abit IP35-Pro: Houston, We Have a Winner
by Gary Key on November 1, 2007 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
abit IP35-Pro BIOS Overview and Software Features
The IP35-Pro board features abit's excellent µGuru technology, which allows the monitoring/control of the system's fan headers and the ability to set voltages and FSB rates on the fly. We have always been enamored of µGuru and consider it the best available platform control application available from the motherboard manufacturers. The application worked extremely well during testing and provided accurate feedback on temperatures and voltages along with the capability to fine tune voltages and FSB rates during overclocking sessions.
abit includes a BIOS flash utility as part of the µGuru. We still feel flashing via the DOS floppy method is the most reliable way to update your BIOS, but we flashed our board six times with this utility without any problems.
abit allows the monitoring and control of the CPU, System Fan, and Auxiliary fan speeds and voltage settings within the BIOS. Fan control is very extensive with three different monitoring modes available within the BIOS settings.
The OC Guru sections contains the standard overclocking options that includes FSB rates, multiplier selection, DRAM ratios, PCI Express clock speeds, and voltage controls. Although not as extensive as the typical DFI enthusiast board, the options are good with the notable exception being the inability to control the FSB Strap settings.
The BIOS offers 8 different memory configuration options and generally utilized the memory SPD settings at a given clock speed if the DRAM timing was set to auto when in manual mode. Although the Clock per Command appears as 1T or 2T, the proper terminology is 1N or 2N on the Intel chipsets this and works differently than the 1T/2T command rates on the AMD chipsets. 1N is generally equivalent to a 1.5T type performance level at this time. It is not possible to adjust tRD manually, but abit typically sets this option at a very aggressive level in order to improve memory latencies.
The IP35-Pro board features abit's excellent µGuru technology, which allows the monitoring/control of the system's fan headers and the ability to set voltages and FSB rates on the fly. We have always been enamored of µGuru and consider it the best available platform control application available from the motherboard manufacturers. The application worked extremely well during testing and provided accurate feedback on temperatures and voltages along with the capability to fine tune voltages and FSB rates during overclocking sessions.
abit includes a BIOS flash utility as part of the µGuru. We still feel flashing via the DOS floppy method is the most reliable way to update your BIOS, but we flashed our board six times with this utility without any problems.
abit allows the monitoring and control of the CPU, System Fan, and Auxiliary fan speeds and voltage settings within the BIOS. Fan control is very extensive with three different monitoring modes available within the BIOS settings.
The OC Guru sections contains the standard overclocking options that includes FSB rates, multiplier selection, DRAM ratios, PCI Express clock speeds, and voltage controls. Although not as extensive as the typical DFI enthusiast board, the options are good with the notable exception being the inability to control the FSB Strap settings.
The BIOS offers 8 different memory configuration options and generally utilized the memory SPD settings at a given clock speed if the DRAM timing was set to auto when in manual mode. Although the Clock per Command appears as 1T or 2T, the proper terminology is 1N or 2N on the Intel chipsets this and works differently than the 1T/2T command rates on the AMD chipsets. 1N is generally equivalent to a 1.5T type performance level at this time. It is not possible to adjust tRD manually, but abit typically sets this option at a very aggressive level in order to improve memory latencies.
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crimson117 - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
And if http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">this is the fix, then it's even more complicated than I had expected!Personally, I would RMA a board with this sort of defect present.
takumsawsherman - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
I love how these pro boards rarely have Firewire800. It's really a shame that others did not jump on the Gigabyte bandwagon a few years back when they started putting it on their high-end boards. If I remember correctly, they were cheaper than the current crop as well.Of course, I will wager that someone will say that people should use eSATA instead. There are only a few enclosures that have both FW and eSATA, and eSATA is not available on most PC's, and no Macs that I have seen have a eSATA port. I'm not even sure if you can daisy chain eSATA, and I like the FW800 connector better (feels more sturdy). Recently, I looked around for an enclosure to replace one of my old trusty FW400/USB2 enclosures with built in power supply. I ended up not finding the one I wanted, and was very sad, as my requirements were not great.
1. FW800
2. eSATA
3. USB2
4. 5 1/4" drive capacity
5. Built in AC/DC converter (no bricks)
6. Fan if neceaary, I don't care as this is a service drive, not involved with audio
The closest I could get was a NewerTechnology MiniStack V3 from eshop.macsales.com.
