Abit IP35-E Review (500MHz FSB board)...$90 @ NewEgg + $6.61 ship

[Sylvanas]

Well I needed a new mobo since my P5N-E kinda....died lol (Bios failure not OC), and after seeing this thread here I thought I'd get the IP35-E . It should be arriving monday and I will be putting it on watercooling when that arrives in probably 1-2 weeks. What is the preferable method of flashing the BIOS should I need to? I dont have a floppy drive anymore, I am thinking along the lines of a USB , bootable CD or even perhaps a windows based program that actually works?

 

[hokiealumnus]

I've heard of people using a USB flash drive to flash their BIOS (check out the abit forums ... http://forums.abit-usa.com for advice on how to do so). I use a floppy...they can be had for $5-10 even @ retail stores. Not sure if a CD will work.

A windows-based flash program will come with your board. It is HIGHLY recommended, per abit, that you not flash from windows. Do it from a dos environment.

FYI, the latest official BIOS is v. 12. They also have Beta v. 13, see the forum thread about fixing double-post.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: hokiealumnus
Serpent, I may be lucky or something, but I've never had trouble booting into bios @ 1.8 to change the Vdimm. Once I had to take one of the sticks out.

Since that once, which was one of the first boots after building it, despite numerous O/C settings attempts (with resulting CMOS clearings ) and four total BIOS flashes (11 to beta 13 to 12 to beta 13 back to 12 (don't ask)), I've always gotten into the BIOS.

And now it's running at 450MHz @ 2.0v (granted @ 5-5-5-15-2T timing).

You know your stuff, don't get me wrong and think I'm trying to 'correct' ANYTHING you say, just putting out there that the two sticks of 1G OCZ Platinum Rev.2 PC-6400 that I have are doing quite well for themselves.

-----

In case anyone's interested, I've gotten great results with my setup. It looks similar to the last one I posted but I made a total novice mistake. I put the multi at 9x WITHOUT turning off C1E & EIST! Oops...reflashed BIOS (at the suggestion of Master of None on the abit boards) to make sure that problem was definitely taken care of. FOLLOW SERPENT'S ADVICE...C1E and EIST should ONLY be enabled if you use the default multi! Learned the hard way.

NOW, I've got THIS system (see sig below) running at THIS speed...and it's rock solid after hours of gaming, Orthos testing, Sandra benchmarking and two runs of PCMark05.

If anyone wants to try it with a similar system, BIOS settings are:

300Mhz FSB
10x CPU Multi
1:1.5 CPU : DRAM ratio
1.345Vcore
2.05Vdimm (actual running voltage = 2.0)
5-5-5-15-2T timings
(Everything else is default...except turning off the flash screen and putting HDD as the first boot device)

Woot! This is as far as I'm willing to take the temps (JUST under 70C) on stock CPU cooling, a two-fan PSU and four case fans. Couldn't be happier though, 50% CPU & FSB O/C and 900Mhz DDR2!

Thank you Serpent for all your work on this thread. Definitely could not have obtained this without your helpful and accurate advice & guidance.

THIS BOARD IS AWESOME!

You could probably hit 3.2GHz with a better CPU cooler and 1.425Vcore. Be sure to use 1:1 memory divider when you increase the FSB. This will take the memory out of the overclock equation.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Well I needed a new mobo since my P5N-E kinda....died lol (Bios failure not OC), and after seeing this thread here I thought I'd get the IP35-E . It should be arriving monday and I will be putting it on watercooling when that arrives in probably 1-2 weeks. What is the preferable method of flashing the BIOS should I need to? I dont have a floppy drive anymore, I am thinking along the lines of a USB , bootable CD or even perhaps a windows based program that actually works?

The stock 11 BIOS works very well. Install windows and make sure PC is okay. There's an Abit utility to flash BIOS from windows. Clear CMOS first and be sure that your RAM is memtest stable. Shutdown AV, Firewall, spyware, etc before flashing. 12 BIOS has more RAM adjustments. 13 Beta BIOS eliminates double post as long as you don't turn-off the PSU (standby power ON).

It's always best to use floppy. A $5 must-have investment if you're serious about this hobby.

 

[WEW]

Will those work well on the Abit IP35-E?

This is the RAM I have right now:

PNY Ram

and

Kingston Ram

Will the RAM I have work fine? Or should I buy the Ballistic sticks?

Thanks!

Originally posted by: conlan

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
It's cheap insurance if you have OCZ stuffs. These modules should be able to hit 400MHz at 2.0V/4-4-4-12-2T timing.

I was going to order the Crucial Ballistix and the above to CYA.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: WEW
Will those work well on the Abit IP35-E?

This is the RAM I have right now:

PNY Ram

and

Kingston Ram

Will the RAM I have work fine? Or should I buy the Ballistic sticks?

