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

[kknd1967]

IP35 is a full size ATX board, while Gigabyte boards are generally narrow ones.
It is a nice thing particularly for adding cards and huge tower CPU coolers

just a reminder for Antec P18x case users, install your 5.25" drives into the cage first. Otherwise you will have a hard time to slide them in once the motherboard is in place

 

[sprtfan]

I have the abit IP35-E with a E6600 and a Zalmon 9500. Everything is working fine but the Zalmon 9500 is much louder than I expected and was looking for a different cooler. I like the looks of the Scythe Mini ninja and was hoping someone would know if it would fit well on the board?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

You could go with software raid or buy a raid card with the $ saved. There is little real-world gain in raid 0 unless you're working with massive chunk of data. I value data in my HDD. Therefore, I image my OS partition and NO RAID!

 

[Sergex]

I'm building a gaming system and could really use your input. I haven't built a new system in a few years, so I've been reading a ton of reviews.

Based on this thread, I'll go with the Abit IP35-E, and I've already bought a Q6600 and a P182 Antec Case. I'm planning on ordering a TR Ultra-120 eXtreme. I'm not 100% sure on everything else, but I'm leaning towards a PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB RAM, 4GB of RAM with Vista 64 bit.

Can I get some advice on what brand/model of RAM, power supply, video card and HDD to pair with this mobo for the best overclock for the price?

Thanks in advance!

 

[aiya24]

Originally posted by: sprtfan
I have the abit IP35-E with a E6600 and a Zalmon 9500. Everything is working fine but the Zalmon 9500 is much louder than I expected and was looking for a different cooler. I like the looks of the Scythe Mini ninja and was hoping someone would know if it would fit well on the board?

why the mini ninja and not the regular ninja? they are the same price on jab-tech and the mini ninja uses a 80mm fan compared to the regular ninja's 120mm fan. making the mini louder than the regular one. if size/weight is a concern, there are other quiet coolers like AC's Freezer7 or TR Ultima-90 and Ultra-120 xtreme. the TR solutions come with no fans so you get to pick a quiet one if you want one.

 

[sprtfan]

Originally posted by: aiya24

Originally posted by: sprtfan
I have the abit IP35-E with a E6600 and a Zalmon 9500. Everything is working fine but the Zalmon 9500 is much louder than I expected and was looking for a different cooler. I like the looks of the Scythe Mini ninja and was hoping someone would know if it would fit well on the board?

why the mini ninja and not the regular ninja? they are the same price on jab-tech and the mini ninja uses a 80mm fan compared to the regular ninja's 120mm fan. making the mini louder than the regular one. if size/weight is a concern, there are other quiet coolers like AC's Freezer7 or TR Ultima-90 and Ultra-120 xtreme. the TR solutions come with no fans so you get to pick a quiet one if you want one.

I'll look into getting the AC's Freezer7. I have the AC Freezer 64 for an AMD rig and it dosen't seem to loud. It is also hard to tell with all the other fans going and the damn north bridge fan on my Asus A8N-SLI making a ton of noise. Someone also suggested that I get the fan controller that normally comes with the Zalmon and slow it down some.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Sergex
I'm building a gaming system and could really use your input. I haven't built a new system in a few years, so I've been reading a ton of reviews.

Based on this thread, I'll go with the Abit IP35-E, and I've already bought a Q6600 and a P182 Antec Case. I'm planning on ordering a TR Ultra-120 eXtreme. I'm not 100% sure on everything else, but I'm leaning towards a PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB RAM, 4GB of RAM with Vista 64 bit.

Can I get some advice on what brand/model of RAM, power supply, video card and HDD to pair with this mobo for the best overclock for the price?

Thanks in advance!

1. RAM...go with Kingston "N5" 1.8V DDR2 800 RAM if you want to overclock. Almost all of these sticks will be able to hit +420MHz with 2.0Vdimm and 4-4-4-12-2T, or +450MHz with 5-5-5-15-2T.

The $22/1GB AR HP/Crucial 1.8V DDR2 667 at Hot Deals forum will also work well. Easy 400MHz with 2.0Vdimm and 5-5-5-15-2T timing.

IP35-E will run all four sticks (Kingston or HP) without issue.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820134117

http://forums.anandtech.com/me..._key=y&keyword1=hp+ram

You should be able to hit 3.5GHz with the HP RAM if you have a decent CPU and CPU cooler (TR Ultra is fine).

2. PSU...go with Antec Earthwatt 500. I've seen them on sale at Fry's.com last week for $30.

3. HDD...go with SATA Seagate 7200.10. They are often on sale at many stores. Drive is reasonably fast and quiet with 5 yr warranty. Maxtor is the same HDD, with 3 yr warranty.

