IP35 Pro ABIT IS BACK!

[Heidfirst]

Fry's are doing the IP35-E for under $100
http://www.fatwallet.com/forum...tid=18&threadid=741750

 

[brencat]

Well, 0.02 is much better. I was a tad frightened when you said 0.05...thinking back to the first P5K vanilla reviews and their horrible vdroop I read about on xtremesystems -- one guy set 1.51 vcore in Bios and it was reading 1.45.

My entire life I've always owned Asus boards, and coincidentally so have most of my friends. For once, I want to try something different for my upcoming build. I'm hoping this IP35 Pro, the X38 Quad GT, or even DFI's P35 T2R will fit the bill.

 

[mgutz]

Another plus:

+ Good ocability with fully loaded banks, 4x1GB, while retaining decent timings

I noticed my LAN uses a 100M hub so the onboard PCI based LAN controllers are a non-issue for my use. I'm not running this as a server nor do I transfer large files on the LAN. When I do I use external eSata drives and this board comes with two eSata ports. It is silly though that an enthusiast board has a pair of underperforming LAN ports. I don't think most people use their OC machines as true servers so this is probably not a big deal for mos of us. I would make a suggestion to Abit if it was a cost isssue, I suggest for the 2nd revision of this board to do what that other 4 letter company does and put a decent LAN controller on the first and go cheap on the second.

This board has been easy to OC. I've taken it to 3.5 using high FSB (7x) on air so whenever I find more time I'll switch to my Swiftech Ultra WC kit. I'm guessing that will take the e6420 to 3.8. I actually booted and could do web browsing, etc in Vista x64 at 3.8 GHz (8x) but Orthos stopped within 1 second. Not once did I have to clear the CMOS. A simple power down put the board back in a stable state to access the BIOS (unlike my DS3 which I wasted lots of hours fighting boot problems).

Another plus is the uGuru utility works in Vista x64 which is a huge time saver once you get in the ballpark. Rather than reboot, change bios, take a note of your settings, boot into vista, run orthos just change the settings, take a screen shot and run orthos. When Vista did blue screen, the last successful settings were in the BIOS. Nice.

Anyway, I have to give this board an overall rating of 9 of 10 stars since it works well with Vista x64 with 4GB (both 4x1GB and 2x2GB) at a good OC with only a slight increase in voltages except the VCore obviously. The unusual SATA connector placement may not work well with most cases but is perfect for the Antec P182 or P180 rev 2 cases making for clean cable management. It will be tough to beat this board in its price range.

Here are my final what I consider safe settings for extended use. Also if you are going to OC this board based on my settings, disregard my previous posts. I had the voltages way too high. As you can see in this screen, you only need a mild increase on the MCH along with the obvious increases in DDR and VCore. Others in the Abit forum have had better luck using stock voltages up to 3.33Ghz. Wow. Orthos blend at PRIORITY 10 going on 7 hours now so this is rock stable.

Abit IP35 Pro F10 Bios
Tuniq Tower (~35C - ~55C)
e6420 @ 3.3GHz (7x472)
Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 4x1GB (4-4-4-12 @ 2.225V)
Corsair HX520
Antec P182B Case, additional 12cm Yate-Loon intake fan in mid cage

http://img248.imageshack.us/my...?image=snag0016ku0.jpg



BTW, what the heck is up with these forums? It's been down half the time since they switched to this new version. Here's something I learned in software development, don't fix it if it aint broken.

 

[brencat]

Great work mgutz, and many thanks for the comments.

btw, have you tried 8 x 425 with your E6420 on this board? If you have time, can you try that setting with 4-4-3-10 RAM timings @ 2.2v and see if that gets the superpi time down under 15 sec?

Thx, B

 

[hsfnewbie]

hey Mgutz,

I got a question.

I'm shooting for similar configuration like you (Ballistix PC2-8500 and Abit Ip35 pro)

The ballistic runs in 5-5-5-12 @ 2.2V.

