I am building a new machine, have ordered most components, but am undecieded on motherboard. Plan to use Vista 64, will have SLI (2 asus 8800 GTX). Processor Q6600. Board choice between Striker Extreme and P5N32-e Plus 650i. Mostly for gaming and will do some overclocking. Help please with choice...thanks, rt

Arty-
Welcome to the board. The differences between these two boards, besides the $100 in price, are minimal. The 650i hybrid chipset on the Plus may lose a few FPS at the very high end, very high resolution side of things when running dual 8800GTX cards. The Plus also has a few less bells and whistle. On the other hand, it has been the general experience here that the Plus is a much more stable board that is a lot more overclockable than the Striker Extreme.

JMKays ran a Plus board with a pair of extreme 8800GTX cards and had great scores in the recent Forum Wars garnering the top score here at AI. He had gone through a couple of Strikers previously and had a pretty bad time. On the other hand VegasR has had pretty good luck with his SE build.

Make sure you get the G0 stepping on that Q6600. The G0 stepping chips are great overclockers for the most part. ClubIT has guaranteed G0 stepping chips.

Pesonally I'd go with the Plus as it is really a great deal at $190. Most of the Plus owners here are/were very happy with it, which wasn't the case with the SE.

Thanks Merc.....I really appreciate the advice....I have ordered the GO stepping from clubit...earlier today I cancelled Asus Striker from New Egg until I got some advice....something in these forums aleerted me...hope to hear from others today.

You'll love that CPU Mine is running at 3400MHz 1.41v as an everyday overclcok. Had it at 3600Mhz 1.47v but why bother with the extra stress when the thing is so fast anyways.

Merc - you are running the Q6600 quad on the "Plus"? I thought you were running your Q6600 on the p5k.

It was my understanding that when overclocking a quad you have to scale down your desired everyday overclock to less than 3.4GHz on either the Striker or the "Plus" (SLI-capable boards).

Have 2 more questions: Can I run Vista 64 on this board? Is 750 W Silencer enough power?

You're right David and I am on the P5K. I should've been clearer but I would think the Plus could run a G0 at 3400Mhz. Of course I don't know but maybe I should give it a shot while I wait for the Penryns to show up and then drop in price.

If you can get Vista 64 to run well then good luck. I am not sure there are reliable drivers for SLI there yet. Personally I would steer clear of Vista as the benefits aren't equal to the problems yet. Maximum PC ran there Ultimate rig on a 750 Silencer so it is enough. If you are planning watercooling and a bunch of drives then I would opt for a little more headroom and get something in the 850w range but feel free to email PC P&C and ask them if your planned rig can be run by a SIlencer 750. They are very forthright with their answers.

So far so good....entered bios 1303, created raid array, and am installing vista 64....first time boot a pleasant surprise!!