ASUS Striker II Extreme Motherboard Review

When you talk about enthusiast level motherboard manufacturers, ASUS is perpetually in the discussion.  Let's face it, the reputation they've earned for making kick ass mobos rings loud throughout the computer hardware enthusiast market.  Their product lineup is a tasty one, giving consumers like us a full course of hardware dishes overflowing with all the extras.  Recently the ASUS Eee PC subnotebook's success along with its Xonar soundcard release has demonstrated this company's aggressive business approach and refusal to settle for only one piece of the pie.  Although they have ventured into other areas of computer hardware, this Taiwan based company does not ignore its grass roots by consistently manufacturing gorgeous mainboards with killer performance.  

The Republic Of Gamers line represents the enthusiast level motherboards that ASUS puts on the street.  Absolutely nothing is held back from these boards so expect to see a laundry list of features you are not accustomed to finding on a regular mobo.  The latest offering from the ROG line is the Striker II Extreme 790i Ultra SLI.  Hitting the enthusiast scene decked out from head-to-toe, this motherboard brings next-gen right to your doorstep with the new 790i nForce chipset, 1600MHz front side bus support, Tri SLI compatibility, PCIe 2.0, DDR3-2000 support and an integrated water cooling system.  Holy cow!  Hold on to your seat as HardwareLogic puts this monster on the test bench and unleashes the full assault of our benchmarking suite. 

Bundle

LCD Poster
ASUS Optional Fan
SupremeFX II Audio Card
3 in 1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit
UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
Floppy disk drive cable
3-way SLI bridge
ASUS SLI bridge
SATA cables
SATA power cables
2-port USB2.0 + IEEE 1394a module
EL I/O Shield
Thermal sensor cables
DIY Pedestal
Fusion Block System Accessory
Cable Ties
User's manual

In the land of bundles, ASUS is king.  Nobody packs more accessories with their products and we found ourselves overwhelmed with everything that came along with this board.  Of course, if you've ever purchased an Asus product then this isn't news to you.  They are known for their added features and its become the calling card of their high end products.

ASUS goes that extra mile in every possible way.  Here they included a full version of the real time strategy game, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.  On the motherboard disc, you will also find extras such as the popular benchmarking program, 3DMark06, and also Kaspersky Anti-Virus software.   

Not only does the motherboard come with an integrated water block, the bundle includes tubing, adapters and clamps to get you started.  Unfortunately, our experience with these parts couldn't have been any worse.  After adding the Fusion Block System to the water cooling loop using the included parts, I could not reach a tight seal and ran into leaks on three separate attempts!  Swapping out the tubing and clamps with our own solved the issue which points an angry finger at ASUS' parts.  If you were going to use the block, you were probably weren't going to use these parts anyways but it is in sharp contrast to the attention to detail the rest of the board and its accessories receive.   

One of my favorite accessories, the ASUS Q-Connector, is certifiably awesome.  It is extremely useful for those who swap out system components frequently and don't enjoy the painstaking procedure of connecting your mobo to the front panel connectors.  Included is the white Q-Connect for the front panel, red for firewire and blue for quick USB hookups.  Sweet! 

A highlight of this bundle is the included LCD poster.  It shows critical POST information which is useful when there is a system hang for whatever reason.  Overclockers will find this accessory valuable during their test sessions.  This device is different than other fault monitoring displays in that it shows a short message instead of codes which makes troubleshooting that much faster.   

Asus has decided to go the dedicated soundcard route with their ROG line.  This actually frees up the motherboard and rear connector panel of precious real estate for other features.  The Supreme FX II provides above average sound quality with its 8 channel High Definition Audio CODEC and 192KHz/24 bit output.