Thanks!

Originally posted by: conlan

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
It's cheap insurance if you have OCZ stuffs. These modules should be able to hit 400MHz at 2.0V/4-4-4-12-2T timing.

I was going to order the Crucial Ballistix and the above to CYA.

Get Crucial B.

The Kingston sticks should boot with IP35-E. That cheaper Kingston is NOT "N5". I have no experience with PNY. Most of the PNY stuffs that I've come across are sub-par.

 

[conlan]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal

Originally posted by: WEW
Will those work well on the Abit IP35-E?

This is the RAM I have right now:

PNY Ram

and

Kingston Ram

Will the RAM I have work fine? Or should I buy the Ballistic sticks?

Thanks!

Originally posted by: conlan

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
It's cheap insurance if you have OCZ stuffs. These modules should be able to hit 400MHz at 2.0V/4-4-4-12-2T timing.

I was going to order the Crucial Ballistix and the above to CYA.

Get Crucial B.

The Kingston sticks should boot with IP35-E. That cheaper Kingston is NOT "N5". I have no experience with PNY. Most of the PNY stuffs that I've come across are sub-par.

Manufacture Part#KVR667D2 N5/512

Am i missing something? The "N5" is in the part#, or is that something else?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: conlan

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal

Originally posted by: WEW
Will those work well on the Abit IP35-E?

This is the RAM I have right now:

PNY Ram

and

Kingston Ram

Will the RAM I have work fine? Or should I buy the Ballistic sticks?

Thanks!

Originally posted by: conlan

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
It's cheap insurance if you have OCZ stuffs. These modules should be able to hit 400MHz at 2.0V/4-4-4-12-2T timing.

I was going to order the Crucial Ballistix and the above to CYA.

Get Crucial B.

The Kingston sticks should boot with IP35-E. That cheaper Kingston is NOT "N5". I have no experience with PNY. Most of the PNY stuffs that I've come across are sub-par.

Manufacture Part#KVR667D2 N5/512

Am i missing something? The "N5" is in the part#, or is that something else?

Was alluding to these cheap ValueRAMs...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820134384

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Crucial B DDR2 800. $55 AR at Frys.com. Free shipping. Should boot with IP35-E at default 1.8Vdimm. These overclocking modules come very close to JEDEC standard and should work with many P35 boards.

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5375608

 

[rbk123]

Ok, thanks to Serpent's tireless efforts in this thread and jjim's "best overclock ever" thread, I too purchase an IP35-E along with a 2140. I've got it running at 3Ghz on stock volts, and my temps seem plenty cool: idle 23C (not factoring in the Coretemp offset) and full Orthos at 43C. I have some questions but a couple of observations:

- it doesn't boot into windows as fast as my DFI Infinity UltraII with a X2 3600 oc'd to 2.85G. Aside from the double boot, the part that takes the longest is when the "Windows XP" logo pops up and the blue bar scrolls from left to right. I count 3 scrolls of the blue bar for the XP machine and 9 for the IP35-E.
- once in Windows they both are *very* fast, but for surfing and stuff it feels like the 2140 is a hair faster. No benchmarks yet, that will be coming up.
- something about CoreTemp causes the IP35E machine to crash every so often when I launch it. Anybody else ever encounter this?

 

[rbk123]

Now for my questions on the IP35-E

- I didn't realize this didn't have a parallel port. I print on a couple of HP Laserjet 4's I have - is there some kind of USB to parallel adapter I could get? I'd like to use the IP35 as my main machine but not if I can't print from it.

- For the fan settings in the bios, do I just set the CPU fan settings and leave the System fan settings off?

- If I want a low speed of 70% and a high speed of 100%, does that mean I set the following:
FanEQ Start Control = 100%
FanEQ Stop Control = 70%

 

[Heidfirst]

yes, you can get something like http://www.scan.co.uk/Products...sp?WebProductID=430007 or a PCI parallel port card.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Slow boot can be an indication that you have insufficient overclock settings for CPU and RAM. Normal restart takes 22 seconds (no double post). Add 13 seconds for the "double post". It takes 36 seconds from the time I hit the power switch to the first appearance of the desktop. This is with a 4 year old WD 80 GB 7200 rpm HDD. Beta BIOS 13 eliminites the DOUBLE POST as long as you don't kill standby power to the PSU by disconnecting PSU from the AC outlet. Dowload link at my 1st post. You may also have other USB and/or PCI/PCI-E devices (not including mouse and keyboard) waiting for initialization (delay at the WXP logo screen to load drivers). You should clear CMOS and remove all devices from the MB except for mouse, keyboard, one optical drive, and one HDD (bare boot). Use a stopwatch to document progress of boot and repost.

