on me though. Have you had that issue? I prime stabled for 24 hours again on a different setting to test my RAM and it passed with flying colours on all 4 cores. It seems when I play something like source sometimes my computer just freezes without Vista realizing it, so if I hard reset it can't tell me what crashed it because it's like it never happened. Everything else is checked out via memtest, etc.
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My GTX's are still going strong.
 
McCartney said:
It seems when I play something like source sometimes my computer just freezes without Vista realizing it, so if I hard reset it can't tell me what crashed it because it's like it never happened. Everything else is checked out via memtest, etc.
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Curious I have a similar problem with the machine freezing under gaming after a while. Do you have the NVIDIA GPU Ex setting enabled or disabled in the bios? Just wondering if it can affect stability under gaming when all else is fine.

Of course mine could be heat of the NB :(
 
I had to change my xfx xxx to 600 MHZ from 630 MHZ due to heat. I have order Zalman Cooling to fix issue just waiting for it to come in. Its amazing alot of manufactures are using sub par cooling. Its time to get newer technologies to get heat down especially on Nvidia motherboards and video cards.

As for my Striker Extreme Formula 2; I just tossed it. Wasted of good money. I have order EVGA one because I want active cooling. Too bad I was Asus fam of their boards but can't figure out why such a heat increase since Striker Extreme.

Anyways let you guys know when I get Zalman coolers for Video Cards and see if my problem is fixxed.
 
Anytime I've had problems with one of my 8800GTX's I've always tracked the problem down to heat. They just get too damn hot and there is nothing you can do about it except improve the cooling.
 
Well, Dan. I upped NB voltage to 1.5 and 1.45 for the cpu vcore/fsb since I knew that the bsod'ing in games meant that 1.4 stock auto voltage wasn't good enough. I'm getting even lower ambient temps now, 47 degrees ROFL
 
McCartney said:
Well, Dan. I upped NB voltage to 1.5 and 1.45 for the cpu vcore/fsb since I knew that the bsod'ing in games meant that 1.4 stock auto voltage wasn't good enough. I'm getting even lower ambient temps now, 47 degrees ROFL
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The damn things are far too picky. (NVIDIA chipset based boards.)
 
Still don't have a working board or a board with good heatsinks. I bought EVGA got dreaded FF issue (stuck with no post) which manual says is code for booting up. I Don't get video and tried switching cards to no avail. Little tired of 780i chipset with heat or boot problems. Here comes another RMA.

I hope my 3rd board fares better.
 
Last one even after tech tried it was toast. I also bought a better case with top venting as well and hopefully will help as well.
 
Atech said:
After 3 fails I would look at another none-NVIDIA chipset.
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No kidding. On my 11th dead 680i SLI board over here. It doesn't seem to ever get better with these things. Only one left to go and I'll have killed all 12. :eek:
 
If you are set on having an SLI setup, I strongly recommend the MSI P7N Diamond over any of the other non-reference boards, and perhaps over the reference boards as well. From my experience, and the experience of others who have it, the P7N has none of the stability or reliability issues found with the ASUS Boards. They just work -- no cpu inits errors, easy recovery from bad overclocks, much less picky about RAM. As far as overclocking goes, they're already proving to be more capable than the Striker II Formula with the latest BIOS update, and with one or two more, they should hopefully be as easy to OC as the reference boards. On the stock bios, I had no trouble booting and benching a Q6600 at 3.6ghz (1600mhz FSB) w/ four gigs of RAM, and hopefully in short time I'll get to a stable 1800mhz / 4.05ghz on the quad. This is not to say that they're perfect at this time. It still is a newer board than the other 780i solutions and it still has OC teething problems, especially with the 45nm chips. However, MSI has so far been working to resolve these issues with BIOS updates.

Unlike the reference boards, the P7N features all solid stake caps and an advanced power phase design, so it shouldn't have the reference boards' long-term reliability and stability issues. The passive heat pipe system cools the chipset more effectively than the pipes on the ASUS boards, although I would still recommend some sort of active cooling for higher OCs. While the P7N doesn't have the LED poster found on the Striker Extreme, it does have two integrated ESATA ports, plus a connector to transform two regular SATAs into ESATAs. It also comes equipped with an X-Fi PCI-E daughter card, which while not quite as good as a PCI hardware based X-Fi, is better than the Striker II sound card or other motherboard based sound systems.
 