Is the Abit able to handle that RAM withotu having to increase the voltage? I read on older reviews that older mobos had to be OC'd to be able to handle 2.2V on memory.

thanks (sorry i'm a newb)

 

[mgutz]

Originally posted by: brencat
Great work mgutz, and many thanks for the comments.

btw, have you tried 8 x 425 with your E6420 on this board? If you have time, can you try that setting with 4-4-3-10 RAM timings @ 2.2v and see if that gets the superpi time down under 15 sec?

Thx, B

I have 14.03 in super-pi which retains your best time and I don't remember what setting that was at, it was probably 3.7 or 3.8 at 5-5-5-15. I'll try it tomorrow.

 

[firewolfsm]

You can't kill IDE when 99% of people still have IDE DVD drives, they're not really for hard drives anymore.

 

[mgutz]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: hsfnewbie
hey Mgutz,

I got a question.

I'm shooting for similar configuration like you (Ballistix PC2-8500 and Abit Ip35 pro)

The ballistic runs in 5-5-5-12 @ 2.2V.

Is the Abit able to handle that RAM withotu having to increase the voltage? I read on older reviews that older mobos had to be OC'd to be able to handle 2.2V on memory.

thanks (sorry i'm a newb)</end quote></div>

The default voltage for a motherboard out of the box is 1.8V. Yes, this motherboard will boot at 1.8V with Ballistix PC2-8500 if everything is at default. I think that's what you're asking. Some high end memory will not boot at 1.8V and require you to first set the voltage in the BIOS to the recommended voltage by the manufacturer. It doesn't matter if the motherboard is older. In that situation you need to borrow some slower memory from another computer or friend so you can get into the bios and set the voltage.

 

[mgutz]

Originally posted by: firewolfsm
You can't kill IDE when 99% of people still have IDE DVD drives, they're not really for hard drives anymore.

I realize that, I just wish there was a version of the board that didn't have them. I have SATA DVDs and they're basically the same price. If you're going to pay $190 for a board, I don't think you're going to cheap out on an IDE burner when SATA burners cost almost the same and the advantages:

1) better airflow/cable management
2) no bandwidth contention like you have if two devices are on the same IDE ribbon
3) no hassles with drivers for the secondary controller

 

[mgutz]

almost everybody is getting better overclocks than me using Abit IP35 boards. it makes me wonder if proper stability tests are being run. i booted into vista x64 at 3.8 Ghz but there is no way i would claim i'm running at 3.8. i wonder cuz everyone is besting me using budget ram, lower voltages. i've tried other people's settings and I can boot into vista but orthos blend priority 10 will usually fail in minutes and the best case so far 48 minutes. i emphasize priority 10 cuz you're not taxing your system if you have orthos running at priority 3. and it has to be blend, too many times i've passed FFT tests only to fail in blend. i don't think it's impossible but when the norm is EVERYONE is getting better overclocks than me and i'm using pretty darn good components then there has to be some exaggeration out there. i've done the due diligence to perform real stability tests. i still think this is a pretty darn good board but is it possible i have a lemon?

 

[mgutz]

Originally posted by: brencat
Great work mgutz, and many thanks for the comments.

btw, have you tried 8 x 425 with your E6420 on this board? If you have time, can you try that setting with 4-4-3-10 RAM timings @ 2.2v and see if that gets the superpi time down under 15 sec?

Thx, B

About the same as my 3.3Ghz configuration (4-4-4-12 DDR-944). I noticed I get better performance with higher FSB, that's why I chose 7x for my configuration.

http://img171.imageshack.us/my...?image=snag0021ha9.jpg

Here you go. Look at the timings on these bad boys:

http://img213.imageshack.us/my...?image=snag0022io1.jpg

< 14s @ 3.8+

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5656/snag0023uy3.jpg

 

[brencat]

Regarding your earlier comment about everyone having better overclocks, I don't think you're doing bad at all! 14.6 superpi @ 3.6 ghz is pretty darn good. This is a fast board for sure.

One other thing you can try is to go back to 8 x 425, then run the RAM at a 4:5 ratio which will put you ~ 531. Of course you may have to loosen the timings to 5-5-5-15 @ 2.2v or raise the RAM volts to 2.35v if you want to try 4-4-4-12 at that speed.

 

[Heidfirst]

new beta BIOS for the Pro
http://www.lvcoyote.com/M629B_11.B03.zip