Abit IP35-E Review (500MHz FSB board)...$90 @ NewEgg + $6.61 ship

[T2k]

Why would anyone go with IP35-E for $70 AR instead of getting the IP35 for $109 AR at the same place, that's beyond me... IP35 is sooooo much better for OC with it's decent cooling, ports, ICHR9 etc: http://www.mwave.com/mwave/vie...a=BA23928&RSKU=BA23928

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Hmmm...so much better? My IP35-E and IP35 Pro both topped out at 488MHz FSB with E6320. Where is your data to support better overclocking? Heat pipe does not necessarily provide better cooling. Search the net to find out how many people had to mod the stock Abit heat pipe for better cooling.

So the extra $39 gets you RAID?

BTW, another forum member managed to hit 500MHz FSB with an E6550/IP35-E.

http://www.navig8r.net/pics/e6550.jpg

 

[Kupe]

The IP35-E also has more blueness. That puts it over the top in my book.

Also, Upgr8er, it may not really matter to you, but Seagate is releasing their new 7200.11 drives soon. They're supposed to have a decent jump in performance over the 7200.10s, but I think the smallest size is 500GB. You probably wouldn't see too much more speed in normal use, but I just wanted to let you know.

 

[Upgr8er]

Don't try to explain it to T2K . . . he said it was beyond him!!

I just want to do the right thing this time. It often doesn't pay to always get all the bells and whistles. This will be my 5th or 6th build and I have a lot of unused bells and whistles lying around that are now junk (or perhaps ebay treasures!).

If it hadn't been for this place I would have went for a $230 motherboard and dual everything (Raid, SLI) and wasted my money on eeking out that last 3% performance that I would have never noticed. For instance, the computer I'm on right now has top rated Corsair memory on a highly heralded MSI board (not highly heralded here, though) and when I try and overclock it I get all sorts of crash and freeze problems.

Could someone address the video card? Did I pick the right one right off the bat?

Thanks!

 

[SerpentRoyal]

I'm not a hard core gamer. Try the graphics forum.

EVGA's 7600GT 256MB is a decent GPU for the average gamer. The 7900GT 256MB may be better if you're more serious about gaming.

 

[Kupe]

If all you plan to do is play Battlefield 2, you'll probably be fine with either. Tom's Hardware VGA charts a decent place to go to see how a card will perform. They benched battlefield 2142 most recently:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/...7&model2=716&chart=275

 

[aiya24]

tomshardware is a joke.

@ Upgr8er, the evga 8800GTS320 you picked is good for BF2 on your 19" screen. you could get by with just a X1950PRO/XT or 7900GS/GT/7950GT and wait till next gen of dx10 cards come out. you said you plan on getting a LCD later on, what size were you thinking of?

 

[Upgr8er]

I almost bought the Samsung 940bw which is 19 inches diagonal, but what I didn't like about it was the straight vertical dimension . . . it was shorter than the height of a 17 inch square monitor and I didn't like that. However, I'm not intersted in the giant ones so I'm kind of waiting and seeing what happens in the near future with flat panels.

 

[aiya24]

if your gonna stay at 19" then any of the cards will be a good choice for you. its your decision if you want to spend more now or save some money and go with a dx9 card.

 

[tw33ter]

I got the parts for my sytem today and I can't get it to post for the first time. It does the dual boot thing, and I can see the led's on the motherboard light up and the case, gpu, and case fans spin, as do the hard drives, but don't see anything on my monitor.


ip35-e
e6750
evga 8600gt
OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum Dual Channel

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Reset BIOS. OCZ RAM may not boot with 1.8Vdimm default in BIOS. Try booting with one stick. If no success, then you need to get a DDR2 stick of RAM rated at 1.8V. Use it to access BIOS. Bump Vdimm to 2.1. Exit and replace with OCZ. I normally avoid OCZ stuffs. Too much flash, too little value.

 

[tw33ter]

Booting with 1 stick in slot 4 worked, didn't try the other slots. Went into bios and set the voltage (2.1v) and timings(4-5-4-15), and put the sticks back in 1 + 3, and it booted up fine. Should I keep these, or get another ddr2-800 kit that'll boot without any problems? If so, which ones would you recommend?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

No need to return RAM if it is stable at the speed that you want to run. Run Memtest86 (test #5) for about one hour to check for stability. Quality DDR2 800 should remain stable up to about 460MHz with 2.1Vdimm and 5-5-5-15-2T timing.

 

[grimpr]

Thanks for some great info.

Some advice needed.

