abit ip35 pro xe

dtokez · 19 Jan 2009 at 08:53

hi all, is this still the best board to get around the £100 range? im not too worried about overclocking but would like to have the option in future, 6 sata ports are a must and i like the audio optical i/p and o/p's. i plan on running a quad, probably the q6600

any help would be great :confused:

Cob · 19 Jan 2009 at 09:42

Hi and welcome

It's a very good and very stable board, but it's based on the last generation P35 chipset. The newer P45 based boards are usually the ones to go for, but I can't find one that has both the optical inputs and outputs that you want.

If they are necessary, then the IP35 Pro XE will certainly do the job for you.

dtokez · 19 Jan 2009 at 13:03

thanks for the welcome

thats interesting i didnt know about the chipsets, thanks for the advice. i could allways get a soundcard with the optical connections i suppose, do you think that the p45s are quite a bit better? also how many sata ports do the majority or boards have? thanks again

p4radox · 19 Jan 2009 at 13:56

As far as I'm aware, the P45 is much the same as the P35 chipset, just on a smaller manufacturing process. Because of this the P45 chipset requires less power and runs cooler.

It's an excellent board by all acounts.

dtokez · 19 Jan 2009 at 14:13

ok thanks so i guess theres not really a major advantage with the p35s apart from heat and power as u say?

im a bit concerned about what ive read about abit leaving the mobo industry, do you think there will still be support for it a couple of years?

thanks again

BUFF · 19 Jan 2009 at 16:30

the other advantage to P45 over P35 is if you want to run Crossfire the second gfx slot runs at x8 PCI-E 2.0 instead of x4 PCI-E 1.0.

abit have said that they will honour RMA/support for existing mobos but tbh I wouldn't expect too much in the way of BIOS updates. It'll run a Q6600 OK though.

dtokez · 20 Jan 2009 at 01:27

thats for the help. its not going to be my primary gaming pc its intended for music production so i wont be needing to crossfire this one

hope im not changing the subject from the thread but what ram would anyone recommend to get the best out of this board with a q6600?

cheers

Cob · 20 Jan 2009 at 09:26

Any PC2-6400 will do the job.

This is damn good value atm, tho I think it's only on offer til tomorrow morning.

dtokez · 20 Jan 2009 at 10:37

wow yeah thats cheap! would it not be worth going for some faster ram though to match the fsb? i might be wrong i dont know to much about ram

linktoinsanity · 20 Jan 2009 at 16:48

The Abit P35 XE will do you fine, especially with a Q6600 cpu, although I'd recommend a 45nm cpu over the Q6600 these days, but that's another thread...

Cob · 20 Jan 2009 at 18:15

danrogers said:
wow yeah thats cheap! would it not be worth going for some faster ram though to match the fsb? i might be wrong i dont know to much about ram

That memory will stick with a Q6600 to well over 3.6ghz.

toon_mad · 20 Jan 2009 at 20:44

i have this board bought from here, asd you can see from my sig its very good and easy to overclock on

robert.brookes@ · 20 Jan 2009 at 22:29

toonmad what bios are you running the latest?

Phil2008 · 21 Jan 2009 at 01:03

Ive always wanted to know, whats the diff between the "abit ip35 pro" and the abit ip35 pro xe"? I have the pro, and its a truely awsome board.

Cob · 21 Jan 2009 at 09:35

Official 1600mhz FSB support, a slight change in component design, and different coloured heatsinks.

But it offers nothing more than the standard Pro.

toon_mad · 21 Jan 2009 at 22:47

robert.brookes@ said:
toonmad what bios are you running the latest?

im using the latest bios from the abit site, version 11

Yeah, the XE version has black heatsinks on the chipsets, i must say the copper ones do look rather good

And your spot on Phil2008 mate, it is a beauty this board, shame abit are closing down

Zalophus · 22 Jan 2009 at 11:09

RE Abit's exiting the mobo business, you might want to check out recent RMA and BIOS upgrade experiences in some of the other forums, including H E X U S. net/abit-care.

If you decide to go ahead, these are good resources:

http://forums.*****.net/abit-care-*****/
http://www.theraptorpit.com/forum/index.php?showforum=125
http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/218437-abit-ip35-pro-discussion-help-thread.html

Good luck

dtokez · 23 Jan 2009 at 03:02

thanks for this info peeps. does the board support 45nm cpu's? i was just looking at the e5200 which looks quite interesting?

Zalophus · 23 Jan 2009 at 05:56

danrogers said:
thanks for this info peeps. does the board support 45nm cpu's? i was just looking at the e5200 which looks quite interesting?

Yes it supports 45's, with the correct BIOS.

Re BIOS, you should assume that the XE you get will need to have the BIOS flashed, and for that you will need a FDD. Most ABIT users strongly advise against using ABIT's windows-based flash method.

I love my IP35Pro, but for the reasons I mentioned in my earlier post & the other comments made in this thread, I concur that a P45 is a much sounder investment.

Gigabyte and ASUS make some very well regarded p45 MOBOs, such as the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R, and the Asus p5Q Pro.

Also, the e5200 has an 800FSB which you may find limiting, if not now, than in the future.

Once again-good Luck

Frozen_Texas · 23 Jan 2009 at 08:23

personally i wouldn't choose mobo from manufacturer who is finishing it's business. in case of any problems there will be definitely lack of support for Abit. GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3x are OK, stable mobos