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

[johnnyjohnson]

Can anyone running this board with an e4500 tell me the default vcore the board selects? My default is 1.185V. That seems low to me. When I had an e2160 in there, the default vcore was 1.325V. Does the default vcore vary from individual chip to individual chip? or by processor family?

 

[hokiealumnus]

Are you using an aftermarket cooler? Sometimes their fan speeds are lower than the stock fan. Is the warning siren coming from abit EQ? If so, it's factory settings usually coincide with a stock HSF's normal speeds. You can change the range it is set to warn you at if you'd like. Or you can go get Speedfan (get the beta so it correctly records your core temperatures) and not worry about abit EQ's beeping!

FYI, it'll beep at you with higher-than-2.0Vdimm as well as that's the default. Just adjust the range to fit.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: johnnyjohnson
Does the default vcore vary from individual chip to individual chip? or by processor family?

of late abit has been having the BIOS set minimum Vcore based on the installed CPU's VID.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Serpent: One last question about the BT; does it matter which way I mount it, i.e. heatpipes vertical or horizontal? I was thinking of putting the heatpipes vertically, which would put the fins parallel with the bottom of my case, which in turn would have my rear exhaust fans pulling air through them. That would also allow more air going through it to hit my RAM than the other direction. Is that OK or is the other orientation preferred?

 

[dukpoki]

hope this isn't too off-topic but i've decided i need to reseat my cpu cooler (thermaltake v1) and was wondering if i can still use the leftover mx-2 thermal paste left in the syringe or do i need to reorder a new one? i'm thinking it should be good to go one more round but i'm afraid that once it's open the product life begins to fade rapidly. (for example: bagged cheese can only be used within 5-10 days after opening even though it won't expire til like next year) lol am i being paranoid?

 

[Tangman85]

Just to confirm, the Audio Drivers

Revision
2000 / XP / 2003 / 64bit

Supports WinXP 64Bit, yes?

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: dukpoki
hope this isn't too off-topic but i've decided i need to reseat my cpu cooler (thermaltake v1) and was wondering if i can still use the leftover mx-2 thermal paste left in the syringe or do i need to reorder a new one? i'm thinking it should be good to go one more round but i'm afraid that once it's open the product life begins to fade rapidly. (for example: bagged cheese can only be used within 5-10 days after opening even though it won't expire til like next year) lol am i being paranoid?

Yes

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: hokiealumnus
Serpent: One last question about the BT; does it matter which way I mount it, i.e. heatpipes vertical or horizontal? I was thinking of putting the heatpipes vertically, which would put the fins parallel with the bottom of my case, which in turn would have my rear exhaust fans pulling air through them. That would also allow more air going through it to hit my RAM than the other direction. Is that OK or is the other orientation preferred?

From what I have read, the heatpipes should be horizontal, otherwise gravity gets in the way. There was a particular person who was running very high temperatures with my particular cooler because he had it going verticle and once he moved it to horizontal, his temps dropped a good 6-7c. It was explained their by resident guru that it should be installed horizontally and for that matter, all heatpipes in that particular pattern.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: conlan
Interesting, I'm getting an CPU fan failure warning siren, and it's hooked up to the right connector and working perfectly. I double checked my temps, then just disabled the warning.

Anyone else getting this?

Siren will come on if the rpm drops below certain level (usually under 700 rpm). Best strategy is to disable rpm sensor in BIOS. You can set system to shut down if CPU temp exceeds a preset level.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: johnnyjohnson
Can anyone running this board with an e4500 tell me the default vcore the board selects? My default is 1.185V. That seems low to me. When I had an e2160 in there, the default vcore was 1.325V. Does the default vcore vary from individual chip to individual chip? or by processor family?

You probaby have C1E and EIST enabled. Vcore will drop to about 1.1 with core speed = 6 x FSB. Run Orthos and CPUz will show correct Vocre and CPU core speed.

Note that the default Vcore will vary slightly from CPU to CPU.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: hokiealumnus
Serpent: One last question about the BT; does it matter which way I mount it, i.e. heatpipes vertical or horizontal? I was thinking of putting the heatpipes vertically, which would put the fins parallel with the bottom of my case, which in turn would have my rear exhaust fans pulling air through them. That would also allow more air going through it to hit my RAM than the other direction. Is that OK or is the other orientation preferred?

