ASUS 680i SLI Striker Extreme Motherboard Review :: ASUS 680i SLI Striker Extreme Bundle

• ASUS Striker Extreme Motherboard
• Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
• 3Dmark06 Advanced Edition
• Kapersky Anti-Virus
• 6 SATA cables
• 3 SATA power cables (6 SATA devices supported)
• 2-port USB 2.0 bracket
• 1-port Firewire bracket
• Optional fan for NB
• SLI Bridge
• IDE Cable
• FDD Cable
• Q-Connector

The Striker Extreme came in an attractive gift box. The front of the box has the name of the board, the bundled software and the primary features of the new board. The sides of the box have open windows through which you can view the motherboard in the box. The rear of the box contains the primary features of the new motherboard, as well as a list of the included bundle. Once you open the box there is a plastic container containing the ASUS Striker Extreme motherboard, and an accessories box containing the rest of the bundle.

Box

Side view of box

open box

Accessories box

Motherboard packaging

The software bundle on the ASUS motherboard reflects on ASUS's commitment to the high-end enthusiast gamer market that this board is targeted to. A copy of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, the latest game in the series from the "Clancyverse" is included, allowing you to show off the impressive graphics that SLI gaming can bring. A copy of 3Dmark06 Advanced is included, allowing you to compare your score with others and Kapersky's Anti-Virus is included, protecting the system from virus attacks.

Utilities

Driver

PC Probe II

ASUS Update

AI Booster

ASUS includes a variety of their own branded software on the drivers CD. First is ASUS PC Probe II. This utility monitors the motherboard voltages, and fan speeds. If the voltage is out of spec, PC Probe II will warn you. Ai Booster is the primary overclocking utility for ASUS boards in Windows. ASUS Update updates the BIOS out of Windows either from a file or from the Internet. ASUS Music alarm is an alarm clock option that will play back music from a CD-ROM at the appointed hour.

Hardware bundle

Driver CD

The Hardware bundle is outstanding, far exceeding my expectations as a reviewer. The board comes with a 2-port USB bracket, bringing the total onboard the Striker Extreme board to eight. A Firewire bracket is also present, bringing the total supported on the board to two. The Q-Connector serves a dual purpose, extending the FP IO pins to allow easier placement of shorter cables, and easy removal of the cables all at once, instead of one at a time. The separation between the two primary PCI Express x16 slots requires a longer SLI bridge than was used before and one is provided.

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