My Abit IP35 -Pro Bearlake Review

[bka4u2c]

Originally posted by: amking
so is there any way to shut off the bright red led by the main power connector on the ip35 pro? i havent finished the build yet (os install/etc), but that and the post reporter deal are pretty bright... maybe i'm just not used to having them.

I don't believe there is any way to turn them off, but if they bother you that much maybe a tiny piece of electrical tape over the light will help.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

From what I'm hearing, they (meaning Abit) screwed with the NB latency in their BIOS. So high speed memory configs are not stable since the NB is running tighter latency. I guess if they had left it alone the end user could adjust memory timings and speeds more freely.

However, over at XS there are people running DDR2-1111+ on this board and it's solid. What did they do? I wish I knew...likely they have some high voltage on their memory and NB.

Anyway I'm not sure how much difference there is between memory bandwidth and latency on this board vs others. That's what we're waiting for you on 😀

edit: have you tried the older official release BIOS 11? If not, maybe give that a shot just to see if the B12 was tweaked too much.

The B12 that we worked with abit engineering on was suppose to cure the 4GB ills of B11. 😉 I can run up to DDR2-1333 on this board with 2GB, the problem is 4x1GB or 2x2GB kits, they are just not stable under Vista 64 at various straps and timings. Anything over DDR2-1000 is a crap shoot at this point. I finally got DDR2-1063 dialed in (425FSB) but have to run 2.4V on the memory, anything less will lock the board under 3D06/Q4 as an example, same settings on the other boards results in 24/7 stable condition at 2.2V. I have spoken with several hardcore abit users, they are all experiencing the same issue. I had a few of the latest DDR2 modules show up yesterday and everyone of them had a problem.

Abit IP35-E with four sticks of DDR2 800 Kingston "N5" ValueRAM. WXP Pro SP1 with 3GB of total physical memory. 2.1Vdimm, 5-5-5-18-2T and 1:1.50 memory divider with E4300 (200MHz default FSB). RAM is Orthos stable up to 542MHz. Could probably hit DDR2 1100 with a little more Vdimm.

Ambient = 85F.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal

Originally posted by: Beatnik

Bit-Tech had a comparison on P35 boards, and noticed this shortcoming.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardwa.../07/12/abit_ip35_pro/7

As for my application, I'm looking at boxes like this:
http://www.m-audio.com/images/...s/big/profire_cout.jpg
http://www.m-audio.com/product...eLightbridge-main.html

1394a is supposedly 400Mbps, half-duplex. For this application, it looks like you need at least 32-channels input, 16-bit, 44.1KHz, = 22,579,200bps. I believe you can do this at 24-bit also. So that gets you input of at least: 33,868,800bps. Simiarly, if you wanted to do 16-channels of 24-bit, 96KHz, you would have input of: 36,864,000bps. Shouldn't be a problem, theoretically, but I have seen other bus cards fail below theoretical limits, so this issue doesn't make me feel too confident in using the builtin firewire on this motherboard for this application.

If we have 400Mbps to work with, and it is 80% efficient, that is 320Mbps data. It looks like Abit got 141Mbps in the bit-tech read test. So...

This has been reported to Abit, and as of yet, nobody has indicated that the issue has been addressed. If someone with the latest bios can do an HDTACH read test, that might provide some more light on this topic.

You can run as many test as you wish, but you'll come up with similar number...~approximately 15MB/s with 1394. USB 2.0 is fine at 30MB/s.

Could be a problem related to whatever controller they use rather than BIOS.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Latest stable settings for me. vcore set to 1.465 in BIOS which drops to 1.43 at windows and 1.41 at load.

CPU-Z v1.40.8 beta gives an accurate vcore and shows command rate. Older versions did not.

http://img394.imageshack.us/im.../5493/untitled1mp9.jpg

 

[Heidfirst]

supposedly a new Beta BIOS addresses the firewire problem

 

[amking]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
Latest stable settings for me. vcore set to 1.465 in BIOS which drops to 1.43 at windows and 1.41 at load.

CPU-Z v1.40.8 beta gives an accurate vcore and shows command rate. Older versions did not.

http://img394.imageshack.us/im.../5493/untitled1mp9.jpg

i'm just curious.. what would you guys say is about the cut off level (fsb/vcore/etc) for overclocking on the ip35 pro where it really starts to shorten the life of the board a lot? originally i was only planning on running my 6850 around 400 fsb (where it is now) due to the desire to not stress the components a whole lot and minimize heat/noise, but i see results like yours and wonder if i should just bump the fsb up more 😱

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: amking

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
Latest stable settings for me. vcore set to 1.465 in BIOS which drops to 1.43 at windows and 1.41 at load.

