TiKiMaN1
02-14-07, 06:11 PM
It's really nice to finally see some good press about this board that I love. Mind you this board is not for everyone (some compatability issues be it memory or otherwise), but this is my favorite board of all time!
(nana2)
:tiki:
Maximum PC March Issue 9/10 Kick A$$ Award!
How much of a badass mother is Asus's new motherboard? It is so bad that it doesn't even use numbers in its name. Yeah, there's no R2-D2-like naming convention here. Just call it Striker Extreme, or El Extremerino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
The Extreme isn't about marketing shtick though. Asus has integrated some pretty compelling features into this nForce 680i-based Intel Core 2 motherboard that we hadn't seen before. The best example of this is LCD poster. Instead of providing a cryptic POSt message, the Extreme features a small LCD display that gives you info in plain English.
The I/O shield features electroluminescent lighting, so you can see where your USB and PS/2 ports are. And there are even LED's that can be safely activated when you work around your PC with it turned off. It's scary to muck with parts while the LEDs are lit, but if you push a switch on the back of the board, it cuts power to the USB, RAM, and the add-in slots, so you can remove or add components without damaging anything.
More important though, the Extreme gives you more usable slots. With two double-width GPUs installed, there are still enough slots to add a PCI soundcard and a PCI-E card. The onboard sound features SoundMax codecs, is even passable. There's no EAX support, but SoundMax still sounds better than the Realtek parts.
On the performance front, the Extreme edges the two Intel-based based boards by a small margin and comes up short only in FEAR, which tells us something is screwy with the nForce chipset and FEAR. All three nForce-based boards we've looked at recently trailed their Intel counterparts in FEAR when at low resolutions. Everywhere else, this mobo came up smelling like roses.
So what's wrong? The price. The boards lists at $330 and was going for $100 more than list when we went to press. That's not Asus's fault though. You can't blame the company for what other are willing to charge for this sexy beast.
I recently purchased the board for $349 at EXcaliberPC.com.:D
Too bad NEWEGG (ARE YOU LISTENING!!!!?):lol: does not bring their price down from $419. Fetch it has been listed at $419 at NewEgg since November.:(
I know this board is fantastic. It can picky with memory, but it's features are awesome IMO. It also comes bundled with GRAW, 3DMARK06 Advanced Version, and some nice Anti-Virus software.
(nana2)
(nana2)
:tiki:
Maximum PC March Issue 9/10 Kick A$$ Award!
How much of a badass mother is Asus's new motherboard? It is so bad that it doesn't even use numbers in its name. Yeah, there's no R2-D2-like naming convention here. Just call it Striker Extreme, or El Extremerino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
The Extreme isn't about marketing shtick though. Asus has integrated some pretty compelling features into this nForce 680i-based Intel Core 2 motherboard that we hadn't seen before. The best example of this is LCD poster. Instead of providing a cryptic POSt message, the Extreme features a small LCD display that gives you info in plain English.
The I/O shield features electroluminescent lighting, so you can see where your USB and PS/2 ports are. And there are even LED's that can be safely activated when you work around your PC with it turned off. It's scary to muck with parts while the LEDs are lit, but if you push a switch on the back of the board, it cuts power to the USB, RAM, and the add-in slots, so you can remove or add components without damaging anything.
More important though, the Extreme gives you more usable slots. With two double-width GPUs installed, there are still enough slots to add a PCI soundcard and a PCI-E card. The onboard sound features SoundMax codecs, is even passable. There's no EAX support, but SoundMax still sounds better than the Realtek parts.
On the performance front, the Extreme edges the two Intel-based based boards by a small margin and comes up short only in FEAR, which tells us something is screwy with the nForce chipset and FEAR. All three nForce-based boards we've looked at recently trailed their Intel counterparts in FEAR when at low resolutions. Everywhere else, this mobo came up smelling like roses.
So what's wrong? The price. The boards lists at $330 and was going for $100 more than list when we went to press. That's not Asus's fault though. You can't blame the company for what other are willing to charge for this sexy beast.
I recently purchased the board for $349 at EXcaliberPC.com.:D
Too bad NEWEGG (ARE YOU LISTENING!!!!?):lol: does not bring their price down from $419. Fetch it has been listed at $419 at NewEgg since November.:(
I know this board is fantastic. It can picky with memory, but it's features are awesome IMO. It also comes bundled with GRAW, 3DMARK06 Advanced Version, and some nice Anti-Virus software.
(nana2)