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Abit IP35-E or Gigabyte P35 DS3P v1.0?

B

Brodel

Member
Hi,

I'm trying to update my computer on a low budget. I've been offered those two motherboards on another forum and am trying to decide between them. I want to get a Q6600 along with some OCZ Reaper PC2 6400 RAM.

From what I understand the P35 chipset is best for overclocking Quads and I've heard good things about both of the boards. Are there any specific reasons that I should choose one over the other?

Thanks for any advice.
 
ip35-E all the way. in my personal experience the gigabyte boards of the p35 chipsets were buggy as hell. It would refuse to put my CPU's in standby and would get caught in an infinite reboot state until i reset the BIOS. I may have gotten a faulty board, but as my first an only experience w/ gigabyte it has put me off to using them or recommending them to anyone for a couple of product cycles.

If you can find an IP35-Pro though you would be even better off. i had both the E and pro variants, never OC'ed the E but the pro does a pretty good job w/ my E8400.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have not been able to find a pro, although I've read that the difference between the two is pretty marginal.
 
The differences between IP35-Pro and IP35-E are pretty much chipset cooling and RAID. There may be something even less significant. I've been pretty happy with my IP35-E for over 13 months now.
 
Ah ok. I don't plan on using RAID and the chipset cooling on the E is still good enough to manage a good overclock right?
 
Originally posted by: Brodel
Ah ok. I don't plan on using RAID and the chipset cooling on the E is still good enough to manage a good overclock right?
Click to expand...

according to alot of people yes. check out the IP35-E thread in the motherboards section for more info on the board.
 
Yea, I have just been reading that. It seems there are some advantages and disadvantages of the E and the Pro version. Anyway, it looks like the Abit is the better option out of the two that I have so far. Thanks again everyone.
 
IP35-E here with Q8200 with M1 stepping...easy 485MHz FSB. Heat is not an issue (VTT 1.27, MCH 1.55). No POST with R0 Q8200 stepping. Also managed 525MHz FSB with E8400 C0 stepping. No data on E8400 E0 stepping. The Q6600 runs hot and will probably need active cooling on the MOSFET heatsink. You'll probably be better off with an E8400 @ 4.0GHz unless you have a program that will take full advantage of four cores simultaneously.
 
Thanks for that advice. I guess I don't NEED the Q6600 but I do a lot of photoshop/illustrator work which I think would benefit from a Q6600 as well as being a little bit more futureproof? What would be the best way to cool the MOSFET, just a fan pointed in its direction? I'd prefer to keep the number of fans down to a minimum if possible.
 
My IP35-E was buggy as hell as soon as I got it. Never did figure out what the problem was...just stopped POSTing. Then, once in a blue moon it would work...I went with the P45 from Gigabyte and smooth sailing now. The Abit board was great when it worked properly. My IP35-E is still under warranty, so I'll probably do an RMA and sell the "new" board, if they send me one.
 
E8400 @ +3.8GHz should provide ample of head room for photoshop if you have sufficient RAM and a fast HDD. E8400 @ 4.0GHz is a breeze for IP35-E as long as you have an okay chip with C0 stepping. Board may POST with E0 E8400, but I cannot guarantee since I don't have an E0 chip. Don't believe in future-proofing a PC cause technology moves so fast.

Q6600 is a dog at stock speed. You'll need to get the speed up to +3.0GHz to be competitive. 3.2GHz is the nominal overclock. These older 65nm quads will need a lot of CPU, VTT, and NB juices to go higher. A much better option is to overclock a 45nm Q8200 with M1 stepping. Easy 3.3GHz with mininal voltage boost. No need to provide additional cooling. The Q8200 is about 6% faster than Q6600 at the same core speed.

If budget is tight, then the best strategy is to overclock an E5200/E5300 north of 3.5GHz. The high CPU multi-places very little stress on the MB. Pop in DDR2 800 RAM, set 1:1 memory divider, raise Vcore by 10% over VID, and crank up the FSB.
 
Thanks again everyone.

Bonesdad, I'm hoping your case was a one off, I've read quite a lot of good things about this board.

E4300, thanks for that advice. My brain is imploding when it comes to choosing the right CPU now lol. I want something that will last me as long as possilbe... at the moment I'm still on an AMD 3000 @ 2.4ghz so I tend to use my systems for quite a while before upgrading. Although I don't game much, there are a couple of games I would like to be ready for such as Mafia II. I read that GTA VI which does take advantage of Quads ran a lot better on one than with a Dual. So far I've only really looked at the Q6600 and E8400 so I guess I'm going to have to do a bit more reading up on the others. I will most likely watercool the CPU, if that makes the Q6600 any more attractive?

Vailr, I would but that off you if I lived in the US but I'm in the UK so it's not really an option. I appreciate the link though.
 
It is clear that your best choice is the IP35-E. If you want to overclock a quad, then buy an M1 Q8200 for an easy 3.3GHz overclock with DDR2 1066 RAM. You'll need to push the Q6600 north of 3.5GHz to beat this overclocked Q8200.

Water cooling will only help the CPU. The NB and PWM circuits will still run hot if you want to push that ancient 65nm quad north of 3.2GHz.

I paid $110 out the door for the Q8200. Really no reason to fork over more than this for a Q6600. The theme for a low budget rig is value and performance. I see no value in a quad right now unless you're encoding movies for a living. Overclock an E5200 north of 3.5GHz, and put the extra $ saved toward a better GPU.

