abit IP35-Pro: Houston, We Have a Winner
by Gary Key on November 1, 2007 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Memory Testing and Overclocking:
The abit IP35-Pro has the second best latency scores of our test units thanks to very aggressive tRD settings. abit's Sandra unbuffered scores are around 2% lower than the ASUS and Gigabyte boards but as we will see, overall performance is still extremely competitive with these boards.
Q6600 9x266
Q6600 8x455 2GB
Q6600 8x450 & 8x455 4GB
We were able to reach a final 8x455FSB overclock with our Q6600. The first 8x455FSB screenshot is with the 2GB memory configuration set at DDR2-1092 at 4-4-4-12 timings. Memory voltage was set to 2.30V although the system ran fine at 2.275V except with Supreme Commander, which, would lock up at any voltage setting under 2.30V. Our CPU voltage was set at 1.50V and was at the absolute limit of our air cooling setup during the POST routine. The one problem we had with the board throughout testing with the Quad Core processors consisted of Vdrop/Vdroop levels of up to .08V under load. With additional cooling and increasing the CPU voltage to 1.53V (1.45V after Vdroop) the board was able to POST and complete our test suite at 8x470FSB.
The 4GB configuration was still able to reach 455FSB but only at a 1:1 memory ratio that resulted in a DDR2-910 speed with 4-4-4-10 memory timings. We were able to drop our memory voltage to 2.250V with this configuration while CPU voltage was dropped to 1.49V resulting in a 1.43V reading under load. We were able to run our memory at the 5:6 ratio but had to drop our FSB settings to 450 and loosen timings to 5-5-5-15. Our test results generally favored this configuration when using 4GB of memory as it exhibited better latencies and throughput compared to the 8x455FSB 4GB setup. A couple of CPU centric benchmarks still favored the slightly higher CPU speed but overall, most applications performed better with the 8x450FSB setup.
E6550 7x550
We were able to reach a final FSB setting of 555 with our E6550. Our 2GB memory configuration was set at 1:1 ratio with 5-4-4-12 timings. This will result in the board setting performance level (Read Delay) to 7 but required memory voltages to be set to 2.275V. The maximum MCH voltage is 1.72V, and 520FSB and higher required that setting with this particular CPU. CPU voltage was set to 1.46V with Vdrop/Vdroop realizing a final 1.41V during normal operation. The highest FSB we have been able to attain with this CPU is 570 on the DFI P35 board.
The overclocking capability of this motherboard is extremely good but more importantly, very easy. The board's stability will start to trail off when you are near its limits so there is feedback from the board before you go over the edge. The board does not overclock quite as well as the DFI P35 TR, Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6, or the ASUS Blitz series of boards. However, unless you are trying to set overclocking records, the board will satisfy 95% of the users. If we could change one item with the overclocking capabilities, it would be excessive Vdroop with the quad core processors.
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The abit IP35-Pro has the second best latency scores of our test units thanks to very aggressive tRD settings. abit's Sandra unbuffered scores are around 2% lower than the ASUS and Gigabyte boards but as we will see, overall performance is still extremely competitive with these boards.
Q6600 9x266
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Q6600 8x455 2GB
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Q6600 8x450 & 8x455 4GB
 |
 |
We were able to reach a final 8x455FSB overclock with our Q6600. The first 8x455FSB screenshot is with the 2GB memory configuration set at DDR2-1092 at 4-4-4-12 timings. Memory voltage was set to 2.30V although the system ran fine at 2.275V except with Supreme Commander, which, would lock up at any voltage setting under 2.30V. Our CPU voltage was set at 1.50V and was at the absolute limit of our air cooling setup during the POST routine. The one problem we had with the board throughout testing with the Quad Core processors consisted of Vdrop/Vdroop levels of up to .08V under load. With additional cooling and increasing the CPU voltage to 1.53V (1.45V after Vdroop) the board was able to POST and complete our test suite at 8x470FSB.
The 4GB configuration was still able to reach 455FSB but only at a 1:1 memory ratio that resulted in a DDR2-910 speed with 4-4-4-10 memory timings. We were able to drop our memory voltage to 2.250V with this configuration while CPU voltage was dropped to 1.49V resulting in a 1.43V reading under load. We were able to run our memory at the 5:6 ratio but had to drop our FSB settings to 450 and loosen timings to 5-5-5-15. Our test results generally favored this configuration when using 4GB of memory as it exhibited better latencies and throughput compared to the 8x455FSB 4GB setup. A couple of CPU centric benchmarks still favored the slightly higher CPU speed but overall, most applications performed better with the 8x450FSB setup.