I'm currently assembling a system with an Intel Dual-Core E2160 1.8, Abit IP35-E, KINGSTON KVR800D2N5/1G 1GB PC6400 800MHZ VALUE RAM and a Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B.

As i dont overclock, but seeing the potential of the E2160 and Abits IP35-E motherboard, it would be a real shame not to overclock this cpu with stability as a priority in mind.

I would greatly appreciate any help,guide,walk through, for overclocking the Pentium E2160 from 1.8ghz to 3.0ghz on this board (IP35-E). Just the necessery steps required and the bios settings, the diagnostics/cpustress etc tools i can manage.


Thanks all in advance and excuse me for my bad english.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

1. Flash BIOS to the latest 11...dated 5/24/07
2. Go into BIOS and set FSB to 300MHz, 9x multi, memory divider to 1:1, Vcore to 1.400, Vdimm to 2.0, and memory timing to 5-5-5-15. Leave all other settings at DEFAULT! Save and exit BIOS.
3. If PC boots into windows, then use CPUz to confirm that memory speed = FSB speed (1:1) and RAM timing is 5-5-5-15. You may see Vcore around 1.1 since C1E and EIST are enabled. That's normal.
4. Raise FSB by 5MHz and see if you can boot into windows. If okay, then continue to bump up FSB by 5MHz until PC will no longer boot into windows.
5. Return to BIOS and back-off FSB by 5MHz. PC should boot into windows.
6. Run Orthos Large mode for 10 minutes. If okay, then raise FSB by 1MHz and retest using Orthos. There's no need to run Orthos for more than one hour. If system is unstable down the road, then you can drop your FSB by 2 or 3MHz.
7. Now raise the memory divider to 1:1.20 or 1:1.25 if you want to overclock RAMs. Run memtest86 (test #5) for about one hour.

The goal is to keep your max CPU temperature 25C below the Tjunction temperature as shown by CoreTemp 0.95 when crunching with Orthos. USE THE LOWEST VCORE AND VDIMM to achieve system stability. You should be able to run the RAM at 1.8V up to 400MHz FSB.

A good chip with good cooling can handle up to about 1.465Vcore.

 

[grimpr]

Serpent,you're a real Pro.

Thanks for the walkthrough. I'll get my hands dirty with this info asap. But, is it absolutely necessary to run OrthOS?, since i have get used to rely on StressCPU2 for testing systems for stability errors unrelated to overclocking.

StressCPU2

 

[SerpentRoyal]

There's no single application that will guarantee 100% stability. For what I do, 1 hour Othos is good enough. You could always back-off FSB and/or Vcore if necessary.

 

[Blacklash]

Sorry if this has been asked before I didn't read the whole thread. Will this motherboard boot with a Q6600 in the G-0 stepping with its shipping BIOS?

I am getting tired of being held back by my BX2.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Saw a review @ NewEgg about a user running 6600 with this board. Stable @ 3.0GHz with stock voltage.

 

[TheNewGuy]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
You'll never regret that decision. Be aware that the maximum throughput of the Pro's 1394 is only 14.4MB/s. USB 2.0 is fine at 30.0MB/s.

Excuse my ignorance, but what does this mean exactly and does the -E version have the same issue? I don't quite understand the IEEE 1394 thing, and in terms of real world usage, would the reduction actually be noticeable. Once again, after checking wikipedia for more information (and google for that matter), to me, it seems like it's a connection type like usb but for different things like cameras and such. Does this have any effect on network connection speed though the MB's lan? The only thing I actually hook up to my computer is my usb thumb drive for some file transferring.

Once again, sorry for the "stupid" questions, but I would like a little bit of clarification...

Thanks...

Dave

 

[SerpentRoyal]

IP35-E doesn't come with 1394. Firewire 1394a is only available with IP35 and IP35 Pro. Normal throughput speed of 1394 should be 33 to 35MB/s. Therefore, you'll notice the speed drop when transferring large chunk of data in/out of the PC using the Pro's 1394 header. There's a new BIOS out that may fix this problem.

LAN's throughput is independent of 1394.

 

[Blacklash]

Think I am going to try it. It's all of 75usd with rebate @ Newegg. If I can get about 463 x 8 out of it with my Q6600 G-0 I'll be happy.

I'm tired of 250 dollar mobos with a bunch extras I don't use and that usually do average overclocking.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Deleted.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
463MHz is achievable with a decent chip and RAM. My E6320 is uber stable @ 488MHz FSB.

You'll need a very good CPU cooler to keep the quad from overheating. Most will top out at 3.4GHz on air.

 

[TheNewGuy]

Thanks for the response....

Dave