My little abit IP35 Pro Review

[mervin338]

Originally posted by: Deinonych
Good to hear! One problem I had with mine was flashing the BIOS. Whatever you do, don't use their Windows utility to flash - use a floppy like they recommend. I bricked my BIOS using the Windows utility.

The abit flash utility works perfectly, so long as you use it correctly. Most of the people who experience BIOS errors as a result of using the flash utility do so because 1) they don't reset the CMOS before they flash. 2) They've got a bunch of stuff running in the background (which they should have quit) and they flash their BIOS directly from the abit website via the flash utility. If abit wanted people to flash the BIOS with a floppy they wouldn't have included the flash utility.

So long as you download the BIOS update from the website onto your hard drive and then manually flash it (once you've disbaled all other programs and reset the CMOS) you're not going to have any trouble.

 

[Jodiuh]

Well, I had a great time w/ this board, but the X-Fi cracklin's finally gotten to me. Occasional clicks in TF2, BF2, Halo, and extreme SCP in GRAW 2. The pci lat tool helps a little, but not enough. I'll be moving to the DFI P35 LP board as it's probably the only tastier treat than this ridiculously stable OCing board! Cheers!

 

[imported_BS]

I believe your getting your sound problems from something other than this board as I have an Xfi and have zero crackling from it on the IP35-E.

 

[Jodiuh]

Well, it doesn't happen on a P5B Deluxe or an EVGA 680i, both 8 layer pcb/8 phase PWM's. It does happen on a DFI P965-S and the Abit IP35 Pro, both 4 layer pcb/4 phase PWM's. Unfortunately, I'm not alone.

I'm almost 100% positive it's a problem w/ the pci traffic on a lighter board. Also, the problem is not major and doesn't really bother me all that much on speakers, but w/ some Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro's and a decent headphone amp, GRAW2 @ 128 voices, X-Fi w/ CMSS3D, EAX...it's horrible.

It happens regardless of OC, I've swapped 2 different X-Fi's (elite pro, fatal1ty), PSU's, keyboards, and mice. I've brought pc down to board, ram, cpu, gpu, psu, 1 hdd, and x-fi w/ the same issue. Fresh installs of XP and Vista...it matters not.

I just don't see how it can't be the board. Feel free to prove me wrong tho.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Try the original X-Fi drivers on CD.

 

[Jodiuh]

I haven't tried that. But it's not really an option in Vista anyway. Still, I've used 2 boards w/ the latest drivers, w/ no crackles, only excellent immersing sound. This board def rocks, I'm just not going to let $75 stand in my way of a good board and an excellent board. I've owned 2 LAN Party boards, the DFI LANParty UT nF3-250Gb: Overclocker's Dream, and the nF4 Expert, both of which were DREAMS to play with. Only the Abit NF7 holds that level of awesomeness for me. And they were all designed by the same guy anyway.

 

[ZK2007]

Originally posted by: Jodiuh
Well, I had a great time w/ this board, but the X-Fi cracklin's finally gotten to me. Occasional clicks in TF2, BF2, Halo, and extreme SCP in GRAW 2. The pci lat tool helps a little, but not enough. I'll be moving to the DFI P35 LP board as it's probably the only tastier treat than this ridiculously stable OCing board! Cheers!

I have X-Fi Platinum and Ip35 Pro with Vista 32bit. No crackling here.

 

[Jodiuh]

What settings in game and out? Speakers or headphones, model?

 

[imported_BS]

I dont know can only say that I don't have the problem on my IP35-E and my Xfi. Only doing 2 speaker.

 

[Jodiuh]

Well it only happens when I use 128 voices, the highest setting in game. Also, audio console should be set to game mode, eax on, cmss3d on if headphones.

 

[ZK2007]

Console is in game mode, all frequencies are set at highest possible quality, all features are turned on (eax, cmss3d, etc.), Creative 5.1 Surround Sound speakers (don't know model, they're a few years old and i'm too lazy to crawl under my desk to find the model number) are plugged in to the xfi according to the manual(Black/Green/Peach), headphones are Sony MDR-V600 and are plugged in to the headphone port in the front of the pc via the XFI Platinum's audio console.

