BIOS options
Despite their vastly different price points, the P5N-E SLI and Striker Extreme share quite a few BIOS elements. In a sense, the Striker's BIOS is really just an extension of what you get with the P5N-E.

Both boards have Core 2 multiplier control, but lowering the multiplier of our retail Core 2 Duo processors only worked when SpeedStep was disabled in the BIOS. With SpeedStep enabled, the BIOS appeared to correctly set lower multipliers, but those lower multipliers ramped back up to the CPU default as soon as the system was put under load. At least Asus' BIOS-level multiplier control is compatible with the Core 2's C1E enhanced halt state.

Fortunately, any Core 2 processor will do if you want to change the front-side or memory speed on either board. Both support quad-pumped front-side bus speeds between 533 and 3000MHz in 1MHz increments, and you can decouple the memory bus and set a target speed for it between 400 and 2600MHz, also in 1MHz increments.

Moving to memory timings, we find the same latency options available on both the P5N-E and Striker Extreme. The Striker has support for Enhanced Performance Profiles, of course, but it isn't necessarily any better-equipped for manual tweaking.

Voltages galore with the Striker Extreme

Thus far, the P5N-E's BIOS has kept pace with what's available with the Striker Extreme, but that changes when we get into overvolting. To the P5N-E's credit, you get CPU voltages up to 1.7V, DRAM voltages as high as 2.5V, and north bridge voltages up to 1.75V. However, the Striker pushes CPU voltage options up to 1.9V, DRAM voltages up to 3.425V, and the north bridge as high as 2.75V, so there's more headroom for extreme overclocking. It is the Striker Extreme, after all.

In addition to providing higher voltages for the CPU, memory, and north bridge than the P5N-E, the Striker gives users access to additional voltage options. Picky users can adjust voltages for the south bridge, HyperTransport chipset interconnect, and even individual channels of the DDR2 memory controller. None of those options are available in the P5N-E's BIOS.

Of course, few users are likely to make use of the Striker's more extreme voltage options. The real appeal of the Striker's BIOS lies with its extensive fan speed control capabilities. The P5N-E only provides a generic "Q-Fan" temperature-based fan speed control option for the CPU and system fan headers. This Q-Fan mode doesn't let you set temperature targets, and it's replicated in the BIOS for the Striker Extreme. Where the Striker pushes onward is with its three auxiliary fan headers—the ones tied to those temperature probes that come in the box. The BIOS collects temperature data from those probes, and that's used to determine fan speeds based on temperature targets you can set in the BIOS.

That's just fantastic.

In fact, this auxiliary fan speed control actually makes the Q-Fan mode for the CPU and system fan headers look a little lacking. Q-Fan mode doesn't let you set temperature targets, even on the Striker Extreme, so you're at the mercy of Asus' default configuration.

If poking around in the BIOS isn't for you, both the P5N-E and Striker come with Asus' own Ai Booster and PC Probe tweaking and hardware monitoring apps. PC Probe is a particularly excellent hardware monitoring app, especially since you can organize the user interface to suit your needs. However, I'm not such a big fan of Ai Booster, which, like most Windows-based tweaking apps, is a little cumbersome.

Nvidia's nTune System Utility isn't unnecessarily cumbersome, and it works with all recent nForce chipsets. Unfortunately, it's up to motherboard manufacturers to implement BIOS hooks that let nTune modify system variables, and Asus hasn't done much on that front. You can use nTune to modify bus speeds and memory timings with both the P5N-E and Striker, but voltage and fan speed control options aren't available.

Things get a little better in nTune's monitoring app, which can track bus speeds, fan speeds, voltages, and even temperatures on the Striker Extreme. However, voltage and temperature monitoring isn't implemented on the P5N-E.