You can only position the BT with the heat pipes pointing toward the back of the case. That's the best position to cool the NB and MOSFETs. The stock fan is good enough to cool the CPU, but not powerful enough to dramatically improve cooling at NB/MOSFET. You can switch to a medium speed 120 x 38 mm Panaflo, or bolt an 80 or 92 mm fan above the NB/RAMs region for additional cooling.

 

[Rockhammer]

Any one see this problem yet? My CPU core temp sensor is stuck at 17C. Same in BIOS and in Windows. Load, no load, doesn't matter. I suspect that the BIOS maybe be having trouble reporting negative temperatures (I run phase change cooling) and is just defaulting to 17C.

Also for anyone else reading this thread, this motherboard does NOT work with ClockGEN or Speedfan to adjust the CPU clock in windows. It uses the ICS 9LPR501HGLF clock generator chip which is not currently supported by either utility. According to a post on the the Speedfan website, they are working on.


Edit: Looks like setFSB supports this chip. I'll test tonight and post back. setFSB is here:

http://www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/

 

[SerpentRoyal]

http://forum.abit-usa.com/show...e9c93d2ae3907&t=128969

Speedfan should work.

Try 12 BIOS to see if you can resolve the temp.

 

[Rockhammer]

Thanks for the link. Looks like the beta version (4.34) of speedfan might work to adjust the clock. I'll let you know.

I tried the 11, 12 and beta bios. Bios version 11 reports a constant 1C, version 12 and the beta report a constant 17. I'm going to try cranking the vcore way up just to see if I can get the core temp above 1C to check for a response in the sensor.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

12 and 13 are suppose to mimic readings from coretemp. The use of Coretemp 0.95.4 should show the digital output directly from each CPU core.

 

[Rockhammer]

Well, using the beta bios, Coretemp 0.95.4 shows my temps as 100C/10C/11C it is the same at idle or under full Orthos load, lol.

The temperature on my evaporator (heatsink), as measured using a known-accurate themocouple is -60C.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

It appears that the on-board CPU digital thermal sensor is not equipped to display sub 10C.

 

[rodrigu3]

serpent, abit should hire you lol - great thread; great resource for IP35-E owners

going to be building my rig on thursday so I'll be referencing this heavily

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Hehehehhh...Abit should send me a top-of-the line Intel board for evaluation.

BTW, I've just included an active cooling solution @ the bottom of my 1st post. Works very well for quad CPUs. I used to run a low speed 80mm Panaflo to cool my RAMs. This new setup is a little noisier under Orthos...but NB, SB, RAMs, GPU, and MOSFETs stay cool under load.

Note that you'll still need very good front-to-back air flow to evacuate the expelled heat from the case.

 

[jonmcc33]

I want to thank Serpent for such thorough input on his experience with this motherboard. You've convinced me to purchase it. On it's way from NewEgg (sorry, I'm a dedicated customer) and should be here on Friday. I'm going to pair it with a C2D 6400 that I've had for a while and a pair of 1GB DDR2-667 DIMMs. I got the Thermalright LGA775 bracket adapter so I can carry over my XP-90 w/92mm ADDA fan.

I'll let you know on Friday how everything goes. I'm normally a strict Asus and DFI owner. This is my first Abit board.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33
I want to thank Serpent for such thorough input on his experience with this motherboard. You've convinced me to purchase it. On it's way from NewEgg (sorry, I'm a dedicated customer) and should be here on Friday. I'm going to pair it with a C2D 6400 that I've had for a while and a pair of 1GB DDR2-667 DIMMs. I got the Thermalright LGA775 bracket adapter so I can carry over my XP-90 w/92mm ADDA fan.

I'll let you know on Friday how everything goes. I'm normally a strict Asus and DFI owner. This is my first Abit board.

You saved $1. Don't forget the $5 PriceGrabber review bonus.

Note that you may not be able to push an 8x multi CPU much above 3.2GHz with 333MHz RAM.