I can say this, I did at one time have some crackling going on when I first got the soundcard. I THINK it was when vista came out, i'm not sure. Anyway, what I did that stopped it was go in to out of game mode in to another and then back to game mode. The crackling went away and never came back. Sounds rediculous, but it's the God's honest truth.

 

[Deinonych]

Originally posted by: mervin338
The abit flash utility works perfectly, so long as you use it correctly. Most of the people who experience BIOS errors as a result of using the flash utility do so because 1) they don't reset the CMOS before they flash. 2) They've got a bunch of stuff running in the background (which they should have quit) and they flash their BIOS directly from the abit website via the flash utility. If abit wanted people to flash the BIOS with a floppy they wouldn't have included the flash utility.

So long as you download the BIOS update from the website onto your hard drive and then manually flash it (once you've disbaled all other programs and reset the CMOS) you're not going to have any trouble.

Well, I'm not going to risk the Windows utility again. Fool me twice and all that.

Having said that, are abit boards somewhat finicky regarding BIOS flashes? I've never had to reset the CMOS prior to flashing the BIOS on a mainboard before. But, this is my first abit board -- I've used Asus primarily in the past. Never had a problem flashing those.

 

[Shimmishim]

i've flashed multiple abit boards and never had one problem. i used the windows utility with the aw9d max but have since used the usb dos boot flash method since using the ip35

 

[Tyrant222]

I have been using winflash for a few years with various boards. You just need to make sure you check clear cmos option before you flash. if you don't you have to clear it manually.

I assume abit uses winflash as well?

 

[NoelS]

Originally posted by: Deinonych
Good to hear! One problem I had with mine was flashing the BIOS. Whatever you do, don't use their Windows utility to flash - use a floppy like they recommend. I bricked my BIOS using the Windows utility.

Hi,

First time poster here. Thinking about trying the Abit IP35 Pro. I've been a long time ASUS user and they have a facility to flash from the BIOS, which works extremely well. Does the Abit IP35 Pro BIOS have similar?

Thanks, Noel

 

[ZK2007]

Got my system default settings except ddr2 voltage is 2.2v. 3DMark06 at default settings. Nvidia Control panel settings are "use advanced 3d image settings" and settings are Application Controlled Anisotropic and Antialiasing. AA Gamma correction is On, Supersampling AA Transparency. Hardware Conformant Texture Clamp, Error Reporting and Extension Limits are both off, Trilinear Forced Mipmaps, Single Display performance mode, Clamp Negative LOD bias, High Quality Texture Filtering, Auto Threaded Optimization, Triple Buffering is on and VSync is forced oFf. With this said, are there settings I don't need to have on to keep high quality visuals, good framerates and manage higher 3DMark06 score? This is all if 10860 (4936 SM2.0, 4917 HDR/SM3.0, 2601 CPU) is not where my current system should be..

163.69 WHQL Vista 32bit drivers, btw. Everything else, check my sig.

 

[Deinonych]

Originally posted by: NoelS

Hi,

First time poster here. Thinking about trying the Abit IP35 Pro. I've been a long time ASUS user and they have a facility to flash from the BIOS, which works extremely well. Does the Abit IP35 Pro BIOS have similar?

Thanks, Noel

The IP35 Pro doesn't have the ability to flash from the BIOS like Asus has with their EZFlash utility. You have to boot to a floppy or a USB key. They also have a Windows utility.

[edit] Oh, and welcome to the forums.

 

[NoelS]

Deinonych,

Thanks for the welcome, and the info. Too bad there's no EZFlash equivalent in the Abit BIOS - it's so quick and sure. Guess I'll plan to flash with the floppy when the time comes - Windows flash sounds like trouble...

Noel

 

[Deinonych]

There are instructions on how to format and use a bootable USB key on the abit forums as well. It works well for those of us who abandoned floppies years ago.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Serious overclockers should always keep a floppy drive in the tool box. It's the easiest and safest method of flashing BIOS.

 

[NoelS]

I have 2 new and one old floppy drive sitting on my shelf ready for new builds I wouldn't build without one.

Thanks for the info on the USB drives. I'll put that one in reserve for now...

Noel