1. FW800
2. eSATA
3. USB2, including hub
4. 3.5 inch drives only
5. fan
6. Stupid brick power supply
It cost me $120 empty. It's a great enclosure, meant for stacking under a Mac Mini (and would be awesome for that, though I personally have no mini). There were also the mercury series from OWC at that store, but none had the built in PS, so I figured at that point who cares about 5 1/4.
The end result is that I tried it for a week. It now stays at home. While I used it, I got insane speeds when backing up customer systems over FW800 (Macs doing CarbonCopyCloner clones in a flash, despite the clones being around 30GB. USB2 was as expected (kind of lame), and FW400 was acceptable (but a downer after FW800). For anyone who is interested, the drive I put in it was a Seagate 320 SATA with the crazy SCSI-sized jumper removed. I never got to use eSATA, as I have found no systems that have the port, except one production server that I am not going to test on. I'm sure it's nice and fast.
Of course, with all the back and forth, carrying a brick around is annoying, when previously all I needed to carry was a firewire or usb cable. Of course, this has nothing to do with Abit's board, except that if more boards were made that included FW800, more varieties of enclosures would be available, and someone would make my above list come true.
Gary Key - Saturday, November 3, 2007 - link
I have always been disappointed with the lack of Firewire 800 on the upper end boards but it appears the users requesting it are in a very small minority (which includes me) according to the suppliers. We do have USB 3.0 and Firewire 1600 to look forward late next year. :)sheared - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
It should be noted that the Abit forums are, while not full, scattered with threads regarding incompatibilities between this MB and various PSU's. For now at least, you should be careful to select a PSU from a manufacturer that is known to work with the board. I selected a Seasonic thinking that a good, reputable manufacture such as that would have no issues. Wrong. POST code 8.2.Just be careful in the selection, and you'll do fine with this board.
Gary Key - Saturday, November 3, 2007 - link
PSU-We tried everything from a Seasonic S12 II 430W to the OCZ 1000w without a problems including a couple of "inexpensive" 500w power supplies out of generic cases without a problem. We tried to recreate some of the problems that users have noticed and could not with three different boards.
feraltoad - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
My X-fi xtreme music works great fortunately, it didn't crackle in my old Asrock DualSATA2 which some people reported as being a problem.I have a ZerDBA psu that works fine and a WD5000AAKS & WD3200KS & 36gb Raptor that works great, no raid though.
I've been very happy with the ip35 pro. I think editors choice is very well warranted. I use the uGuru program to OC in windows! How often can you OC in windows and have it be stable?
My heatsinks were OK, but I have heard some problems but the fix is super easy. Just replace the plastic pushpins in the sinks with bolts. That's an easy fix, sure you shouldn't have to paying that much for a mobo and they need to fix it, but if I had to saddled with a problem and I'm a pessimist(read: realist) and expect things to go bad I would rather have a problem that I can easily fix myself. So really it's a pessimist dream come true even if it comes out as the worse case scenario!
yyrkoon - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
there are also scattered reports of the larger Raptor HDDs not working under certain circumstances with these boards, as well WD SE16 HDD issues(mainly with RAID I think), and possible X-FI incompatibilities.ABITs forums though is one good example as to why their products still sold well, despite for having a 'bad rep' compared to other companies. Its these Forums that helps ABIT customers solve, and potential avoid issues with any given product.
For what it is worth, I have read about certain Seasonic PSUs being an issue with these boards, but the PSU I am using; an Antec EA500(EarthWATTS 500) *is* supposed to be built by Seasonic as well . . . it also works very well. However, I am also using the IP35-E, not the Pro.
yyrkoon - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
that it is about time you guys did a write up of this board, but I am mystified as to why you guy did not mention the IP35-E(the IP35 Pros 'little brother'). Sure it does not have all the bells and whistles, but on an extreme budget, the IP35-E is very hard to beat.My IP35-E is running an E6550 @ 3.33Ghz with stock cooling and stock voltages, and 100% stable for the last 1.5 weeks or so. Just being able to drop the FSB:DRAM ratio to 1:1, bumping up the MCH one notch, and setting the external clock to 475Mhz makes for very simple overclocking. I have a very hard time imagining any other board being easier than this when overclocking. All this, and superb functionality(everything worked straight out of the box) without updating the BIOS. I can imagine never updating the BIOS, the functionality for me is that good.
Now if I could only fit a thermalright cooler into my case, I would be in 'hog heaven'.
Gary Key - Saturday, November 3, 2007 - link
abit did not supply the IP35-E for review, but we bought one anyway and will show it against the MSI NEO2 and DFI Bloodiron shortly.