To test RAM, run memtest86, test#5 for 50 loops. To test CPU, run Orthos Large mode for 1 hour.

There's an issue with Coretemp. I use S&M 1.90. It displays core temperature (within +/-0.5C of Coretemp).

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: rbk123
Now for my questions on the IP35-E

- I didn't realize this didn't have a parallel port. I print on a couple of HP Laserjet 4's I have - is there some kind of USB to parallel adapter I could get? I'd like to use the IP35 as my main machine but not if I can't print from it.

- For the fan settings in the bios, do I just set the CPU fan settings and leave the System fan settings off?

- If I want a low speed of 70% and a high speed of 100%, does that mean I set the following:
FanEQ Start Control = 100%
FanEQ Stop Control = 70%

IP35-E can automatically adjust the fan speed based on CPU temperature if the fan is connected to the FAN or SYSTEM header. You need to turn ON SYSTEM fan header if you have a fan connected to this header and set reference to CPU. If you have a 4-pin fan connected to the fan header, then set speed control to 4-pin. For 2-pin and 3-pin fans, set speed control to 3-pin support.

If the temperature is below preset temp, then fan will run at 70% speed. If the temperature is above preset temp, then fan will run at 100% speed. Note that you also can adjust the hysterisis (5C default). 40-45C is the recommended set-point for the CPU.

 

[rbk123]

Um, let me clarify what I said: the Abit isn't slow booting, the Abit is *slower* than the DFI board, with the biggest difference being in the location I mentioned.

Thanks for the pointer to S&M 1.90



Heidfirst - thanks for the pointer to the cable converter.

 

[rbk123]

Serpent - one other question: where in the Bios is the keyboard/mouse setting to BIOS instead of OS? I can't seem to find that.

 

[aiya24]

Originally posted by: rbk123
Serpent - one other question: where in the Bios is the keyboard/mouse setting to BIOS instead of OS? I can't seem to find that.

integrated peripherals > onchip pci device > usb device setting

pages 2-10 - 2-12 in the manual.

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
Crucial B DDR2 800. $55 AR at Frys.com. Free shipping. Should boot with IP35-E at default 1.8Vdimm. These overclocking modules come very close to JEDEC standard and should work with many P35 boards.

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5375608

I don't understand ram timings & speed.
Does all DDR2 800 run @ CAS 5 AND 2.2V?
How would one know he's purchasing DDR2 800 & not overclocked DDR2 667 ram?
(Yeah...I know...this belongs in the memory forum, but since we're talking about it. BTW, this question is in the memory forum! hehehe)

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: rbk123
Serpent - one other question: where in the Bios is the keyboard/mouse setting to BIOS instead of OS? I can't seem to find that.

Page 2-12

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Tullphan

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
Crucial B DDR2 800. $55 AR at Frys.com. Free shipping. Should boot with IP35-E at default 1.8Vdimm. These overclocking modules come very close to JEDEC standard and should work with many P35 boards.

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5375608

I don't understand ram timings & speed.
Does all DDR2 800 run @ CAS 5 AND 2.2V?
How would one know he's purchasing DDR2 800 & not overclocked DDR2 667 ram?
(Yeah...I know...this belongs in the memory forum, but since we're talking about it. BTW, this question is in the memory forum! hehehe)

JEDEC's standard is 1.8V for DDR2 667 or 800. Timing can be anything but usually 4-4-4-12 or 5-5-5-15. There's no JEDEC ram above 800. Quality RAM will show 1.8V at DDR2 667 or 800 if it conforms to JEDEC standard.

 

[Tullphan]

So if it's advertised as being DDR2 800, but 5-5-5-15 @ 2.2V, then it's overclocked DDR2 667?

 

[mikell]

Thanks to SerpentRoyal and all the good info in this thread i got a ip35e and am very happy with the results. Now i would like to know if anyone has tried the 'Wake Up by LAN'. Its enabled in the Power Manage. section but i have had no luck getting it to work (BIOS 11).

 

[funks]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
Lock-wire a small fan to the NB and put that fan under the control of the Zalman Fanmate 2. I don't see the need for additional cooling if the case has adequate air flow.

Got a pic on the surgery required? how much material did you have to remove?

 

[imported_BS]

Well I just picked up this board due to a bad flash I had on my Biostar P965PT on friday, Believe me I was so happy when windows locked up at mid flash. End of Bios. So was looking for a good cheap board and this one looks to be it after the rebate from Mwave. That will be the last flash I ever do from windows. In all my years that was the first failed flash I have ever encountered.

 

[DAC21]

SerpentRoyal


What after market HSF fans fit the IP35E? Preferrably in the $30 - 35 range. I have a AC 7 Pro, but I guess it's a challege to get it on this board. I'm looking for a stable 3.0 - 3.2 ghz with a E4500