CPU-Z v1.40.8 beta gives an accurate vcore and shows command rate. Older versions did not.

http://img394.imageshack.us/im.../5493/untitled1mp9.jpg

i'm just curious.. what would you guys say is about the cut off level (fsb/vcore/etc) for overclocking on the ip35 pro where it really starts to shorten the life of the board a lot? originally i was only planning on running my 6850 around 400 fsb (where it is now) due to the desire to not stress the components a whole lot and minimize heat/noise, but i see results like yours and wonder if i should just bump the fsb up more 😱

No limit at all as long as you keep an eye on your voltages and heat. Don't let either go too far.

 

[Gary Key]

New Beta - B12.02 BETA

4GB memory capability improved (still testing), general chipset latency tweaks, and a few other minor changes such as Firewire transfer speeds being improved, use at your own risk.

 

[Gary Key]

Abit IP35-E with four sticks of DDR2 800 Kingston "N5" ValueRAM. WXP Pro SP1 with 3GB of total physical memory. 2.1Vdimm, 5-5-5-18-2T and 1:1.50 memory divider with E4300 (200MHz default FSB). RAM is Orthos stable up to 542MHz. Could probably hit DDR2 1100 with a little more Vdimm.

Ambient = 85F.

I get better results with the E board than I do with the Pro when it comes to overclocking with 4GB. The new Beta seems to have improved this problem in early testing but I am not comfortable with it yet.

 

[amking]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: amking

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
Latest stable settings for me. vcore set to 1.465 in BIOS which drops to 1.43 at windows and 1.41 at load.

CPU-Z v1.40.8 beta gives an accurate vcore and shows command rate. Older versions did not.

http://img394.imageshack.us/im.../5493/untitled1mp9.jpg

i'm just curious.. what would you guys say is about the cut off level (fsb/vcore/etc) for overclocking on the ip35 pro where it really starts to shorten the life of the board a lot? originally i was only planning on running my 6850 around 400 fsb (where it is now) due to the desire to not stress the components a whole lot and minimize heat/noise, but i see results like yours and wonder if i should just bump the fsb up more 😱

No limit at all as long as you keep an eye on your voltages and heat. Don't let either go too far.

so what would you say too far is? i'll start increasing the fsb (and then the voltages) a little more later today when i get home and report back with some idle/load temps etc.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Abit IP35-E with four sticks of DDR2 800 Kingston "N5" ValueRAM. WXP Pro SP1 with 3GB of total physical memory. 2.1Vdimm, 5-5-5-18-2T and 1:1.50 memory divider with E4300 (200MHz default FSB). RAM is Orthos stable up to 542MHz. Could probably hit DDR2 1100 with a little more Vdimm.

Ambient = 85F.

I get better results with the E board than I do with the Pro when it comes to overclocking with 4GB. The new Beta seems to have improved this problem in early testing but I am not comfortable with it yet.

Hmmm...glad you made this observation. I also have BIOS issues with the IP35 Pro. Only major bug is that silly double post.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Abit IP35-E with four sticks of DDR2 800 Kingston "N5" ValueRAM. WXP Pro SP1 with 3GB of total physical memory. 2.1Vdimm, 5-5-5-18-2T and 1:1.50 memory divider with E4300 (200MHz default FSB). RAM is Orthos stable up to 542MHz. Could probably hit DDR2 1100 with a little more Vdimm.

Ambient = 85F.

I get better results with the E board than I do with the Pro when it comes to overclocking with 4GB. The new Beta seems to have improved this problem in early testing but I am not comfortable with it yet.

Hmmm...glad you made this observation. I also have BIOS issues with the IP35 Pro. Only major bug is that silly double post.

No double post on Pro.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: amking

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: amking

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
Latest stable settings for me. vcore set to 1.465 in BIOS which drops to 1.43 at windows and 1.41 at load.

CPU-Z v1.40.8 beta gives an accurate vcore and shows command rate. Older versions did not.

http://img394.imageshack.us/im.../5493/untitled1mp9.jpg

i'm just curious.. what would you guys say is about the cut off level (fsb/vcore/etc) for overclocking on the ip35 pro where it really starts to shorten the life of the board a lot? originally i was only planning on running my 6850 around 400 fsb (where it is now) due to the desire to not stress the components a whole lot and minimize heat/noise, but i see results like yours and wonder if i should just bump the fsb up more 😱

No limit at all as long as you keep an eye on your voltages and heat. Don't let either go too far.

so what would you say too far is? i'll start increasing the fsb (and then the voltages) a little more later today when i get home and report back with some idle/load temps etc.

Too far is your prefrence really I mean...keep the voltages in check and watch your heat.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Gary Key
New Beta - B12.02 BETA

4GB memory capability improved (still testing), general chipset latency tweaks, and a few other minor changes such as Firewire transfer speeds being improved, use at your own risk.

no improvement really for me. At least nothing immediately noticable.