Abit IP35 Pro - It's a wreck.

[RyanW2050]

I'm assembling my new mahcine today and i've had a lot of problems, a lot more than I encountered with my last build at least. (EPOX ep9-npa with a 3500)


First, i was plugging in the ATA cord to my motherboard. As it turns out, the cable plug (came with mobo) was defective and had a lot of plastic scrap in two of the pin-holes. This resulted in jamming 2 pins on the motherboard in. I pulled them back out with needle nose pliers. They are pretty lose now.

Second, there's only 1 ATA port. I was hoping i would be able to use my CDROM and old ATA HDD at the same time. This is my fault for not checking specs, but it was unexpected.

Third, I have everything running now, and the Realtec HD audio is terrible. Horrible terrible. I installed the driver that came with the motherboard and not only is the sound quality abysmal, there's a constant, fluctuating static interference on the output.


If a driver update doesn't clear that up i'm gonna have to RMA this sucker.

 

[RyanW2050]

I just updated to the drivers from the realtek site. There's still a super-annoying electronic interference sound from any of the motherboard audioports i plug into. I can completely mute the volume and it still makes this noise. It also fluctuates depending on what my computer is doing at the time. (hovering links, processor activity, screen scroll)


I guess i order a replacement now. Any suggestions?

E6750
8800GT
2x2g DDR2 800
FSP 450W


I don't need SLI.

 

[bendixG15]

Try diferent speakers.

 

[Hop]

Originally posted by: RyanW2050
I just updated to the drivers from the realtek site. There's still a super-annoying electronic interference sound from any of the motherboard audioports i plug into. I can completely mute the volume and it still makes this noise. It also fluctuates depending on what my computer is doing at the time. (hovering links, processor activity, screen scroll)


I guess i order a replacement now. Any suggestions?

E6750
8800GT
2x2g DDR2 800
FSP 450W


I don't need SLI.

Hmm. I haven't noticed any of that as far as analog with my Altec Lansing ACS56. I haven't tried the SPDIF yet. I DO notice electronic background interference when I plug my Sennheiser HD280 Pro into the front audio panel of my Antec 900, but then I get that with my laptop also. I read somewhere that my Sennheiser's are prone to interference from nearby bluetooth and other wireless signals. I haven't tried the rear connection yet. As far as audio quality, It's pretty quiet cranked up high, and I hate that really because when I play something, forgetting the volume I had set the night before while watching a movie, intoxicated, I get blasted out of my chair.

Hop

EDIT: I'm thinking of picking up my Les Paul and my Strat again for the first time in a few years, and will be doing some audio recording on my Linux rig that will be using the Abit IP35 Pro. Many a thread I have read are about people using M-Audio hardware, so I guess I won't really be worrying about what the IP35 Pro on-board audio can do.

 

[rgallant]

Try checking ,Control>sounds and audio,to see if thats ok, one time using onboard audio Windows would hang during a shut down ,as the windows default sounds was blank from the Realtic drivers(windows couldn't play the sound so it would hang)WTF, I put A X-FI card in and never had a problem after that

 

[RyanW2050]

Well I RMA'd it and bought a Gigabyte P35 board. It seems to be mostly the rear ports that are messed up, the front port i have doesn't make the sound nearly as loud.

 

[Hop]

Originally posted by: RyanW2050
Well I RMA'd it and bought a Gigabyte P35 board. It seems to be mostly the rear ports that are messed up, the front port i have doesn't make the sound nearly as loud.

Does that mean you are having the same audio problem with the Gigabyte P35 board? Just a thought... are your speakers powered off the same outlet/UPS that your machine is? I had a problem once with a sound blaster audigy with a break out that would hum and have a lot of interference when I tried to route audio from my cable box. SPDIF use fixed it, but there was a tiny delay, probably the quality of the SPDIF cable I used. So I read a lot about ground loops (wikipedia) and I used a ground loop isolation transformer to try to fix it, but it didn't completely eliminate the issue.

Just a thought.

Hop

 

[RyanW2050]

Yes, it's the board. I use these headphones in other devices like iPods all the time and they work fine.

New boards here!

 

[JackMDS]

In my case I started with Gigabyte P35 RMA it and got Abit IP35-E

The truth is the P35 chipset is ?Kinky?.

We (including myself) are taken by it because together with current Intel line it is a wonderful OverClocker.

I have an E2180 running over 3GHz on IP-35-E by just changing the FSB.
However, in truth, on all other aspects, I do not like the Mobo.

 

[Andvari]

I'll be getting a Giga P35-DS3R shortly. Hopefully I won't have any problems with the onboard audio, as I hope to avoid having to buy a soundcard. *crossed fingers*

 

[Hop]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
In my case I started with Gigabyte P35 RMA it and got Abit IP35-E

The truth is the P35 chipset is ?Kinky?.

We (including myself) are taken by it because together with current Intel line it is a wonderful OverClocker.

I have an E2180 running over 3GHz on IP-35-E by just changing the FSB.
However, in truth, on all other aspects, I do not like the Mobo.

I did the E4500 Allendale, not the E2180. The E4500 is at 2.2GHz stock, not 2GHz, same L2 cache, so is the E4500 better? They both have the same 11x multiplier. I'm having a hard time seeing any difference in these CPU's. =\ Outside of the stock clock speed that is.

