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Overclocking

Overclocking the Asus Striker II Formula was not difficult - until I tried to exceed 490MHz. No matter what I tried, I could not get the board to go higher than 490MHz FSB, and I know that the processor I was testing with is capable of running at 7x507MHz.

Mind you, while the Striker II would not reliably exceed 490MHz, it was rock solid at 490MHz - and as the benchmarks show, the best performance was obtained at 8x450MHz (3.60GHz processor speed) as it was faster than 7x490 for the vast majority of benchmarks.

In order to run stably at 8x450MHz, I used the following hardware and settings:

• a Core 2 Duo E6400 known to run at up to 3.65GHz, and capable of 507MHz FSB
• a Corsair HX 620W power supply
• a Noctua-NH-U 12 heatsink
• two 63cfm 12cm fans
• processor multiplier set at 8x
• FSB set at 1800MHz
• Vcore set at 1.6V
• Vnb set at 1.5V
• gtl+ set at +100mV 
• ldt multiplier set at 4
• memory mode: unlinked
• memory speed: 1000MHz
• memory timings 4-4-4-12-2T

Power Consumption

Generally, a gamer's box is not exactly a "green" box - and a dedicated gamer going for quad core processors, high speed memory, and multiple GPU's will not really care how much power his rig sucks up, as long as he gets the performance he wants.

Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to measure the power utilization of the system (not including monitor) while running heavy power crunching (multi-threaded POV-Ray) and idling on the desktop. As you can see even without the GPU being busy the system can draw 220W, so if you intend in getting two or three GPU's, you would be well advised in investing in a 700W - 1KW power supply.

Conclusion

There are a lot of things to like about the Striker II Formula:

• Three PCIe x16 slots
• Excellent memory performance
• Working asynchronous memory speed design
• CMOS clear button on the back I/O panel
• Flexible BIOS settings for tweaking

There are also some annoyances:

• Limited memory speed dividers
• Chipset runs very hot
• Average business/gaming performance (with one GPU)

The Asus Striker II Formula is definitely aimed at gamers - the three GPU slots and limited expandability when they are occupied make it unsuitable for business use - and it does have excellent potential for gamers who want to have multiple NVIDIA GPU's.

The overclocking potential of the board is very good - achieving a stable 490MHz FSB with an E6400 is a very good result; and it is likely that 45nm dual core chips could even go higher (FSB wise) on the board. Overall, I liked the board layout, and while I was a little surprised at the average gaming performance with the single 7800GT I used on the board, we have to remember that this board is aimed at gamers who will have two - and sometimes three - GPU's, which would immediately significantly improve its gaming potential.

Basically, if you are a gamer and want an SLI rig, you can't go wrong with this board, if you are willing to pay the price. On the other hand, if you are trying to build an office or general purpose rig that will only have one video card... well, you might be better off with going without something a bit more conventional.

For another point of view, check out OverclockersClub's review of the Striker II Formula!