**Official ABIT IP-35 Pro Review/Overclock/Guide Thread**

[Ace-a-Rue]

Would this board sill be considered a top choice to buy for its price/performance ratio at this point in time? Basically I want to use it as iinterm solution on a new build while I'm waiting for DDR3 prices to come down so I can pick up a higher performance board then. -- I'd be using it with a q6600 G0 and some Ballistix Tracers (2g @800) with water. Any opinions?

the Pro board received the "Gold" award from Anandtech review website...another guy just returned from an asus maximus to this board...you can not go wrong with this board...just do my heatpipe mode....there is also a vdroop mod but that requires skilled soldering.

[Ace-a-Rue]

Hello Mr Beta 03



All multpliers up to 11 have been tested, so I'd say they all work now.

COOL!...start pushing that baby to see how high you can go on this board.

[brywalker]

Wow, a lot of info here.

I just got my board installed the other day matched with a Q6600 and 4GB GSkill DDR21000 RAM. Loving it. Overclocking is a little confusing, though, with the combined strap/memory dividers.

I can't seem to break 400MHz FSB on this thing. I jumped in deep and went for 450 and 425 and I just can't get into windows. Tried with a super low mult and low ram settings and still can't get in. Pumped the voltage on the chip - no dice. Same with chipset - gave a little voltage and got nothing. With combined strap/mem I can't tell if it is the board or the chip. It is a G0 stepping, and I know those love life. I am at 400x9 right now with no issues (although I haven't Orthos the crap out of it just yet.

Any ideas?

[Ace-a-Rue]

what bios are you using?

4 sticks of memory make it difficult to get real high on the FSB....are you using 1:1 ratio?

[brywalker]

what bios are you using?

4 sticks of memory make it difficult to get real high on the FSB....are you using 1:1 ratio?

Actually, it is 2 sticks 2GB each. I have tried every ratio from 1:1 all the way up. Here is an interesting thing (I am guessing it is a divider/strap issue. At 400x9 I have no problems with the (I can't remember which one, 2nd one down) which brings me to 960MHz on the RAM. If I select the next one down it will bring me to 1000MHz on the RAM which will result in a BSOD on boot. I have tested the RAM to 1100MHz with lower FSB with no problems.

Man, I wish they just kept the strap/ratio separate.

I am going to end up with 4x2GB soon. I don't think that 400MHz will be an issue, but I would like to see higher if possible. Right now, I have a wicked fast setup, but, again, I would like to see some higher FSB so I can get my RAM up there without screwing up the strap.

Oh yeah, using BIOS 14.

[Ace-a-Rue]

the download link for beta 16.b03 is in my signature...you will find that 4:5 will work at a lower FSB but it will work...download that beta and then follow my link on how to flash the bios...you can do it with a floppy or usb...usb is by far the easiest.

DO NOT OVERCLOCK when flashing...set your Vdimm to around 2.1v and Vcore to compensate for Vdroop...ie, processor vid=1.30, set 1.35 in the bios.

here is a slide i got in another forum that explains the FSB to Memory ratios...understand if you set 1:1 and 1:1.20 that is the 1333 memory strap...if you go higher, so does the memory Mhz and a tigher memory strap, ie, 1066.

[strange|ife]

ya 4GB does limit your FSB options, it also depends on the memory of course. I can hit a lil over 450 fsb with 4 dimms in use, and over 500 with just 2 pretty easily, but i like my 4GB so the lower FSB, so i live with it. Gonna prolly will take 2 sticks out soon though and transfer them over to my 650i board in a week or so, once i get that machine back on its feet. Or just buy a kit of crucials, they are 48 bucks after rebate on egg for 2gb

[Ace-a-Rue]

this is what the 16.B03 beta bios does for me...first it allows me to run at the 1:1.20 fsb to memory ratio...and...i can run at 4:5 if i dropped the FSB to about 430.

the wPRIME bench is a demanding bench when it comes to the 1024M stability bench...if the vcore is not up to par, it will force an uncommanded reboot...so...1.55 vcore (actual) is needed to run that part of the bench at 3960 Mhz...i can lower the vcore more for everyday stuff...P95 load would probably require about 1.60-1.62 actual vcore.

[seamumc]

Here the BIOS that we worked long and hard on to address its few shortcomings- http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/...629B1603AT.rar -

Bingo could you elaborate on the issues this bios addresses? Thanks

[Ace-a-Rue]

Bingo could you elaborate on the issues this bios addresses? Thanks

you missed my post with the info that he passed to me in an email:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=3608

[jtf2]

http://www.uabit.com/WebStore/produc...i8unf1uf2rcil7

i found this at the abit part store.i wonder if it would fit the ip35 pro board??

[MADMAX22]

If you have a old AMD stock heatsinc it works quiet well, I cut it in half then trimmed it up to make it fit with holes drilled and all then mounted a 80mm fan over it. It keeps the pwm's down pretty good.

