Product Listing

abit IP35 Pro "Off Limits" (Intel P35)

By Zachary Chan - 16 Nov 2007

Conclusion

Conclusion

The abit IP35 Pro is one of those boards you just want to root for because it is an abit. And since Computex back in June, we've been hearing good things about it. Now that the board has arrived, we see that abit has made an effort to develop a good, solid motherboard - in a classic sort of way. The strengths of the abit IP35 Pro lie in its smart PCB design and layout, which is one of the best we've seen outside of ASUS. There is nary a connector or header that conflicted or blocked another, facilitating good air flow.

Still, the IP35 Pro can hardly be called 'no-frills'. We've got no real problems with the feature payload of the IP35 Pro as abit has ensured that all angles are covered for storage, audio, graphics, connectivity and networking support, though maybe we've got a thing or two to say about its networking capabilities. Two Gigabit LAN ports are a common occurance today, but having both ports fed by PCI based controllers might pose as a bottleneck for high-speed transimissions.

abit's choice to stick with DDR2 is also an obvious one. DDR3 is here of course and we're seeing manufacturers pushing the enthusiast envelop with ever greater speeds. However, with prices more than double that of DDR2 and less than satisfactory performance returns (for standard DDR3-1066/1333 modules) to compensate, most manufacturers have continued with DDR2 designs.

From our benchmark testing, the performance of the IP35 Pro is commendable, as we've seen some strong memory subsystem performance numbers from this board. On the downside, its graphics subsystem seems to be a little weaker than the competition, which resulted in lowered overall performance numbers in most benchmarks. Overclocking was also not what we expected, performing within the lower ranges of the Intel P35 chipset - not exactly the overclocking monster we had expected it to be. Still, we must stress that no two boards are the same as we've seen high FSB numbers from the very same board reported elsewhere. One thing is for sure, the abit micro-Guru BIOS options for overclocking and monitoring is still one of the most comprehensive around and that has to count for something right?

In many ways, the abit IP35 Pro reminds us of the ASUS Commando motherboard, which was another a 'no-frills' board that was designed to offer performance and overclocking above featuers. For US$180, the abit IP35 Pro also falls into a more affordable pricing bracket for high-end P35 motherboards. The IP35 Pro is a solid Intel P35 offering from abit and is one of those boards that you will find yourself recommending to friends easily. However, it lacks a certain distinction or quality if you will that will make it a true classic like the ASUS Commando or Gigabyte's DS3.

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