A lot of complaints about IP35-E revolve around the use of non-JEDEC overclocking RAMs. Folks buy dirt cheap OCZ RAMs rated at 2.1-2.2V and wonder why the board will not post with JEDEC 1.8V default setting. Another potential pitfall is the use of some high-end Antec PSUs with esoteric start up/shut down circuit. The only reliable documented failure mode that I'm aware of is the occasional bad solder joints at the SATA connectors.

Follow my guide near the bottom of my 1st post. Turn off power from the wall. Reset CMOS and you should be good to go.

 

[aiya24]

for those of you with quads, what is your vdroop like? idle and load. thanks.

also, much thanks to Serpent for making a great thread on a great board :thumbsup: :beer:.

 

[Gramps]

So far so good. I got my E2140 installed into the IP35-e with heatsink/fan. Installed the 2GB of HP DDR2-PC5300 RAM. Plugged up a floppy and HDD, and connected the power supply. No on-board video, so I had to wait for a PCIe graphics card. Once I got that,, I was ready to go before installing in a box. The longest part was deciphering how to turn on the motherboard. I kept looking for a switch on the motherboard rather than shorting the power pins. Just inexperience. Anyway, I shorted the pins and viola! Let there be light.

Since I wasn't ready to do anything else yet (install OS, etc.) I just poked around the BIOS to get to know it a little. What the heck, I'll try a little overclocking. Granted, I have no idea what I'm doing. I've read a bit about it, but I've never overclocked a CPU, graphics card or anything else. I normally buy stuff, install it, and move on. So I put 278 in for FSB, save BIOS, reboot, and wait for smoke. Pentium E2140 1.60Ghz running at 2.2Ghz. Hmm. A stock E6420 runs at 2.13Ghz and costs almost $200 at newegg. Surely I'm reading this wrong. I look at the memory and notice it isn't showing DDR2-667, so I change the memory divider to 1:1.20 to get it there. DDR2-667 shows up. However, my CPU temp is showing 40C and I've had entirely too much excitement for one day, so I set everything back to factory and turn it off. Still, my first overclock. And nothing blew up (I don't think).

As I've done more reading around, I've seen I'd probably have been better off with the E2160 since it's only $10 more and has the x9 multiplier (versus x8 for the E2140). Lesson learned. On the other hand, it's difficult for me to be disappointed in running a 1.6Ghz processor at 2.2Ghz with the realization that I'll probably be able to go at least a bit above that. We're talking 40% speed increase (in terms of Ghz) with a few minutes of effort. This setup will do everything I need it to, and do it well.

I think I may have fat-fingered the cooling fan installation a bit. When I turn on the computer, it reads 30C, but just letting it sit on the PC Health Status page in the BIOS, my temps have gradually gone up to 37C within the last 10 minutes. I read somewhere temps should be about 30C when the chip isn't doing anything. I'm going to let it run for a bit and see what happens. I've also read that the chip is fine up to 65-70C, so it appears that while I'm running a bit hot (again, this is sitting in the cardboard box), I'm not in any danger areas.

 

[hokiealumnus]

40c shouldn't be a problem at all. To see what others are getting with E2xxx CPUs, check this thread out.

After you see that, go read, read and read some more. Your overclock is fine and intuitive, but it's always best to be an informed overclocker.

Since you haven't installed the OS yet, it's strongly recommended you do NOT install the OS while overclocked. Rules out any potential stability issues.

Also, if you feel up to it, upgrade to the newest BIOS, either the official v.12 release or v.13 beta. Do so from a DOS environment though...some people swear by windows flashing but it's too risky for my tastes.

Also, make sure you're not confusing temperatures, which it seems like you may be. There are two types of sensors on your chip, one that's ok up to 60c (Tcase) and another that's ok up to 75c (Tjunction). There is an excellent explanation of temps I'd recommend over a Tom's Hardware. Highly recommended reading.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: aiya24
for those of you with quads, what is your vdroop like? idle and load. thanks.

also, much thanks to Serpent for making a great thread on a great board :thumbsup: :beer:.

About 0.08 to 0.10V under Orthos Large/Prime95 load. Run C1E and EIST. These will automatically reduce Vcore and core speed when PC is idling. At load, your CPU will only see the load voltage, and not the voltage set in BIOS.