ABIT IP35-e (the word on the street...)

ikara · 27 Jun 2007 at 15:11

Peeps,

What is the word on the street for the Abit IP35-e. Looks like a stable choice for a new machine to me but i'm interestd in anyone who has one, also planning on buying one, or has experience good or bad.

Concern No.1: No RAID 0 that i can see. Was curious about raid, not had it before but i use a lot of Max and CS3 so i need a speedy HDD system. Someone might have some alternative suggestions good was of achieveing this.

Concern No.2: P35 chipset or 975? I'm not well versed on the differences but after scanning the forums and some hardware reviews sites, its tricky to know, as a gamestation and workstation combo machine, which would be the better choice, which obviously would affect the decision.

Concern No.3: The IP35-pro, although more pricey, seems an interesting alternative but the board looks cumbersome by comparison, and hardware reviews mention the awkward placing of SATA and drive connectors. It also has 2 PCI-e slots, but seeing as i'm not fussed about SLI and in any case am purchasing an 8800 GTX anyway, only one of those PCE-e slots is x16 so it makes no odds.

Thoughts...?

Kool and the gang :cool:

PS. What on earth are SATA 3G and eSATA 3G?? :confused:

PPS: Feel free to make alternative mobo suggestions/manufacturers

Its_Me · 27 Jun 2007 at 17:01

You would'nt compare the 975 to the P35, it direct comparison to the 965.

SATA originaly was 1.5Gb/s, the latest version is 3Gb/s that many of the current SATA drives support ( Seagate/maxtor etc).
Its part of the Intel southbridge ICH9's features.
eSATA is just for external SATA devices, a few boards have these extrenal connectors now, but don't seem to be used much.

As for Abit, I owned a QuadGT for a fair while, it was thought doubt the best 965 based board going.
BUT, not all the abit boards have been this way, IMO the quadGT got it right, it still had some querks(like most), but IMO was far better then the P5B and DS3P rev3.3.

The board I do intend to buy next without question is the IX38 QuadGT.

ikara · 27 Jun 2007 at 17:25

What are the benefits of that board? Why are you not going for a P35 mobo?

BUFF · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:00

ikara said:
Concern No.1: No RAID 0 that i can see. Was curious about raid, not had it before but i use a lot of Max and CS3 so i need a speedy HDD system. Someone might have some alternative suggestions good was of achieveing this.

Correct it has no RAID of any kind.
Most people don't need it, you may possibly benefit.
IP35 has RAID whilst not as feature packed or highly priced as the IP35 Pro.

Concern No.2: P35 chipset or 975? I'm not well versed on the differences but after scanning the forums and some hardware reviews sites, its tricky to know, as a gamestation and workstation combo machine, which would be the better choice, which obviously would affect the decision.

they're quite different in their behaviour - 975X has native IDE, P35 doesn't.
975X is quicker clock for clock but won't hit anything like the fsb of P35 when overclocking.
X38 is the replacement for 975X but won't be available until late August or September.

Concern No.3: The IP35-pro, although more pricey, seems an interesting alternative but the board looks cumbersome by comparison, and hardware reviews mention the awkward placing of SATA and drive connectors.

This is a subjective concern - some people (like me) like their connectors turned sideways. At least they all remain usable with a long dual slot gfx card unlike on some other mfrs mobos where several get covered ...
Tom's Hardware IP35 Pro review claimed that the Firewire connectors were unusable with dual slot gfx cards but numerous users say that they are wrong & that they are usable.

PS. What on earth are SATA 3G and eSATA 3G??

the 3G is kind of irrelevant in that's the max. speed limit of the interface but the drives can't provide that throughput anyway ...

ikara · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:10

Cheers Buff that's helped a lot.

Think i'm gonna go for the IP35-e board, a 10,000 RPM WD raptor to host windows and programs and my existing 200Gb drive for files to get moe speed without the risks that come with RAID. The money i save on the board will help to pay for the HDD.

You might have some views on this as few reviews i've read comment on the extra noise produced by the raptor which may be a problem as i would prefer a quieter system.

That said i'm looking at the antec 180 case which has sound damping.

Unfortunately i can't wait for X38 a my current machine is toast as of yesterday and i can't do without a comp

BUFF · 27 Jun 2007 at 18:20

ikara said:
That said i'm looking at the antec 180 case which has sound damping.

don't know what gfx card that you plan on using but I believe that the P180 & the 8800GTX aren't a good match as the longer card butts up against the drive cage.
if it's really that tight it's possible that the abit's sideways SATA connectors may butt against the drive cage too.

Unfortunately i can't wait for X38 a my current machine is toast as of yesterday and i can't do without a comp

That's why I mentioned the anticpated time frame.

Topitoff · 27 Jun 2007 at 19:04

If you want Raid then consider the GA-P35-S3 it's a few £s more than the IP35-E.

ikara · 28 Jun 2007 at 11:00

Looks like a good board. I can't get my head round the different memory bus speeds.

All the Abit boards mention dual DDR2/3 800 which surely is going to bottleneck the potential of the P35 1333 system bus.

The Gigabyte board boasts 1066 memory compatibility, but i have a friend with the Abit IN9 32X-MAX who has advised me to go for a board with 1066 memory slots but on the OC website the board is said to be 800, which he was suprised to hear.

For an up and coming chipset i'm suprised the P35 boards only have 800. Surely the best scenario is identical system bus speed and ram speed.

Anyone shed some light on this?

BUFF · 28 Jun 2007 at 12:34

ikara said:
All the Abit boards mention dual DDR2/3 800 which surely is going to bottleneck the potential of the P35 1333 system bus.

they don't mention DDR3 at all as they don't have any DDR3 mobos released yet...

Right, 1333fsb CPU actually runs at 333.33 (but quad pumped to get 1333) so allowing for Dual data rate x2 = 667. So if running at stock all you need is something that is DDR2 667 or faster.
There isn't a JEDEC standard for anything faster than DDR2 800 (no official 1000, 1066 etc.) so abit won't claim support especially as it appears that Intel don't either http://download.intel.com/products/chipsets/P35/317304.pdf.
If you check the forums though you'll find that they don't have any problem running RAM marketed as that though.