[joshuaboston]

Hi guys (especially Ace),

This is my FIRST POST. Happy I found this place. I am a recent proud owner of an Abit Pro P35 and I paired it up with a Q6600 and 2 x 1gig Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2800 (just bought two more) and I have a RAID 0 config. Right now I am running XP Pro 32bit, but once I get my new 8800GT... well, I will probably move to Vista32. I also have a Cooler Master GeminII with two Yates 1350RPM fans and I used Artic Cooling MX-2 thermal compound.

So, I have one general question... with the Vdrop being such a problem, can't a bio from Abit fix it?

OK, the MAIN reason why I am posting is because I want to overclock my PC to as high as I can and still be stable with memtest, occt and Prime. I may talk the talk but I certainly don't walk the walk.... And I really don't understand much about overclocking... SORRY. I have achieved 3.33Ghz, but I can't seem to get past that without stability problems. I would like to end up with a 3.4Ghz to 3.6Ghz system. I know I am not upping my volts enough on a buch of stuff... but I really don't understand much of what anything means.

OK, before I go on, I downloaded the newest CPU-Z program, and even though I keep my mulitplier at 9, it is registered at 6 in the program. When I first ran the program... it worked, then it WOULD SWITCH between 6 and 9 and back to 6 "right infront of my eyes!!! and now it is always on 6 when ever I check. I am pretty sure the program is just wrong, so I will not worry about it, but has anyone ever heard of a multiplier failing but everything else on the CPU works?

Ok NOW for the GUTS of this post... help me figure out how to obtain stability...

Vcore... I would put to 1.45Volts, I have it lower to achieve a 3.33Ghz clock
MCH... don't know, but I think I would try and put it to about 1.4
CPP VTT... NO CLUE
ICH... NO CLUE
DDR2... I have it to 2.2Volts.
ICHIO... NO CLUE

now I also have NO CLUE what the
CPU GTLREF 1&3 ???
GPU GTREF 0&2 ???
DDR2 REF??

Now I also have NO CLUE ABOUT MEMORY, I have not set any of the controls manually. I just try to keep my RAM running about 1150 ish... so if I clock to high, I will manually adjust the Ratio to lower the speed.

Well, thats it. I am at work... but when I go home tonight I will try your suggestions and I promise to post my progress. I must have read about 50 pages of this post... but I have not seen someone ask these questions this way and I am still confused.

Last though... is there a way to check your bios version? Which bios do you recommend.

THANK YOU!!!!

[Ace-a-Rue]

requires circuitry, from my understanding, to take care of vdroop...intel specs their boards with droop built in to avoid over-spiking a cpu.

[Ace-a-Rue]

turn off C1E and EIST in the bios...those two will hold your overclock back

[joshuaboston]

turn off C1E and EIST in the bios...those two will hold your overclock back

Where are these located? in the Guru section? What do they do (brief description please)?

THANKS.

[Ace-a-Rue]

in the "Advanced Bios Features" under the sub-title of "Cpu Feature".

[Scope666]

So I just installed this board last night. It gave me a scare in the beginning but it seems to be behaving now. It arrived with Bios 14 on it, and it was doing the strangest thing. Basically I could only boot up if I cleared the CMOS (switch on the back) If I went into the BIOS and made changes, I had like a 1 in 5 chance of being able to boot up again after it automatically shut down. It would try to restart and then shut back down. It displayed “83” on the POST indicator.

I finally got lucky and was able to save the changes necessary to boot off a USB stick, and I flashed the BIOS to the 16 B3 beta. Once I got that in it seems like it will let me save changes now. The only thing I can think of is somehow the setup defaults weren't compatible with my hardware. I have a e6750 CPU and 2 x 1024 XMS2 sticks. Maybe it was picking a weird divider? I just wanted to see if anyone else ever had this problem. I SEEM to be OK now but it definitely gave me a scare.

[Girmis]

I wrote in previous posts about my problems with this board. I used settings provided by ace, no luck. However, after disconnecting most of my hardware and connecting one by one, I found (I hope) a problem. It is wd hdd. I'm not sure which one (I have 5), but most likely raptors. If I connect raptors (raid0), my 320gb sata is recognized as 500gb in bios (other 2 wd hdds are 500gb re2). As my system is on those raptors, I can't prove yet that that is the reason for instabilities and freezes. At the moment I had to disconnect one of 500gb hdds, this way I can go into windows and work. It really bothers me as on my dfi I had no problems (except low fsb - no more that 400mhz)

[joshuaboston]

Hi Ace,

I first want to thank you, it think you might have personally caused 1000's of people to buy this board. This post was one of my factors.

Can you recommend .. ranges for the following...

Vcore...
MCH...
CPP VTT...
ICH...
DDR2... (for Crucial Ballistix Tracers)
ICHIO...

now I also have NO CLUE what these mean? Should I change any of the default settings?
CPU GTLREF 1&3 ???
GPU GTREF 0&2 ???
DDR2 REF??

Lastly, I guess changing the PCI frequency effects your GPU only, right?

Thanks again.

[Ace-a-Rue]

Hi Ace,

I first want to thank you, it think you might have personally caused 1000's of people to buy this board. This post was one of my factors.

i hope Abit sends me a royalty check!