EDIT: AH, E4500 2MB L2 Cache, not 1MB. Must be cost, ah, OK. $130 verses $88.

Was wondering because I want to overclock this to 2.8 or 2.9GHz this weekend.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Andvari, I heard the gigabyte DS3R sound is much better than the DS3L.

 

[Hop]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
In my case I started with Gigabyte P35 RMA it and got Abit IP35-E

The truth is the P35 chipset is ?Kinky?.

We (including myself) are taken by it because together with current Intel line it is a wonderful OverClocker.

I have an E2180 running over 3GHz on IP-35-E by just changing the FSB.
However, in truth, on all other aspects, I do not like the Mobo.

Curious as to what you don't like about the IP35-E. I have the Pro, my son has the standard IP35. He already wants to overclock (ordered a Zalman 9700 to accommodate). Also, why the E2180 verses the E4500? Cost? I can understand the <$50 increase but I read 2mb verses 1mb makes a big difference. Am I wrong? Is the extra 1mb cache that important? One of the reasons I picked the E4500. Almost went after the 4mb L2 Cache CPU's, but the 7x multiplier held me back. Didn't want to push my Tracers too hard with the FSB to get over 3ghz.

 

[OdiN]

You can run a CD-ROM and a Hard Drive with one IDE port.

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: OdiN
You can run a CD-ROM and a Hard Drive with one IDE port.

Do ya think he found one with two?

 

[JackMDS]

I put to the E2180 since the E4500 additional cache provides No improvement what so ever to the type of work that I do with the computer (in matter of fact I doubt that it adds anything to 95% of people here).

It is Not a lot of money between the two, but I spend too much money playing with Hardware so any $$ counts.

For the $50 that I saved I got myself a nice Jumbo Frames Giga Switch.

In any case if the mobo is used in a static situation. I.e. with SATA drives and hardware configuration that does not change, then it usually stays stables. Unfortunately I need to use it in a different way.

As for Over clocking read this thread, http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2063989&enterthread=y

 

[mizzou]

Originally posted by: RyanW2050
I'm assembling my new mahcine today and i've had a lot of problems, a lot more than I encountered with my last build at least. (EPOX ep9-npa with a 3500)


First, i was plugging in the ATA cord to my motherboard. As it turns out, the cable plug (came with mobo) was defective and had a lot of plastic scrap in two of the pin-holes. This resulted in jamming 2 pins on the motherboard in. I pulled them back out with needle nose pliers. They are pretty lose now.

Second, there's only 1 ATA port. I was hoping i would be able to use my CDROM and old ATA HDD at the same time. This is my fault for not checking specs, but it was unexpected.

Third, I have everything running now, and the Realtec HD audio is terrible. Horrible terrible. I installed the driver that came with the motherboard and not only is the sound quality abysmal, there's a constant, fluctuating static interference on the output.


If a driver update doesn't clear that up i'm gonna have to RMA this sucker.

Doesn't your CDROM use an IDE interface?
IF you mean IDE, you can hook up one or the other in a master/slave combo. I just had to do this with my new build because of the exact same dillema.

 

[RyanW2050]

Originally posted by: OdiN
You can run a CD-ROM and a Hard Drive with one IDE port.

I honestly had no idea until i learned it today while installing the new board. This is the second machine i've built and my old (EPOX EP9-NPA+ULTRA) had two ports. I used them.



In other news, my Gigabyte board is now installed and it works great.

I have only two complaints:

The USB keyboard recognition is disabled by default. Luckily I had a USB > PS/2 connector to dig up.

The XP driver install disk tries to install Yahoo! toolbar with the hardware drivers. WTF gigabyte...

 

[Hop]

Originally posted by: RyanW2050

Originally posted by: OdiN
You can run a CD-ROM and a Hard Drive with one IDE port.

I honestly had no idea until i learned it today while installing the new board. This is the second machine i've built and my old (EPOX EP9-NPA+ULTRA) had two ports. I used them.



In other news, my Gigabyte board is now installed and it works great.

I have only two complaints:

The USB keyboard recognition is disabled by default. Luckily I had a USB > PS/2 connector to dig up.

The XP driver install disk tries to install Yahoo! toolbar with the hardware drivers. WTF gigabyte...

LOL, really? These search engine sponserships must be large as of late. I installed IrfanView on my new installs, a program I've used for years, and it tried to install a bunch of google apps. I'm glad I was watching because normally I just plow through the NEXT and OK buttons. Never seen that with Irfanview before. =

USB Keyboards, I think I had that issue with the biostars combos I bought. With my G15 Logitech, it worked with my Abit, but Logitech decided that the lighted keys were enough, so they didn't print any white lettering on the keys. Unfortunately, the keys don't light up until Windows is running. A couple of high-output LED spotlights fixed that.

Glad your new mobo is working great.

Hop

 

[RyanW2050]

Well, the Realtek HD Audio started fucking with me again on the NEW board.

Whenever i select Headphone as the device I plugged in, (which it is), I lose a lot of bass and i get the interference in the background again. If I uninstall the drivers and let Windows configure it, it sounds fine, but i can't use the front port and the volume doesn't go too high.


I would much rather have AC'97 at this point.