ASUS Striker II Formula under the Microscope
by Rajinder Gill on March 19, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Testbed Setup
| ASUS
Striker II Formula Setup Standard/Overclocking/Benchmark Testbed |
|
| Processor | Intel E8500, 1333FSB 9X Multiplier, Intel QX9650
Quad CPU, 12MB Cache 1333FSB Unlocked multiplier - 9X Default |
| CPU Voltage | 1.200V ~ 1.450V |
| Cooling | Water cooling: Swiftech Apogee GTX, PA120.3 Rad, 3 X Laing DDC Ultra Petra Top pumps in series, 3x Panaflo 120mm Fans 7-10V |
| Power Supply | OCZ 1000W |
| Motherboards | ASUS Striker II Formula |
| Memory | OCZ Reaper-X 1000MHz 2X2GB kit, OCZ Platinum XTC PC2 8000 2x2GB, Cell Shock PC2 8000 4-4-4-12 2X1GB |
| Memory Settings | Various - as shown |
| Video Cards | ASUS 8800 GTS 512 G92 - Underclocked to match NVIDIA base clock levels for test comparison to 790/X48 chipset board scores |
| Video Drivers | 169.28Drivers (Vista 64-bit) |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 7200RPM 250GB SATA 3/Gbps 16MB Buffer |
| Optical Drives | Plextor PX-B900A, Toshiba SD-H802A |
| Case | Lian Li -75 |
| BIOS | 1001, 1101 |
| Operating System | Vista 64-bit SP1 (4GB/8GB Memory), XP 32-bit SP3 (2GB Memory) |
| . | |
We performed 4GB and 8GB memory testing under the Vista 64-bit operating system using SP1. Our GPUs had to be underclocked to 650/1625/970 in order to match the GPU clock speeds used in the 790i launch article. This provides us with a broad range of scoring comparisons across a variety of boards for this review.
We tested in both single-GPU and SLI configurations with stock and overclocked processor speeds. Our primary concern in this review is to focus on absolute system stability, rather than outright benchmarking potential (though we may venture into testing this at a later date). We installed a new operating system image and software load between processor changes in order to eradicate any chances of driver or software conflicts.
We run each test five times and throw out the high and low scores and average the remaining three scores for our comparisons. We focused primarily on PCMark Vantage to represent a real-world type of system load that most of us subject our PCs to on a daily basis. Gaming tests use on Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3, and Company of Heroes. All three of these titles utilize different gaming engines, each representing a varying load to the entire system. We also crosschecked stability with OCCT's brutal CPU and memory tests.
PCMark vantage proved to be the most stressful test for our systems to pass; we had instances where the full two hour test of OCCT 2.01 passed, but PCMark Vantage would fail the gaming test repeatedly within a few seconds of launch. This is mainly because stress tests like Prime95 and OCCT do not stress the PCI-E bus, so we can only claim a form of 2D stability with this test at best. A broad suite of tests must be run to ensure any form of system stability for an everyday personal computer system. Component choices and variance in MCPs (chipsets) and other items will determine how close user boards will come to our overclocked results today; some boards may achieve more and others less.
We selected a few memory kits from our labs that represent the more popular current purchasing choices, coupled with one of the best 2x1GB performance kits from Cell Shock for a short test of Windows XP SP3 and stability/performance when running these modules. OCZ supplied the 2x2GB kits for our 8GB stress testing. Although this is not regarded as an everyday configuration, such a heavy load ensures that the stability of the board is tested to the fullest extent. 2x2GB modules are certainly all the rage at present with very aggressive pricing, to the point that we think 4GB should be a standard configuration for most systems, especially those running Vista.
We have grown quite fond of these kits in the labs; they operate up to DDR2-1000 speeds with very low levels of voltage, making for a cool running system with ample data manipulation potential. OCZ has also licensed a software tool called SPD-Z for flashing the SPD of these modules with performance related timing changes should the need arise on newer motherboards. Also, newer performance oriented 2GB modules from the likes of OCZ, G.Skill, and others are starting to hit the market that will approach DDR2-1200+ speeds that we will be testing shortly.
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18 Comments
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glasforex - Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - link
thanks for the review and thanks guys for the coments. they helped me achive a 400mhz fsb clock(1600) on my e7200 taking it from 2.5-> 3.8Ghzexample:
load setup defaults
manual
spp-m.. 200
fsb to mem...linked
sync mode
fsb 1600
mem 800
c1 state - disable, disable bit - disable...
and everything there - disable... except use 2 or 4 cores
auto voltages.
my vga nvidia 9800GX2.
It was a significant performance improvement.
ps: guys remember to load defaults in bios every time before you want to do something with this mobo... strange.
Slavek - Thursday, March 20, 2008 - link
Good day! I would this motherboard: Asus Striker II Formula buy ,but I want know if is power motherboard and if is production of high-quality kit. ThanksRajinder Gill - Thursday, March 20, 2008 - link
Hi,For dual core processors + if you want to run SLI, this board works fine. If using quad core processors, you really need an unlocked multipler CPU in order to achieve high clock speeds. Despite hearsay, I found the board to work very well using the 1101 BIOS and my E8500. Using this combination of parts left me with nothing to grumble about. Performance in Sync mode at around 475FSB using the 1101 BIOS is fine and does not leave much to be desired IMO.
regards
Raja
electricx - Saturday, March 22, 2008 - link
It should be terribly interesting to see what the Striker II Extreme could offer to deal with the quirks this board is presenting. One could speculate quite a bit, especially based on the praise AT has lavished upon the 790i so far. I expect performance bordering on rediculous with a ROG board that I'll never own. But for me it's not about owning, it's about drooling. muhuhhahahahha.Amuro - Friday, March 21, 2008 - link
In this blog article, Gary Key was able to push the FSB to 450mhz with the QX9650 and BIOS 0901:http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=37...">http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=37...
Maybe 1101 is just not for quads.
Rajinder Gill - Friday, March 21, 2008 - link
Hi,The 0901 has instability issues in many ways. Other than Everest, there's little else the board will do at 450FSB (even in the 0901 BIOS). The screenshots were only really shown for the low memory access latency. Later on, it was discovered that 450 FSB and the low access latency was nothing more that a pipe-dream for real world application stability.
regards
Raja
Amuro - Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - link
I'm using a QX9650 with the Striker II Formula and 4.0Ghz (400x10) is Prime stable with the 0902 BIOS that my board came with. However, with the latest 1101 BIOS, I couldn't even boot into Windows with the same overclock, so I had to revert back to 0902. There's definitely some issues with the 1101 BIOS and QX9650.ianken - Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - link
other than the NICs failing after resuming from S3, my board has been rock solid.lopri - Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - link
When can we expect these high speed 2GB DDR2 sticks? Is it possible to let us know what IC will be used for these sticks? (Micron? Powerchips? Infineon? Samsung?) Thank you. ^^Endless/uncontrollable reboots? :D
skinflickBOB - Thursday, March 20, 2008 - link
I could not care less about the chips as long as they do what it says on the 'tin'. 1200MHz sounds cool, I would imagine that some of the die advancements from DDR3 are beginning to filter down into DDR2. But like I said, as long as they do 1200MHz - as stated, that's fine for moi..later days