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

[hokiealumnus]

Mount it and tighten all screws until they all hit the bracket and you feel resistance. Then tighten using an 'X' pattern with an equal number of turns (or 1/2 or 1/4 turns) on each one. Tighten until you can no longer 'wiggle' it left and right using slight pressure on the fan.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Tighten using the X pattern. A little bit at each corner. Twist the BT by a few degrees. Apply a good 30-40 lbs of down force on the base of the BT (be sure the MB is sitting on a flat surface). The CPU contact is at the center (about 1.5 square cm) of the heat spreader. A thin layer of paste on both mating surfaces should be fine.

Too much clamping force can reduce the contact patch. You may need to lap heat spreader or BT for optimum performance.

 

[UnIrit]

Looks like my copper heat pipes are 90 degrees off - a shame since it felt so good. Is cooling that much different? I'll check out the pics from hokiealumnus after work ("big brother" blocks photos). Appreciate the help.

Also I'm not familiar with speedfan. Will it allow control of actual speeds of both Aux fans on the p35-E?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

New Low Price...$66 AR @ MWAVE...$61 with $5 PriceGrabber Review.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: UnIrit
Looks like my copper heat pipes are 90 degrees off - a shame since it felt so good. Is cooling that much different? I'll check out the pics from hokiealumnus after work ("big brother" blocks photos). Appreciate the help.

Also I'm not familiar with speedfan. Will it allow control of actual speeds of both Aux fans on the p35-E?

Nope. Board/SpeedFan can only control CPU and SYSTEM fan headers. You can also run two fans in parallel from each fan header. Each header can easily output 1A @ +12VDC.

 

[jonmcc33]

Drat. Just got the motherboard in today but the Thermalright LGA775 bracket hasn't arrived yet (ordered from another store since NewEgg was sold out). I'll have to wait till tomorrow to get it all set up.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Looks like the latest 45nm quads can easily break 4.5GHz on air and 5.5GHz with LN2. We will probably need to spend 5x more $ to achieve +90% overclock using the latest 45nm quads. Intel will definitely make the +9x multi quads UBER expensive. You'll need a +650MHz chip, RAM, and MB to take a 7x multi CPU north of 4.5GHz. AMD needs to come up with a killer CPU to keep INTC in check.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Drat. Just got the motherboard in today but the Thermalright LGA775 bracket hasn't arrived yet (ordered from another store since NewEgg was sold out). I'll have to wait till tomorrow to get it all set up.

You can test the rig outside the box using the stock CPU cooler. That's the easiest way to checkout any new rig.

 

[UnIrit]

hokiealumnus, thanks for the pics (worth a few thousand words)

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
You can test the rig outside the box using the stock CPU cooler. That's the easiest way to checkout any new rig.

Was purchased OEM. No include stock CPU cooler.

 

[SantaAna]

Serpent,

Question. When I look at CPU-Z memory is says 250 MHZ. I have it set to 1:1 on the memory divider. Is this because of the Speedstep? It is running slower to save energy?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jonmcc33]

SpeedStep changes the CPU multiplier dynamically, it doesn't change the external clock (ie FSB) speed.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: SantaAna
Serpent,

Question. When I look at CPU-Z memory is says 250 MHZ. I have it set to 1:1 on the memory divider. Is this because of the Speedstep? It is running slower to save energy?

Thanks in advance.

FSB does not change. If you set 250MHz in BIOS, then CPUz will display 250MHz in windows. The core speed and voltage will drop when PC is idling. 250 x 6 multi (1500MHz) when idling, and 250 x 9 multi (2250MHz) under load.

You should be able to run north of 300MHz FSB with 1.465Vcore. Root cause of the problem is usually junk "overclocking" RAMs. High quality DDR2 667 or 800 RAMs will be able to run at the advertised speed at default voltage and timing.

 

[Timecop1967]

The new low price of 66$ is very tempting for the Abit IP-35-E .....however in just over two months the new Pen Quads will start to show up.......I'm thinking maybe I should hold out and purchase the motherboard then as maybe a better board for quads will be out. Doesn't make sense for me to upgrade right now as it is so close to being released.

Here is what Tech report said about the pricing of the new Quad Chips:

"the upcoming Core 2 Quad Q9300 will run at 2.5GHz and carry a $266 price tag, while the Core 2 Quad Q9450 will run at 2.66GHz and cost $316, and the Q9550 model will run at 2.83GHz and cost $530. All three models will have the same 95W power rating, but the Q9550 and Q9450 will have 12MB of cache, whereas the Q9300 will have only 6MB.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/13269


I've got my sights on the Q9450 at 12mb of cache........

 

[DAC21]

Originally posted by: Timecop1967
The new low price of 66$ is very tempting for the Abit IP-35-E .....however in just over two months the new Pen Quads will start to show up.......I'm thinking maybe I should hold out and purchase the motherboard then as maybe a better board for quads will be out. Doesn't make sense for me to upgrade right now as it is so close to being released.

Here is what Tech report said about the pricing of the new Quad Chips:

"the upcoming Core 2 Quad Q9300 will run at 2.5GHz and carry a $266 price tag, while the Core 2 Quad Q9450 will run at 2.66GHz and cost $316, and the Q9550 model will run at 2.83GHz and cost $530. All three models will have the same 95W power rating, but the Q9550 and Q9450 will have 12MB of cache, whereas the Q9300 will have only 6MB.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/13269


I've got my sights on the Q9450 at 12mb of cache........