 

[aiya24]

Originally posted by: sprtfan
e the AC Freezer 64 for an AMD rig and it dosen't seem to loud. It is also hard to tell with all the other fans going and the damn north bridge fan on my Asus A8N-SLI making a ton of noise. Someone also suggested that I get the fan controller that normally comes with the Zalmon and slow it down some.

yes, you could try the fanmate that came with your zalman, thats what its there for.

what are you trying to achieve cooling-wise? silence? performance? or both?

ewiz.com has the AC Freeer 7 Pro for $22 w/free shipping.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=FAN-AC7PRO

 

[sprtfan]

Originally posted by: aiya24

Originally posted by: sprtfan
e the AC Freezer 64 for an AMD rig and it dosen't seem to loud. It is also hard to tell with all the other fans going and the damn north bridge fan on my Asus A8N-SLI making a ton of noise. Someone also suggested that I get the fan controller that normally comes with the Zalmon and slow it down some.

yes, you could try the fanmate that came with your zalman, thats what its there for.

what are you trying to achieve cooling-wise? silence? performance? or both?

ewiz.com has the AC Freeer 7 Pro for $22 w/free shipping.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=FAN-AC7PRO

I got the Zalmon used and didn't get the fanmate. I can get one from a friend and try it out and see if it will take care of the problem. I have a E6600 and have no need to OC since it is in my HTPC and I just watch DVDs and play music with it. Silence is the main goal though it dosen't have to be dead silent.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Abit IP35-E has an excellent on-board fan control. Set fan speed control to 3-pin mode and connect the fan to the CPU fan header. Set CPU fan control to a low limit of 30% and a high limit of 60%. Use 40C as the target temperature. The system should be whisper quiet unless your CPU is running at full load under Orthos.

 

[WEW]

So quick question - I have 4 sticks of RAM . One is PNY 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)and the other is Kingston Brand. Will those work? I was trying to make sure. Thanks.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Don't know for sure until you try. I don't have a lot of respect for PNY stuffs. If you see "N5" in the Kingston part number, then the RAM is high quality stuff. It's best not to mix memory from different vendor, especially if you intend to overclock the PC. The HP/Crucial DDR2 667 works well, and is only $22 AR. Board will not support DDR2 533.

 

[sprtfan]

Thanks, this took care of the problem. I half heartedly tried using the fan controller before and it didn't seem to work. I didnt realize I needed to switch to 3-pin mode in the bios.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

3-pin mode will also work with 12V DC 2-pin fan. The IP35-E is the only MB that can control the speed of a 2-wire fan.

You now have a DEAD-SILENT board.

BTW, you can also control the speed of the case fan by connecting it to the SYSTEM fan header. Again, activate fan speed control in BIOS and select "CPU" as the reference temperature. The minimum speed is 50%. SYSTEM fan header will also support 2-wire or 3-wire fan. More info on page 2-19 of manual.

 

[dukpoki]

anyone know how good the onboard soundcard is on the ip35e? I have a x-fi fatality on one of my current comps and would like to keep it there and use the onboard one on my future ip35-e so that both computers can output spdif. should i buy a new soundcard for the abit? any thoughts are welcome. thanks.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

It's as good as those found on $150 to $200 board. S/N ratio don't mean squat above -70dB.

 

[Aharami]

Is SATA noticeably faster than IDE? I have two IDE drives right now totaling 480GB and about 60% utilized. So its not like I need the space. But I came across a deal for a 250Gb Seagate drive for $70 that supposed to be SATA II and single platter (not sure what the benefits of single platter are) link

But if Im gonna see a noticeable jump in performance, I'll get the HD.

As it stands right now, I'm at my budget for this build (slightly over with case fans) so dont want to get more HD if I dont have to

 

[Heidfirst]

The theoretical SATA interface limit is higher than IDE's but the mechanics are the limiting factor & as those are the same in IDE drives as in the SATA versions so generally, no you won't notice a difference.
Putting the HDD on SATA frees up the PCI bus though if a lot of things are sharing it's bandwidth plus the cables are neater.

 

[CP5670]

Is anyone else finding discrepancies between the Vcore that the Abit EQ program reports and what's set in the BIOS? Abit EQ always reports the idle voltage to be 0.03V less than the BIOS for me. The Vdroop is about 0.03-0.04V (on top of that). I think the BIOS setting is typically more accurate in these situations, but I don't know what it's like with this particular board. I have the midrange IP35.