Water cooling may buy another 200MHz of core speed if you have sufficient cooling at the NB and PWM circuits. That's a lousy return on your value rig theme.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...howdoc.aspx?i=3551&p=9
 
Cool, thanks for all the info. Does the Q8200 not suffer from the fact that it has half the L2 cache and a lower multiplier than the Q6600 has then? The thing is the guy selling the IP35-E is also selling a Q6600 at lower than the retail for a Q8200, plus the fact that if 1066 RAM is more expensive if I do buy the Q8200 so it would end up costing me more.
Is the concern with overheating the NB and PWM just because it's the IP35-E, or would that be the same with most motherboards?
 
Look at the benchies. Q8200 did better with the Photoshop CS4. You're trying to rationalize the purchase of an ancient 65nm quad. That used Q6600 may not be able to break 3.0GHz if it has been abused. A better board would have better cooling at PWM and NB.

Based on what you do today, an E5200 north of 3.5GHz would work well for the next year or two. Number one rule in PC computing: never overpaid to future-proof a rig.

Value = E5200
Performance = E8400
$ to burn and bragging right = Q8200

Unless the application is coded for quad core operation, the E5200 @ 3.5GHz would outperform the Q6600 @ 3.0GHz under normal use. Your chance of hitting +3.4GHz is very small with a used Q6600. Some newer quads are shutting down two cores so that the other two can run at higher speed!
 
Originally posted by: E4300
Look at the benchies. Q8200 did better with the Photoshop CS4. You're trying to rationalize the purchase of an ancient 65nm quad. That used Q6600 may not be able to break 3.0GHz if it has been abused. A better board would have better cooling at PWM and NB.

Based on what you do today, an E5200 north of 3.5GHz would work well for the next year or two. Number one rule in PC computing: never overpaid to future-proof a rig.

Value = E5200
Performance = E8400
$ to burn and bragging right = Q8200

Unless the application is coded for quad core operation, the E5200 @ 3.5GHz would outperform the Q6600 @ 3.0GHz under normal use. Your chance of hitting +3.4GHz is very small with a used Q6600. Some newer quads are shutting down two cores so that the other two can run at higher speed!
Click to expand...

The guy hasn't overclocked it so I don't think it's been that abused but I take your point. I'm pretty sure that I want to stick with a Quad because I expect more software/games to be written for it in the future (within the next 3+ years) because that's how long I'll probably keep it. Also because I will watercool I want whatever will last as long as possible, part of the reason I've still got a AMD 3000+ is because I haven't been bothered to take it all apart until now.
In my situation it's about $70 cheaper to go with the Q6600 and after googling a lot of 'Q8200 v Q6600' threads on various forums, the difference between them still seems marginal, other than the heat of course....but then if i want to keep it that long, $70 isn't that much overall....my brain is about to implode.

Thanks again for your helpful reply. 🙂
 
I've heard stories from IP35-E owners about running heavily overclocked Q6600 quads for a long time damages the VRM section of the motherboard. The IP35-E just wasn't designed for that kind of abuse. It really shines with dual-cores, and you could probably get away with running an overclocked 45nm quad (but be careful of the stepping, only certain ones are supported since there are no more BIOS updates from Abit), but it wasn't designed for long-term usage with a 65nm quad-core.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I've heard stories from IP35-E owners about running heavily overclocked Q6600 quads for a long time damages the VRM section of the motherboard. The IP35-E just wasn't designed for that kind of abuse. It really shines with dual-cores, and you could probably get away with running an overclocked 45nm quad (but be careful of the stepping, only certain ones are supported since there are no more BIOS updates from Abit), but it wasn't designed for long-term usage with a 65nm quad-core.
Click to expand...
This.

If you go Q6600, figure your OC limit will be 3.0 - 3.2ghz without long term damage. The vdroop will be awful. The IP35-E is great with duals. You'll need Bios 18 beta for E0 stepping CPUs like the E8400 E0 but apparently you can't raise the NB voltage (vMCH) on this bios (you can, but it doesn't register), hence the true OCability of an E0 chip might be held back on this board. Plenty of bitching on the Abit forums about users with E8500s topping out at 3.9ghz b/c of this. Anyway, if you can find an open box Gigabyte EP45-UD3P/R, you'd be better off all around, IMO.
 
Thanks again for the replies. I'm starting to think I might just scrap the idea of upgrading until I have more money or my computer breaks. It seems to get more and more confusing and the ideal products cost more than I am willing to spend. I appreciate all the info everyone has provided.
 
I have both the P5K Premium (Q6600) and the IP35 Pro XE (Q9650). The Asus runs 8x400 and the Abit 9x450.

Either is a good choice. I do prefer the Abit though. Noticeably faster (quicker).

 
Originally posted by: Brodel
would a p5k premium or MSI P45 Neo3-FR be better than the abit?
Click to expand...

I think those would. But i never had any problems with overclocking Gigabyte. I sell them as bread and butter, i ship them overclocked and had never had any problems as some users wrote previously.

I Would recommend you stick to Gigabyte P45 for quad core overclocking. But i still thing purchasing and overclocking Q6600 is a dumb idea but that's me 🙂
 
E4300 said:
IP35-E here with Q8200 with M1 stepping...easy 485MHz FSB. Heat is not an issue (VTT 1.27, MCH 1.55). No POST with R0 Q8200 stepping. Also managed 525MHz FSB with E8400 C0 stepping. No data on E8400 E0 stepping. The Q6600 runs hot and will probably need active cooling on the MOSFET heatsink. You'll probably be better off with an E8400 @ 4.0GHz unless you have a program that will take full advantage of four cores simultaneously.
Click to expand...

You got a Q8200 M1 to 485FSB on an IP35-E? VTT 1.27, MCH 1.55? Isn't that kinda high for the MCH?

I've got a friend with an IP35-E that I built for him some years ago, and I've got an M1 Q8200 to drop in, but I want to make sure that it's truely an upgrade over an E5200 @ 3.625Ghz, which is pretty powerful in it's own right.
 
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