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Recently I tested and reviewed one of the lowest end budget solution for Intel LGA775, the XFX 630i 7150 which was Rs. 3450/- which gave us option to plan for a Budget Quad Core.

Now its time for me to take a Quick Look at one of the high end product for the Quad Core and Core 2 Duo range, the ABiT IP35-Pro.

The board is generating a lot of hype regarding its built quality and performance, let us take a Quick look at review whether its lives up to its potential on a real word test setup !!!

Over the years ABiT is know to produce performance products, and then again under budget also.. The similar range as this board would be from ASUS and Giga-Byte, how ever ABiT IP35-Pro is the most value for money under this segment !!

Details about the Product

Product Name

ABiT IP35-Pro

Price

Rs. 9200/- + 4% VAT (USA / UK)

Product URL

ABiT IP35-Pro

The board Image given by ABiT

Specifications

• LGA 775 Supporting upto FSB 1600 Core 2 Extreme / Duo / Quad / Dual Core / Pnetium 4

• Intel P35 Chipset

• DDR-II Native support for 1066 FSB

• 4 240pin DDR-II slot upto 8 GB 1066 MHz RAM

• 2 eSATA Back port IO

• On board Dual Gigabit LAN

• HDMI Ready

• 6 SATA-II / 1 PATA / 1 Floppy (All connectors are included)

• 6 onboard USB (12 total)

• Onboard IEEE1394

• Dual PCI-E x16 CrossFire

• 1 x S/P DIF In, 1 x S/P DIF Out

• 7.1 CH Audio connector

• RAID support

• Onboard LED / Reset and Power Switch

• Back Panel Clear CMOS Switch

• ABiT uGuru

• ATX

• Made In JAPAN

 Read the Details

The Product at a Glance

Test Setup

As I have said, this board is for a high end system so lets put up a high end processor, but as the board is crowned as Over Clockers Dream, so lets put a processor which is not know to be a good over clocker, the Q6600.

Q6600
2 x 2GB Kingstone DDR-II 667 MHz value RAM
250 GB SATA-II 7200.11 Segate
8600 GT GDDR-III 256 MB
Zebronics Performance 500 Watts

Will you face any problem in Assembling ??

Generally I have seen with people that when buying some higher end hardware, they come to a conclusion without even testing it that it would be too difficult to assemble and such..

The point is, though the hardware is high end, though it comes with some extra connectors and such, but basic idea is same as any other lower end ATX boar.

The ABiT IP35-Pro comes with a good and well described manual, few points which you should read before you start with the assemble is, there are some extra power connectors for the board due to the ATX form factor and extra CrossFire mode !!

There are in total 3 Power Connectors to be connected with the board.

Thats all which may seem different from a lowend or mid-range board, rest are all same as any other LGA775 motherboard !!

The BIOS

It comes with Phoenix - AwardBIOS. Easy to navigate and understand.

Over Clocking

The real beauty of the Core2 range of Intel is their ability to run beyond their original clock speed which in terms is known as Over Clocking, those who are new to Over Clocking idea, please read some basic TIPs about Over Clocking a processor here.

The ABiT IP35-Pro is known for its over clocking abilities.. How ever then again the OC not only depends on the motherboard but on the processor it self also.. Some processor or Core 2 range such as E2140 or E8400 are known to be better over clockers than others, where as in this set up I am using Q6600 which is known to many as a poor over clocker than any other Core 2 range processors.. So let us see how well this motherboard does to OC the Q6600 ??

The ABiT uGuru

The BIOS comes with Interface called ABiT uGuru containing the accessible option for over clocking, its a charm for both the professional high end over clockers as well as new comers who would want to try their hands too.

uGuru front section contains the basic feature, such as changing the CPU Bus Speed, CPU : DRAM bus value and option to enter advance setup..

The Voltage controls

uGuru offers you the safety to shutdown the system automatically when any thing out out of hand, so comes the voltage monitoring !!

So does it offers safety from over heating too… Options are for both warning beeps and auto power down…

The DRAM Timing settings

Reaching 3 GHz with Intel Default HSF

After 2 attempts I could see I was running at 3 GHz with just Intel default Stock cooling..

Running Orthos at 2×2 format and Temperatures were 66-67c stable !!

There were no need to touch to any settings apart from changing the CPU external clock (Bus speed) to 333 from default 266 and changing the CPU : DRAM ratio to 1:1 !!! The major difference from any nvidia platform chipset and Intel P35 or such would be the missing option to unlink the RAM Bus speed with CPU..

The back panel clear CMOS button is a real enjoyment for any over clocker. As when you over clock and play with different settings, it is expected that you may end up with some settings in which system is unable to boot thus forcing you for a CMOS flash. ABiT IP35-Pro comes with one switch on back panel which allows you to clear the CMOS without opening the cabinet !!!

This is a board meant for over clocking. So when you are getting the board make sure you buy some extra cooling equipment such as, may be a ThermalRight ultra 120 extreme, which will allow you to run at real high speed with these Core 2 range processors !!!

Real World Application Testing

Windows Vista rating for the test system

apart from orthos stability testing at 3 GHz I ran a real world application, the Auto GK to perform a 700 MB encoding from a DVD 9.

Source was a Movie (Hungama) DVD 9, highest of compress under xvid with VBR 128 KBPS MP3 and target resolution of 640×320…

One may take a look at the report !! Auto GK Report

The PC Mark 2005

Some Negatives

Not too many of points which I could digg up with it.

• Just seems that the desktop too of uGuru is not quite compatible with Windows Vista x64…

• One must need Floppy drive for BIOS update (on onfly option such as from ASUS / MSI / GigaByte is available with ABiT

Apart from that looks to be a great performance board, then again it would not going to worth the money unless and untill you get your self any better cooling than Intel Stock as this board is certainly capable enough to drive the Worst Over clocker of the Core 2 family the Q6600 @ 3.6 to 3.8 GHz on Air !!!

Verdict

Not much of negatives with the board, so definitely going to be a recommended product, how ever when you are thinking of buying IP35-Pro, do remember it wont worth the money to stay at stock.. This baby is meant to drive the Core 2 range processors to their absolute limit !! So when planing for this board, do plan your self at-least an dedicated Air CPU cooler such as ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme and come thermal paste from Antec !!!