Trouble choosing MB.

[a63nt 5m1th]

Wondered if anyone could give me some advise, I want to upgrade my MB, Memory & CPU. I have chosen the CPU, the E8400. Memory is not a problem although I'm planning on taking advantage of the price of DDR2. What speed of DDR2 memory (I can afford 9600, is it worth it?) would be best suited to an E8400 if I plan to overclock a bit? (I'd be happy with 3.6Ghz but would like potential to go further, maybe).
On to the motherboard, I would like something that accepts the E8400 as is, no BIOS flashing etc, must have SLI (don't care about Tri-SLI although 780i boards are what I've been looking at) & be capable of accepting DDR2. I've been looking at the Striker II Formula as I've read a lot about the nvidia chipset running hot & figure it has at least slightly better cooling than the reference boards & the price difference isn't much (they are all over-priced!). Also does Striker II Formula need BIOS flashed to accept E8400 by the way or is it good to go as is?

In short:

- What speed of DDR2 memory is best suited to overclocking the e8400?

- Is the Striker II Formula a good choice of MB considering I must have DDR2 & SLI capability?




Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[rgallant]

I have this board and do not have any problems
-that said - others are not as lucky- many RMA's
-some long term owners have gone back to intel chipsets or some have changed to XFX or EVGA -780i FTW
-the heat pipes are the big problem [on any 780i] if you look at the temps , to a fact that newer bios have a 110c shutdown default on the nb-sb temps up from the 90c normal shut down temps
-I had read quite a bit about the temps and remounted the heatpipes out of the box so mine are always in the low 50's
-I also have a cm690 case with many fans ,with one behind the MB to cool the backside of the cpu and nb

-Today : I would look at the Evga 790i FTW maybe , needs ddr3 ,but the nvidia 200 sli chip is on the nb , works better\faster if you must have sli
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3283&p=21
http://www.tweakforce.com/modu...s&file=article&sid=130

-ddr3 can be cheap and it's life cycle could be longer than ddr2 -if you go that route try to get low voltage ddr3, if plans include using it with a i7 in the furture

-some people had problems with high end quads and\or ,two big nvidia cards 2x260-2x280's
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view...page=1&SLanguage=en-us
-you can look at the asus strike forum , but remember people with no problems do not post there , mainly first time builders - so it might look like everyone has a problem.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view...page=1&SLanguage=en-us

-the last and best bios is 1602 , if you buy this board it might have it , or it might not, but a E8400 will boot

-this board might not clock over 500 fsb so you won't breck any world records for cpu speed , I use a E8600,

-to sum it up , I have no problems , but the 780i is now out dated , for a top running system , but as a filler with two nvidia cards , ddr2 - it's good , until intels i7's mature a year from now ,and a complete new rebuild , I'am very happy with it
-I would say it's a mid range gaming board second to the 790i ,for nvidia cards.

-also I should add these boards do not run on auto -voltages should be set to make it stable .it's not a plug and play board.

good luck