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As mentioned before, there are a number of Intel P35 motherboards that offer support for DDR3 memory, and while we have a few of these boards on hand, such as the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe/Premium and the Gigabyte P35T-DQ6, we are deliberately excluding them from the comparison. At the moment just 2GBs of DDR3 memory will set you back around $400 which is quite ridiculous, making it pointless (for the time being) to buy a DDR3-capable motherboard given the price premium. That leaves us with the nine motherboards we are testing today that support DDR2 memory exclusively.

For this P35 round-up we have tried to include a high-end version and a budget version motherboard from each manufacturer. The boards will be put through the usual batch of tests, while we will also compare their overclocking abilities side by side. Before jumping into the benchmarks we will briefly list the features and go over the layout and design of each motherboard.


Initially we had planned to include a few MSI motherboards that were going to be supplied by the manufacturer itself. Unfortunately once we explained our plan for a comparison against competing boards, they got cold feet and pulled out. Not sure exactly what we should make of this, so make of it what you will. Because the news came somewhat last minute we did not have time to purchase these motherboards without delaying the article further, we apologize for the omission.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Abit IP35 Pro – Design

Compared to some of the other high-end P35 motherboards, the Abit IP35 Pro is very simple and even looks a little undressed. That said the IP35 Pro features more of a smart and neat design that is far from over the top. Those worried about how much clearance they will have around the CPU socket should not be too concerned with the IP35 Pro.

Abit has done an excellent job making sure that the IP35 Pro will not cause any (physical) compatibility issues with other hardware. The six SATA ports are mounted on a 90 degree angle making them easy to access and possible to use even when paired with Crossfire Radeon HD 2900XT graphics cards, for example. The same has been done with the single IDE port, though this is less of a problem for IDE cables.

The four DIMM slots are also clear of the PCI Express x16 area making it possible to add and remove memory with the graphics card(s) installed. The large 24-pin power connector is well placed along the right hand side of the board, towards the middle. In the bottom right hand corner you will notice two little buttons, a yellow and a brown button. The brown button is actually a power button while the yellow is a reset button. Directly below these two buttons you will find the floppy drive connector tucked away.

At the center of the board you will find the P35 northbridge chip which is cooled by a large aluminum heatsink. This heatsink is linked to the southbridge heatsink and the power circuitry heatsink using a single copper heatpipe. This design while quite simple by today's standards works very well. Surprisingly the Abit IP35 Pro only features a 4-phase power design which is more compact and easier to cool.

The I/O panel is not as busy as we would have liked it to be featuring just four of the ten USB 2.0 ports. Furthermore with so much vacant real-estate on the I/O panel why not include the Firewire ports? Instead you get two PS/2 ports, a clear CMOS switch, dual S/PDIF ports, two eSATA ports, six audio jacks, two LAN ports and the aforementioned four USB 2.0 ports.

Given that the IP35 Pro does only come with one expansion bracket out of the box it would have been nice to find a few more USB 2.0 ports on the I/O panel (so you are getting 6 out of 10 possible ports out of the box). Nevertheless the Abit IP35 Pro is still a good buy at $185 but it becomes more apparent why this motherboard is cheaper when compared to the high-end ASUS and Gigabyte boards. This does not necessarily make the IP35 Pro a lesser option as the PCI LAN controller and 4-phase power design are yet to show any problems
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9-way Intel P35 motherboard round-up

Anyone looking at building a new desktop system should not look any further than Intel Core 2 processors, and when time comes to pick a platform you should have Intel's own P35 chipset in mind as it officially offers 1333MHz FSB support and will be compatible with upcoming 45nm processors. This translates in a fairly 'future-proof' platform, with some models currently available supporting DDR3 memory already.

But as new as this chipset is, deciding that you want a P35-based motherboard is not enough. Most major manufacturers have already launched several different models powered by the chipset, to give an example, ASUS currently offers a dozen motherboards models all based on the Intel P35.

We have rounded up some of the better examples available for one big article where we shall compare them side by side. Although we have nine motherboards to compare, they come from just four different manufacturers: Abit, ASUS, ECS and Gigabyte. These boards range from $90, all the way up to $230.