This board is pretty nice otherwise. I'm getting 3.6ghz out of an E6750 at 1.45V (in the BIOS). Also, I can confirm that the 800mhz Ballistix sticks work fine with this board despite having a 2.2V recommended voltage (which is probably too high anyway). From the Newegg reviews, the default SPD settings on this memory seem to contain higher timings for just this reason.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst
The theoretical SATA interface limit is higher than IDE's but the mechanics are the limiting factor & as those are the same in IDE drives as in the SATA versions so generally, no you won't notice a difference.
Putting the HDD on SATA frees up the PCI bus though if a lot of things are sharing it's bandwidth plus the cables are neater.

well even if I get the SATA drive (which is looking less likely now), I'd still keep the IDE drives as backup drives. I got round IDE cables so that it wont affect airflow too much

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Aharami
Is SATA noticeably faster than IDE? I have two IDE drives right now totaling 480GB and about 60% utilized. So its not like I need the space. But I came across a deal for a 250Gb Seagate drive for $70 that supposed to be SATA II and single platter (not sure what the benefits of single platter are) link

But if Im gonna see a noticeable jump in performance, I'll get the HD.

As it stands right now, I'm at my budget for this build (slightly over with case fans) so dont want to get more HD if I dont have to

The improvement will be small if any, when comparing SATA to PATA (same series). You'll never notice the gain under normal use. Keep the PATA drives.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: CP5670
Is anyone else finding discrepancies between the Vcore that the Abit EQ program reports and what's set in the BIOS? Abit EQ always reports the idle voltage to be 0.03V less than the BIOS for me. The Vdroop is about 0.03-0.04V (on top of that). I think the BIOS setting is typically more accurate in these situations, but I don't know what it's like with this particular board. I have the midrange IP35.

This board is pretty nice otherwise. I'm getting 3.6ghz out of an E6750 at 1.45V (in the BIOS). Also, I can confirm that the 800mhz Ballistix sticks work fine with this board despite having a 2.2V recommended voltage (which is probably too high anyway). From the Newegg reviews, the default SPD settings on this memory seem to contain higher timings for just this reason.

To get the most accurate Vcore reading, disable C1E and EIST in BIOS. Also change the power mode in windows to desktop. Speedfan should show an idle Vcore that's dead on or 0.01V lower than BIOS setting.

The BIOS reading will generally be 0.02V lower than BIOS setting because the CPU is at 100% load. Stress testing with Orthos or S&M's heat mode will further depress Vcore by an additional 0.03 to 0.04V.

The Abit EQ program is very close to Speedfan's Vcore.

 

[johnnysd]

Serpent,

Glad I found this thread. It has been incredibly useful. Went with the $248 +$20 Rebate offer from Fry's today. Will get the ValueRam you suggest instead of the Crucial I was going to get. Seems to be easier to deal with. Since I am getting a 6750 as part of the deal could you give the 5 cent overview of the approach I will take to overclock this as it is limited to 8x. Would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Johnny

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: johnnysd
Serpent,

Glad I found this thread. It has been incredibly useful. Went with the $248 +$20 Rebate offer from Fry's today. Will get the ValueRam you suggest instead of the Crucial I was going to get. Seems to be easier to deal with. Since I am getting a 6750 as part of the deal could you give the 5 cent overview of the approach I will take to overclock this as it is limited to 8x. Would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Johnny

Install CPU and RAM. Connect only a mouse, keyboard, optical drive, and ONE CLEAN HDD (no data...you should zero format as used HDD). Disconnect power from PSU. Reset CMOS. Put CMOS jumper back to normal and boot PC.

1. Hit delete to enter BIOS.
2. Change mouse and keyboard support from OS to BIOS. Hit F10 to save BIOS. Install windows. Once windows is loaded, install the Intel chipset, sound, and LAN. Return to BIOS.
3. If you're going with the Kingston "N5" DDR2 800, then change Vdimm to 2.0 and manually adjust timing to 5-5-5-18.
4. Set Memory divider to 1:1.
5. Set Vcore to 1.465.
6. Set FSB to 380MHz. Hit F10 to save BIOS.

Run Orthos Large mode for 5 minutes. If okay, then bump FSB up by 5MHz and retest. If cannot pass Orthos, then run Memtest86 test #5 for 10 loops. If okay, then you are probably at the limit of the CPU unless you want to add more Vcore.

 

[sprtfan]

Now that my rig is nice and quiet, I wanted to know if it is possiable to wake from S3 sleep from a USB device with this motherboard? My old mobo had a jumper to keep power on one of the USB ports so I would be able to wake from sleep. The Abit IP35-E did not have any jumpers but I was hoping that it might always have power on USB like my Asus A8N-SLI does? I can wake from my P/S2 mouse but that does not do me any good since I want to wake from my remote. Thanks