abit IP35-Pro: Houston, We Have a Winner
by Gary Key on November 1, 2007 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
abit IP35-Pro BIOS Overview and Software Features
The IP35-Pro board features abit's excellent µGuru technology, which allows the monitoring/control of the system's fan headers and the ability to set voltages and FSB rates on the fly. We have always been enamored of µGuru and consider it the best available platform control application available from the motherboard manufacturers. The application worked extremely well during testing and provided accurate feedback on temperatures and voltages along with the capability to fine tune voltages and FSB rates during overclocking sessions.
abit includes a BIOS flash utility as part of the µGuru. We still feel flashing via the DOS floppy method is the most reliable way to update your BIOS, but we flashed our board six times with this utility without any problems.
abit allows the monitoring and control of the CPU, System Fan, and Auxiliary fan speeds and voltage settings within the BIOS. Fan control is very extensive with three different monitoring modes available within the BIOS settings.
The OC Guru sections contains the standard overclocking options that includes FSB rates, multiplier selection, DRAM ratios, PCI Express clock speeds, and voltage controls. Although not as extensive as the typical DFI enthusiast board, the options are good with the notable exception being the inability to control the FSB Strap settings.
The BIOS offers 8 different memory configuration options and generally utilized the memory SPD settings at a given clock speed if the DRAM timing was set to auto when in manual mode. Although the Clock per Command appears as 1T or 2T, the proper terminology is 1N or 2N on the Intel chipsets this and works differently than the 1T/2T command rates on the AMD chipsets. 1N is generally equivalent to a 1.5T type performance level at this time. It is not possible to adjust tRD manually, but abit typically sets this option at a very aggressive level in order to improve memory latencies.
The IP35-Pro board features abit's excellent µGuru technology, which allows the monitoring/control of the system's fan headers and the ability to set voltages and FSB rates on the fly. We have always been enamored of µGuru and consider it the best available platform control application available from the motherboard manufacturers. The application worked extremely well during testing and provided accurate feedback on temperatures and voltages along with the capability to fine tune voltages and FSB rates during overclocking sessions.
abit includes a BIOS flash utility as part of the µGuru. We still feel flashing via the DOS floppy method is the most reliable way to update your BIOS, but we flashed our board six times with this utility without any problems.
abit allows the monitoring and control of the CPU, System Fan, and Auxiliary fan speeds and voltage settings within the BIOS. Fan control is very extensive with three different monitoring modes available within the BIOS settings.
The OC Guru sections contains the standard overclocking options that includes FSB rates, multiplier selection, DRAM ratios, PCI Express clock speeds, and voltage controls. Although not as extensive as the typical DFI enthusiast board, the options are good with the notable exception being the inability to control the FSB Strap settings.
The BIOS offers 8 different memory configuration options and generally utilized the memory SPD settings at a given clock speed if the DRAM timing was set to auto when in manual mode. Although the Clock per Command appears as 1T or 2T, the proper terminology is 1N or 2N on the Intel chipsets this and works differently than the 1T/2T command rates on the AMD chipsets. 1N is generally equivalent to a 1.5T type performance level at this time. It is not possible to adjust tRD manually, but abit typically sets this option at a very aggressive level in order to improve memory latencies.
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Crafty Spiker - Sunday, July 27, 2008 - link
This board should be called the Catch-22. I'm on my 4th day and 2nd chassis (and peripherals) trying to find some combination of hardware that this piece of crap will handle properly.Catch #1: Trying to get an LSI SCSI RAID card and a Promise SX4000 to work at the same time. Far as I can see, can't be done. No diagnostic messages at all. Great BIOS engineering
Catch #2: Tried a smaller rig - just one Adaptec SCSI RAID card. Won't work at all.
Catch#3: IDE does not work. The BIOS sees the attached devices but the OS won't/
Catch #4: Digital audio output is optical ONLY. How do you spell "reconfigure the home theater"?
Catch #5: the onboard NIC's are crap. Won't do 9KB jumbo frames.
All in all I'd say that unless you are doing a completely dirt simple build that you look elsewhere. And reviewers should look a bit more carefully at what they're reviewing.
Dacalo - Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - link
I notice that under Bios UGuru, your screen shows 1.25V. Mine MB's lowest option is only 1.3175(?) around there. I thought this was odd. Do you think it's because I have older BIOS?Cybertori - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
I have one of these boards, and its been very good and reliable. Works with my new dual-core CPU, the BIOS is amazingly accomodating, and no problems whatsoever. This is my first purchase of an Abit product, but I am impressed. CPU and MB temps have been very cool, even under load, so I'd have to say the passive cooling is working well. Apart from the placement of some connectors, a really good motherboard - one of the best available for Intel processors, and a good value too.Zak - Monday, November 5, 2007 - link
A couple of years ago I had so many problems with abit mobos (and MSI by the way), like 4 lemons in a row, that I will never ever touch their mobos no matter what they do, my distrust for their quality is too deep. I'll stick to Asus (despite their horrible support) and Gigabyte.Zak
MichaelD - Friday, November 2, 2007 - link
So, there's a "trick" or "tweak" that fixes a deficiency and makes the board more stable and reliable...yet you don't tell us what that is? Why not just link directly to the webpage showing the fix? OR just TELL US what said fix action is? "A quick Google search" yielded me nothing but other reviews of the board. I could not find the fix. Great article and review, but you fell short by not linking directly to the fix action.
Gary Key - Saturday, November 3, 2007 - link
The hot link was in the article if you mouse over "user" - but here it is in case that does not work - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p...">http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p... .Shimmishim - Friday, November 2, 2007 - link
This board has been out since about July? X38 reviews have been popping up all over the web. Anyway.I've owned this board for over 3 months now and it has been one of my all time favorite boards. It o/c's 4x1GB of ram very nicely and quadcores (with a bit of tweaking).
Bozo Galora - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
for those who cant wait another month for AT to achieve a good enough review so as not to threaten ad revenues - here's a fairly good overview from Tomshttp://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/31/x38_compari...">http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/31/x38_compari...
goinginstyle - Saturday, November 3, 2007 - link
You are an arse. I have not seen any ads on AT with abit so that blows your statement. Also, they had the one of the first X38 previews on the web and at least they are doing the reviews right instead of some photos and a couple of tests while declaring any and all boards to be the greatest. AT's X38 launch article was the only one that told the truth about this not ready for prime time chipset. I guess they did that to improve ad revenues in your book.
Anonymous Freak - Thursday, November 1, 2007 - link
I mean, who doesn't have a router nowadays? Even goofier are the boards with Wi-Fi and "built-in routers". Call me old fashioned, but I actually want my router separate from my PC.What I want is a micro-ATX board, dual PCI-E x16 slots, (not that I actually expect to use SLI/CrossFire anytime soon, but what if I want to slap a RAID card in there?) onboard "HD Audio" with optical in and out, eSATA, onboard FireWire on the backplane (some of us still use FW camcorders,) and ONE Gigabit NIC. No need for a second, really.
Is that too much to ask?
It's like they now equate "enthusiast" with dual NIC. (A few years ago, before decent Wi-Fi routers could be had for http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3635275">less than $30, it might have made sense. But not any more. There are even http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5117566">multiple http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4832150">under http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4863030">$100 http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5232917">802.11n http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5284527">wireless http://shop1.outpost.com/product/5192516">routers.