E6550 7x550
 |
We were able to reach a final FSB setting of 555 with our E6550. Our 2GB memory configuration was set at 1:1 ratio with 5-4-4-12 timings. This will result in the board setting performance level (Read Delay) to 7 but required memory voltages to be set to 2.275V. The maximum MCH voltage is 1.72V, and 520FSB and higher required that setting with this particular CPU. CPU voltage was set to 1.46V with Vdrop/Vdroop realizing a final 1.41V during normal operation. The highest FSB we have been able to attain with this CPU is 570 on the DFI P35 board.
The overclocking capability of this motherboard is extremely good but more importantly, very easy. The board's stability will start to trail off when you are near its limits so there is feedback from the board before you go over the edge. The board does not overclock quite as well as the DFI P35 TR, Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6, or the ASUS Blitz series of boards. However, unless you are trying to set overclocking records, the board will satisfy 95% of the users. If we could change one item with the overclocking capabilities, it would be excessive Vdroop with the quad core processors.
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Crafty Spiker - Sunday, July 27, 2008 - link
This board should be called the Catch-22. I'm on my 4th day and 2nd chassis (and peripherals) trying to find some combination of hardware that this piece of crap will handle properly.Catch #1: Trying to get an LSI SCSI RAID card and a Promise SX4000 to work at the same time. Far as I can see, can't be done. No diagnostic messages at all. Great BIOS engineering
Catch #2: Tried a smaller rig - just one Adaptec SCSI RAID card. Won't work at all.
Catch#3: IDE does not work. The BIOS sees the attached devices but the OS won't/
Catch #4: Digital audio output is optical ONLY. How do you spell "reconfigure the home theater"?
Catch #5: the onboard NIC's are crap. Won't do 9KB jumbo frames.
All in all I'd say that unless you are doing a completely dirt simple build that you look elsewhere. And reviewers should look a bit more carefully at what they're reviewing.
Dacalo - Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - link
I notice that under Bios UGuru, your screen shows 1.25V. Mine MB's lowest option is only 1.3175(?) around there. I thought this was odd. Do you think it's because I have older BIOS?Cybertori - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
I have one of these boards, and its been very good and reliable. Works with my new dual-core CPU, the BIOS is amazingly accomodating, and no problems whatsoever. This is my first purchase of an Abit product, but I am impressed. CPU and MB temps have been very cool, even under load, so I'd have to say the passive cooling is working well. Apart from the placement of some connectors, a really good motherboard - one of the best available for Intel processors, and a good value too.Zak - Monday, November 5, 2007 - link
A couple of years ago I had so many problems with abit mobos (and MSI by the way), like 4 lemons in a row, that I will never ever touch their mobos no matter what they do, my distrust for their quality is too deep. I'll stick to Asus (despite their horrible support) and Gigabyte.Zak
MichaelD - Friday, November 2, 2007 - link
So, there's a "trick" or "tweak" that fixes a deficiency and makes the board more stable and reliable...yet you don't tell us what that is? Why not just link directly to the webpage showing the fix? OR just TELL US what said fix action is? "A quick Google search" yielded me nothing but other reviews of the board. I could not find the fix. Great article and review, but you fell short by not linking directly to the fix action.
Gary Key - Saturday, November 3, 2007 - link
The hot link was in the article if you mouse over "user" - but here it is in case that does not work - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p...">http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p... .Shimmishim - Friday, November 2, 2007 - link
This board has been out since about July? X38 reviews have been popping up all over the web. Anyway.I've owned this board for over 3 months now and it has been one of my all time favorite boards. It o/c's 4x1GB of ram very nicely and quadcores (with a bit of tweaking).
Bozo Galora - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
for those who cant wait another month for AT to achieve a good enough review so as not to threaten ad revenues - here's a fairly good overview from Tomshttp://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/31/x38_compari...">http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/31/x38_compari...
goinginstyle - Saturday, November 3, 2007 - link
You are an arse. I have not seen any ads on AT with abit so that blows your statement. Also, they had the one of the first X38 previews on the web and at least they are doing the reviews right instead of some photos and a couple of tests while declaring any and all boards to be the greatest. AT's X38 launch article was the only one that told the truth about this not ready for prime time chipset. I guess they did that to improve ad revenues in your book.
Anonymous Freak - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
I mean, who doesn't have a router nowadays? Even goofier are the boards with Wi-Fi and "built-in routers". Call me old fashioned, but I actually want my router separate from my PC.What I want is a micro-ATX board, dual PCI-E x16 slots, (not that I actually expect to use SLI/CrossFire anytime soon, but what if I want to slap a RAID card in there?) onboard "HD Audio" with optical in and out, eSATA, onboard FireWire on the backplane (some of us still use FW camcorders,) and ONE Gigabit NIC. No need for a second, really.
Is that too much to ask?
It's like they now equate "enthusiast" with dual NIC. (A few years ago, before decent Wi-Fi routers could be had for http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3635275">less than $30, it might have made sense. But not any more. There are even http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5117566">multiple http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4832150">under http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4863030">$100 http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5232917">802.11n http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5284527">wireless http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5192516">routers.