For all the engineering that goes into the power regulation of the motherboard, nothing is acheived without proper thermal design to keep heat in check. Belonging to the RoG line, the Striker II Extereme is the purported overclocking kingpin (no pun intended) amongst 790i Ultra SLI motherboards. This means proper cooling where it counts, especially when you consider that the MCP73XE runs at a 1.55V default Vmch on the Striker II Extreme. The heatpipe cooling proves reliable on the Striker II Extreme thanks to the employment of a quality OEM in Taiwan. Nontheless, overclockers should keep some air moving over the fins of the heatpipe assembly if any significant stable grounds are to be gained without trading off component lifespan.

Notable is the the extensive use of ground and power planes on the PCB to distribute heat, a design technique which Asus calls the Stack Cool 2. Solder forms the contact filler between the copper base and heatpipes, a detail often overlooked by cooler-makers. The unfortunate part was that we found a piece of thermal pad as Thermal Interface Material on the Striker II Extreme. More contact would have been possible if heatsink compound was used instead.