recommend a P35 board please

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I have two other posts up about an ASUS P5K that I am having issues with and the supplier I used (lets call them scam) say it will take 7-10 days to get an RMA sorted.
I have quite a bit of proof on tech forums that they are issues with this board and will dispute the goods fitness for purpose with my CC card co if they refuse to refund so I am in the lookout for a new board.
So annoyed as I only orderrf from them due to OCUK being out of stock of the processor I wanted so I had to go elsewhere to get it (impatience ftl), so I ended up getting the mobo there as well.

So im resorting to OCUK for sure again, question is which mobo do I go for!?

Im tempted by the Abit IP35 vanilla or Pro, not sure of the Pro is really worth the extra £? Only dropping a E7650 into it, plan is later in the year to drop a new Quad into it once the new chips are out (possibly early into next year depending on price)

I hhave a GTX8800 and two sets of memory as I bought another set due to thinking the original GEIL set wasn't playing with the mobo.

So overall
8800GTX
600W gamestream PSU
Tuniq 120
2 sets of memory GEIL PC6400 ultra 4-4-4-12 2x1Gb and Gskill PC6400 PK 4-4-4-12

ideally due to buying 2 sets of RAM a board thats likely to be forgiving enough to accept both stes of ram

so ideas please
 
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The Abit IP35 is getting rave reviews, so it should be a good choice to replace the P5K. If you don't need Crossfire then the vanilla IP35 will do fine.
 
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http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/p35-mobos/index.x?pg=1

Pretty good comparison of the P35 boards there, of course doesnt cover them all but gives you a good idea of the differences.

I'm impressed with my DS4 which i brought as the IP35 Pro was out of stock.

Depends what you need from the board really.

Will you overclock much?
Do you need more then 4 sata ports?
Do you need onboard Wifi?
Do you need 2 ethernet ports?
How many PCI slots do you need?

etc.......
 
I've got the IP-35 Pro, the P5K-E and the P35-DS4 and if I had to pick one to keep it would be the DS4.
 
Is it a good bet to say the ip-35 pro will be the quad gt of the p35 range?
upon bios updates
 
Yes, except that even with the release BIOS it's pretty much there to start with.
Other than some performance tweaking & probably needing some micro code updates for new CPUs when released I don't know that it needs anything - it certainly doesn't have glaring issues like those that affected some people early on with the QuadGT.
 
8igdave said:
How comes?

Because how can I make a definitive judgement (and offer advice) if I don't try them all? Since July 2006 I've had over 60 motherboards and I'm running 14 at the moment - a complete range from an ASRock 775i65GV to an EVGA 680i. It's my hobby and if you think about how much a decent meal out costs, it's a bit like eating out once a week at a nice restaurant.
 
would the IP35 (not Pro although assume this makes little diff) like :
GEIL PC6400 ultra 4-4-4-12 (2x1GB)
GSkill PC6400 PK 4-4-4-12 (2x1GB)

Im not looking for a massive massive overclock just a fairly sensible easy one on air (tuniq 120)

Question is am I likely to get both those memory set working together for 4GB, issue may be Geil wants 2.1-2.3v Gskill is 1.9-2.0v

Or am I unlikely to get it working at all?

Dont need a massive amount of Sata ports, or esata, 1 ethernet is enough
So nothing too demanding at all

I can always ebay/sell one set of ram and buy another the same but would prefer to use what I got (even if it limits the OC a bit)

Want to order for Weds delivery so times running out guys ;)

Thx all for the help so far btw :)
 
robskinner said:
would the IP35 (not Pro although assume this makes little diff) like :
GEIL PC6400 ultra 4-4-4-12 (2x1GB)
GSkill PC6400 PK 4-4-4-12 (2x1GB)

Im not looking for a massive massive overclock just a fairly sensible easy one on air (tuniq 120)

Question is am I likely to get both those memory set working together for 4GB, issue may be Geil wants 2.1-2.3v Gskill is 1.9-2.0v
...

I'm not sure about mixing memory from different manufacturers, but hopefully the following links might help a little. You might also try emailing abit's tech support for a definitive answer. Best of luck. :)

Abit's memory compatibility list


The Abit IP35-Pro webpage
 
I am looking at the Gigabyte GA_P35_DS4 and the Abit IP35 Pro. Both boards get excellent reviews. At first the DS4 was my choice, but the more I read about the Abit IP35 Pro the more interested I am in it. Its getting some very high praise at the moment.
 
They are both good boards & it probably comes down to where your priorities lie.
The DS4 has a better sound codec, better Gigabit performance & (currently) better firewire performance.
The abit has better hardware monitoring/fan control & things like the LED POST reporter, external clearCMOS etc.
Also I believe that if the x4 slot is used on the Gigabyte as x4 for a RAID controller etc. that the other PCI-E x1s are disabled unlike on the abit.
 
8igdave said:
I meant what were the reasons for your choise. I rather know why you prefer one over the other other then saying this one is best. If you get me lol.

Sorry - I missed this. The DS4 is an easier upgrade from someone who had a P965 Gigabyte board, and the overclocking is very straightforward.

eg.

Increase FSB until no boot. Recycle power 4 times to reload last known good BIOS settings and increase voltages. Repeat until no further improvement is found.

The IP35 Pro does give better maximum clocks with the same CPU, but you need the external reset switch and it's just that little bit less intuitive. It is the better motherboard though.

The P5K keeps blue-screening, or devices stop working, and I've had more Vista crash reports from the P5K than the other two boards put together.

I also really like the look of the DS4 - like a miniature city with a huge skyscraper and the little buildings around it. Real copper heatsinks = real cooling and quieter real-world overclocks.
 
Networking

I, too am stuck between the Abit and the DS4. The Abit loses a point because of the Ethernet performance but lets get real here, it still 700Mbits/sec - more than enough for home use.

I think I am going to opt for the DS4.

Steve
 
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