Am sick of this card...

I just removed all the cooper, clean it, and change the thermal grease for some AC5 and am still running 75+ on SB with stock voltage.

Did get little better, before i went all the way to 90 and shutdown on SB and 80 on NB with stock voltage while playing CoD.

Am running a all my gear in a comos case too many fan to list. Make me regret going SLI...:mad:
 
Markyip1 said:
If you are set on having an SLI setup, I strongly recommend the MSI P7N Diamond over any of the other non-reference boards, and perhaps over the reference boards as well. From my experience, and the experience of others who have it, the P7N has none of the stability or reliability issues found with the ASUS Boards. They just work -- no cpu inits errors, easy recovery from bad overclocks, much less picky about RAM. As far as overclocking goes, they're already proving to be more capable than the Striker II Formula with the latest BIOS update, and with one or two more, they should hopefully be as easy to OC as the reference boards. On the stock bios, I had no trouble booting and benching a Q6600 at 3.6ghz (1600mhz FSB) w/ four gigs of RAM, and hopefully in short time I'll get to a stable 1800mhz / 4.05ghz on the quad. This is not to say that they're perfect at this time. It still is a newer board than the other 780i solutions and it still has OC teething problems, especially with the 45nm chips. However, MSI has so far been working to resolve these issues with BIOS updates.

Unlike the reference boards, the P7N features all solid stake caps and an advanced power phase design, so it shouldn't have the reference boards' long-term reliability and stability issues. The passive heat pipe system cools the chipset more effectively than the pipes on the ASUS boards, although I would still recommend some sort of active cooling for higher OCs. While the P7N doesn't have the LED poster found on the Striker Extreme, it does have two integrated ESATA ports, plus a connector to transform two regular SATAs into ESATAs. It also comes equipped with an X-Fi PCI-E daughter card, which while not quite as good as a PCI hardware based X-Fi, is better than the Striker II sound card or other motherboard based sound systems.
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After killing another Striker Extreme that sounds nice, but then I can't use my PCI sound card and I'm rather fond of it.
 
You can easily put one card in the first slot and a second one in the third. This leaves the PCI slot open, and also provides more breathing space between the cards than what the reference boards provide with their slot setup.

MSI's documentation states that a 2-card SLI setup must use the two blue PCI-E 2.0 slots in the motherboard. This is incorrect. SLI will work just as well with one card in a blue PCI-E 2.0 slot, and the second cad in the white PCI-E x16 1.0 slot. I'm using the board with 2 8800 GTXs and an X-Fi Platinum with great success. The board has gotten my Q6600 up to 4.05ghz. This is something that neither of my two evga 680is could do.
 
Markyip1 said:
You can easily put one card in the first slot and a second one in the third. This leaves the PCI slot open, and also provides more breathing space between the cards than what the reference boards provide with their slot setup.

MSI's documentation states that a 2-card SLI setup must use the two blue PCI-E 2.0 slots in the motherboard. This is incorrect. SLI will work just as well with one card in a blue PCI-E 2.0 slot, and the second cad in the white PCI-E x16 1.0 slot. I'm using the board with 2 8800 GTXs and an X-Fi Platinum with great success. The board has gotten my Q6600 up to 4.05ghz. This is something that neither of my two evga 680is could do.
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Aren't the other slots x8 electrical?
 
No. The white slot is x16 PCI-E 1.1 electrical. The yellow, bottom slot is x8 electrical.
 
Now that this board has been out for a while, have things improved? Has BIOS revisions addressed any of the major gripes with the board?
 
Mine have definitely. i.e. i can actually use it without constantly crashing.

This was due to a beta bios Asus sent me 1202 and also adding an Antec Spotcool fan into the mix aimed at the NB heatsink.

Not one crash since and the memory is running at full speed 1066.

We'll see when it gets to the summer and the ambient rises in my computer room....
 
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