The ASUS Striker II NSE motherboard has a lot of components and features to pack into a standard-sized ATX layout, but it manages to keep most of its PCB clean and tidy. Most notable about the board's physical layout is the placement of three PCI Express x16 slots, which allow the motherboard to run videocards in three-way SLI.

Now, not every NVIDIA videocard will be able to run in three-way SLI, since only cards with doubled SLI connectors can be linked together. Currently this limits three-way SLI to the Geforce 8800GTX and Ultra, the 9800GTX, and Geforce GTX 260, 280 and 285.

These videocards are all take up at least two expansion slots for cooling, and when three of them are installed on the ASUS Striker II NSE, they'll leave only a single PCI Express slot available (which is dedicated to the bundled SupremeFX II discrete audio card). Other killer gaming gear might have to sit out if you go three-way, and you should have massive cooling and airflow for whatever case three high-end videocards are going into.

Fortunately with one PCI Express x16 videocard or a vanilla two-way SLI set up you'll have more space and expansion slots to work with than you need. Regardless of how many videocards you decide to build your killer gaming rig with, setting up and installing the Striker II NSE is easy. The motherboard has a lot of features, but is designed to make them easily accessible and understandable.

ASUS has designed the Striker II NSE motherboard so that it can be easily powered on and controlled without being mounted inside a case. The system has dedicated power, reset and clear CMOS buttons, which make it easy to tweak the system and try out components without re-mounting it in a case, a must for overclockers.

ASUS has also thrown in a set of adhesive rubber feet (called the DIY Pedestal) to raise the board off of flat surfaces, which increases airflow and also provides some insulation from static shocks.

ASUS Q-connectors are little plastic blocks for the front-panel connectors of a case, instead of hooking up each wire to the motherboard you plug everthing in here first, then connect the entire block to the Striker II NSE motherboard when it's installed inside a case.

Of course, that's not all ASUS has included with the Striker II NSE motherboard. There's an entire box full of them waiting for you on the next page...