Intel P35 / X38 Motherboards Roundup
abit IP35 Pro (Intel P35; DDR2)
We note it straight off that abit IP35 Pro belongs to the IP35 product line which also includes IP35 Dark Rider and IP35-E. They all are made on the same PCB design.
To cool the chipset, the boards have massive radiators, with heat pipes used for heat transfer.
There are two 3 PCI Express x16 slots. However, because of the chipset's limitations, the full-featured 16 bus lanes are allocated to the first slot only. For the second slot, only 4 lanes are left. In the end, if the user intends to use the Crossfire, it will run in the slowest mode (16+4).
abit IP35 Pro also uses three PCI and one PCI Express x1 slots.
To plug in hard disks, there is one Parallel ATA connector and 8 Serial ATA II connectors (two of which are external). To support additional SATA links, the board uses the additional SATA/PATA/RAID JMB363 controller.
Besides, there are two Gigabit LAN controllers RTL 8110SC, as well as a Firewire controller - TSB43AB22A - made by Texas Instruments (both ports being additional). The board also supports 12 USB 2.0 ports; the audio subsystem Intel High Definition Audio is implemented on the base of the ALC888 codec.
The rear panel is specific in that there is a small switch meant to clear the CMOS settings.
On the board, there is an additional uGuru chip, a 7-stage POST indicator, buttons to power-on and reset, as well as a connector to plug in the uGuru-Panel.
The section of memory settings is not amazing for the number of latency timings, although we can't say that it is scarce:
On the other hand, the system monitoring section is one of the most powerful among all the motherboards reviewed. It is located in the uGuru section and is partitioned into several screens. The first group is "Temperature Monitoring" that displays the current temperature values of the CPU, system, and the power supply module. Also, the user can activate the processor overheat signalization and enable the automatic system power-off feature upon attaining a certain temperature.
The second section displays the current voltage levels.
Regarding that, programmers at abit added the feature of warning and automatic system power-off if the power surges exceed the admissible boundaries. Then, look into the "Fan Speed Monitoring" section responsible for the system fans.
abit IP35 Pro keeps track of the rotational speed of of all the fans (6) which can be plugged in to the system. Moreover, you can assign signals of deceleration or stoppage to every fan, as well as enable the function of system power-off in case the fan has stopped.
Finally, there is the "FanEQ Control" section where the user can set a dependence between the rotational speed of the fan and the temperature.
This feature is accessible for all the six fans. Each fan has its own collection of settings:
The user can define a range of operating temperatures, as well as the range of adjusting the cooler's rotational speed. The latter parameter varies either as percentage or as absolute voltage values. Besides, the user can set the dependence of the fan's rotational speed on any temperature sensor.
Users can also retain and load BIOS settings as profiles (the board supports 5 profiles).
Now on to the overclocking tools. The respective BIOS menu item is called "OC Guru" (formerly named "SoftMenu").
Therefore, abit IP35 Pro allows to adjust the FSB speed within 133 to 600 MHz, raise voltage on the CPU up to 1.8975V, on the memory - up to 3.0V, on the north bridge - up to 1.72V, and on the FSB bus - to 1.49V. As regards the practical overclocking, the motherboard showed results above the average - 504 MHz (with a CPU E6550).
Interim conclusion - abit IP35 Pro is quite a good product based on P35 and is a direct competitor to ASUS P5K-E/WiFi.
Pros:
- High stability and good performance level;
- Two PCI Express x16 slots;
- Support for SerialATA II/RAID ( 8 lines; ICH8R + JMB363);
- Support for one P-ATA link (JMB363);
- Integrated 8-channel audio and two LAN (Gigabit Ethernet) controllers;
- Support for USB2.0 (12 ports) and IEEE-1394 (Firewire, 2 ports);
- Additional uGuru chip + utilities (FanEQ, BIOS profiles, OC Guru, etc.);
- The most advanced system monitoring and support for the uGuru Panel;
- 7-stage POST indicator;
- Passive system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module;
Cons:
The board's specific features:
- Good results of overclocking the CPU (FSB = 504 MHz) and the memory;
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