Can you recommend .. ranges for the following...

Vcore...
MCH...
CPP VTT...
ICH...
DDR2... (for Crucial Ballistix Tracers)
ICHIO...

now I also have NO CLUE what these mean? Should I change any of the default settings?
CPU GTLREF 1&3 ???
GPU GTREF 0&2 ???
DDR2 REF??

Lastly, I guess changing the PCI frequency effects your GPU only, right?

Thanks again.

you need to tell me your overclock objective...what Mhz do you want to attain...might not get there but, i can give you general area to work...each setup is totally different.

PCIe will effect GPU and hard drives.

DDR2 REF is the sub-voltage for DDR...i would set either 0% or +2%.

CPU GTLREF 1&3, CPU GTREF 0&2 range is between 67% to 70%...you need to find the right % for your cpu.

[Ace-a-Rue]

I wrote in previous posts about my problems with this board. I used settings provided by ace, no luck. However, after disconnecting most of my hardware and connecting one by one, I found (I hope) a problem. It is wd hdd. I'm not sure which one (I have 5), but most likely raptors. If I connect raptors (raid0), my 320gb sata is recognized as 500gb in bios (other 2 wd hdds are 500gb re2). As my system is on those raptors, I can't prove yet that that is the reason for instabilities and freezes. At the moment I had to disconnect one of 500gb hdds, this way I can go into windows and work. It really bothers me as on my dfi I had no problems (except low fsb - no more that 400mhz)

i heard about some having problems with the raptors...don't know if it is abit's bios or it is a P35 chipset problem.

[Ace-a-Rue]

So I just installed this board last night. It gave me a scare in the beginning but it seems to be behaving now. It arrived with Bios 14 on it, and it was doing the strangest thing. Basically I could only boot up if I cleared the CMOS (switch on the back) If I went into the BIOS and made changes, I had like a 1 in 5 chance of being able to boot up again after it automatically shut down. It would try to restart and then shut back down. It displayed “83” on the POST indicator.

I finally got lucky and was able to save the changes necessary to boot off a USB stick, and I flashed the BIOS to the 16 B3 beta. Once I got that in it seems like it will let me save changes now. The only thing I can think of is somehow the setup defaults weren't compatible with my hardware. I have a e6750 CPU and 2 x 1024 XMS2 sticks. Maybe it was picking a weird divider? I just wanted to see if anyone else ever had this problem. I SEEM to be OK now but it definitely gave me a scare.

GOOD show getting your board upgraded to 16.b03 beta bios.

don't forget to to clear CMOS and yank the the battery out for at least 5 minutes when it comes to problems with posting.

[joshuaboston]

Hi Ace,

"you need to tell me your overclock objective...what Mhz do you want to attain...might not get there but, i can give you general area to work...each setup is totally different."

Well, I'm looking for a safe, stable high overclock. I would like to reach 3.6Ghz Stable. I figure it is probably possible to do a 3.9Ghz, but I don't want to stress my system that much... But if you think 3.9Ghz can be achieved in a safe stable enviroment... I am open to try it.

I kind of know each set is totally different... but I choose proven components that a lot of people are using such as Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 800, I figure what other people have done will give me an idea and sooner or later I will understand what the hell i am doing.

I don't even know where to begin. So lets talk about what I do know... kind of.

I think I would want to leave the multiplier on 9x? Since I have DDR2800, will give me the closest ratio to 1:1. I should bost the Vcore to like 1.45. And perhaps put the FSB to 415 (figure we could try for a 3.735Ghz clock speed to begin with UNLESS you think we should set it higher or lower).

About the DDR2... manufacture specs say 2.2...

I really don't know what else to do... suggestions PLEASE, let me be your protogee (p.s. I purchased the OEM vesion and its a G0)

You said...
"DDR2 REF is the sub-voltage for DDR...i would set either 0% or +2%.

CPU GTLREF 1&3, CPU GTREF 0&2 range is between 67% to 70%...you need to find the right % for your cpu."

So what would you leave it on for the first time? When would you try to tweek these settings?... Maybe I am getting ahead of myself.

I finish work in a few hours, by then I do what ever you say and post back some time tonight....

Between overclocking and gaming... I have NO TIME for anything... I guess it is not a bad life especially the gaming.


PCIe will effect GPU and hard drives.

DDR2 REF is the sub-voltage for DDR...i would set either 0% or +2%.

CPU GTLREF 1&3, CPU GTREF 0&2 range is between 67% to 70%...you need to find the right % for your cpu

[Scope666]

GOOD show getting your board upgraded to 16.b03 beta bios.

don't forget to to clear CMOS and yank the the battery out for at least 5 minutes when it comes to problems with posting.

Interesting that you would say that, because it seems like once I installed uGuru and changed some settings (after the BIOS upgrade to 16 B3), it somehow wrote into the BIOS and must have "fixed" the info that was being stored there. It seemed that with the 14 BIOS when I hit F10 to save settings, most of the time it wasn't writing the BIOS settings correctly, at least that's how it appeared. WEIRD...