ASUS just dropped off their new Striker II Extreme board based on NVIDIA's upcoming 790i chipset featuring official support for the soon to be released 1600FSB processors and DDR3. Of note, ASUS is utilizing a slightly updated water block design, backplates on the MOSFET heatsinks and other critical areas, along with screw-down mounting for the SPP and MCP cooling blocks.  The board features an 8-phase power delivery system with a 2-phase design for the memory.  ASUS will have a full accessory package that will include a 3-way SLI connector among other things.
 
Overall, the board has a subdued appearance thanks to a minimalist color palette but the board still gives the impression it means business.  However, those who decide to use 3-way SLI (standard cooling solutions) will lose the ability to physically install cards in the single PCI Express x1 slot and the two PCI slots.  Our first look at the BIOS indicates similar configurability and options that the X48 based Rampage Formula board has at this time.  Early testing is already showing performance gains (at like memory performance/cpu settings) over the 780i in SLI testing.  The 790i chipset does away with the bridge chipset utilized on the 780i to provide PCI Express 2.0 capability.  Overclocking with an early BIOS spin is also showing improvements over the 780i, especially with Yorkfield and Wolfdale processors. 
 
Here are the first screen shots, we will have additional information regarding the chipset and extensive test results when the product launches in March. 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

ASUS Striker II Extreme - 3DMark06


ASUS Striker II Extreme - 3DMark05


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