As you know the $66 IP35-E will run all those new CPU's. It's just a matter if one thinks the additional $250+ dollars for DDRIII and X-38 MB are worth the additional performance. Probably more bang for the buck putting that money towards a 8800 Ultra

 

[SantaAna]

Serpent,

"load Optimized Default".

that did it. at 333 right now stable.

Thanks!

 

[SerpentRoyal]

BIOS corruption can occur during assembly. Disconnect power from PSU, remove battery and reset CMOS should work 95% of the time. Some may need to re-flash BIOS and load Optimized Default if you cannot achieve the proper overclock.

In your case, you may have mis-adjusted one or more parameters. Resetting CMOS and loading Optimized Default return the MB to factory condition.

 

[Timecop1967]

No I'm thinking the X-38 and the DDRII flavor of motherboard might be best.......as the 250$ increase on the DDRIII probably wouldn't be worth it. With the X-38 they might have the doubleboot issue fixed and maybe slight increases in performance......from what I understand this is a problem with the X-35 intel chips and not the fault of the motherboards.........according to the Abit Forums. The bios updates are just a workaround to fix the doubleboot issue.........and if running the IP-35 pro that uses the Uguru chip no workaround is necessary.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Double post is fixed with 13 BIOS. X-38 should also exhibit the double post unless Intel eliminates strap initialization during cold boot. This was started by Intel with P965. I doubt that you can get away with less than $400 for decent X-38/DDR3 combo. Possible 3 to 5% improvement on 4x the cost.

There is zero performance gain with X-38 and DDR2.

 

[jonmcc33]

Well Serpent, got my IP35-E up and running now. Used the LGA775 bracket to install my XP-90 on my E6400. Got it to 333FSB and 2.66GHz already with only small bump of vCore. Running Vista Business right now, surprisingly Vista runs better on an Intel system than my old Opteron 165 system.

The Hynix DDR2-667 works fine although I'll want to upgrade in the near future. I'm going to continue exploring how far I can push it. Thanks again for such an amazing thread that convinced me to make this purchase. I really owe ya one.

 

[Timecop1967]

I'm also interested in the Abit IX38 QuadGT.....which uses 1066 ddr 2 memory.......this X-38 supports the new 1600fsb chips coming out also. This board looks like an upgrade to the IP-35 pro. Should be in the retail channels within a month. I know the price point won't be near the IP35-E but like the looks of it anyway.


On the IP-35E bios updates......how many people are actually using beta Bios 13 as no official bios 13 on the website. Have heard some have dropped back to 11 and 12.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Well Serpent, got my IP35-E up and running now. Used the LGA775 bracket to install my XP-90 on my E6400. Got it to 333FSB and 2.66GHz already with only small bump of vCore. Running Vista Business right now, surprisingly Vista runs better on an Intel system than my old Opteron 165 system.

The Hynix DDR2-667 works fine although I'll want to upgrade in the near future. I'm going to continue exploring how far I can push it. Thanks again for such an amazing thread that convinced me to make this purchase. I really owe ya one.

Glad 2 help. Hynix are pretty decent RAMs. Use 1:1 memory divider. Dial-in 2.05Vdimm and 5-5-5-15-2T timing. Your RAM should be able to hit 400MHz FSB. I'd set 1.465Vcore, then continue to bump up FSB by 5MHz if you can boot into windows. Make a note of the last bootable FSB speed. Go back to this FSB speed and run Memtest86, test #5 for 50 loops. If okay, then run Orthos Large mode for 1 hour.

You should keep all other voltages at default settings. Some RAMs may require 1.29 or 1.33 at the NB. It's best to stick to default value unless you encounter stability issue.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Timecop1967
I'm also interested in the Abit IX38 QuadGT.....which uses 1066 ddr 2 memory.......this X-38 supports the new 1600fsb chips coming out also. This board looks like an upgrade to the IP-35 pro. Should be in the retail channels within a month. I know the price point won't be near the IP35-E but like the looks of it anyway.


On the IP-35E bios updates......how many people are actually using beta Bios 13 as no official bios 13 on the website. Have heard some have dropped back to 11 and 12.

My IP35-E is stable at "1952MHz FSB" with E6320. Only noobs worry about the official FSB number put out by the marketing department. RAM speed is stable at 602MHz (DDR2 1204).

Most of us here are more concerned about maximum performance for very little $.

I run 12 BIOS because it's a hair faster than 13. I can live with the extra 13 seconds of boot time. I also replace my HDD every 4 years so the double post is a non-technical issue for me.

 

[Timecop1967]

What intrigues me about the Abit IX-38 QuadGt is the new Digital PWMs. From what I understand the IP35-E and a lot of the others only offer analog PWMs.

From the Abit web site:
"With the new Smart-Slave technology the power switch frequency can effectively be quadrupled over conventional PWMs. Digital PWMs offer most precise and consistent voltage supply for reduced power consumption, less heat and increased components' life. Next Generation Digital PWMs provide highest accuracy for the best computing experience ever, noise interferences are avoided and energy efficiency is highly increased by realizing ideal resistance ratings (low RDS) during charge-discharge power switching."

If my system runs cooler and is only $75-150 more in cost I may consider this IX-38 motherboard over a cheaper solution......the extra price difference is a moot issue for me. Yes the doubleboot thing would drive me crazy so I'll probably go for this board or maybe even the Pro.

 

[Tangman85]

Well, double boot is fixed unless power cable is plugged out?

Regarding BIOS 13 though, is it still BETA or is it actually released? Don't see it on the homepage