The Official OC (OverClocking) Thread!

Searchin' For A mobo!

Well, in that case, look into the Abit IP35-E for great performance on a budget ($80.00) or Abits' award winning P35 Pro for ($170.00) for best performance per doller on a P35 chipset.

The low end Abit IP35-E "Hands Off" offers features not even found on other low to medium mobos (Gigabyte, MSI, ), such as PW Mosfet cooling, EATX 12v (8 pin) and of corse PLL and GTL Ref BIOS options. All very importent for especially quads, but even better for duals. This mobo with a dual hits 500FSB with ease. Only cons; it offers no RAID, or X-Fire, but if sticking to nVidia GPU, no prob.

The Abit IP35 Pro (I baught one new for test) is an awsome mobo for the doller/performance ratio. It has all the big BIOS options of the previous Abit Fatality ( I had that too) and some, like up to 7 BIOS profile save selectable on the fly. Very quick on the boot to with fully configured RAID. With supportive CPU, 535+ FSB is a snap and one of the highest for the P35 in its time (almost a year ago). Performance passes the DSR3 and 4 series and is very close to P5K Deluxe (YES, I ran both side by side cause I had to see for myself). I had not seen Abit this good since the IC7 series, and I was not too haoppy with my Fatality on !925XE and !975X, But wow, this one came through so I just wanted to share because it truely is a performance on a budget worth looking at.

If it's in the budget (tax returns) go for an X38 by ASUS for the best of overclocking on DDR2 (upto 1300MHz) with any core 2. $200.00 can get you an open box ASUS P5E. This is essentially the MAXIMUS FORMULA with some features awopped. P5E will offer rear pannel eSATA x2, but no LED Poster or onboard lights. The more expensive MAXIMUS FORMULA is really intended for overclocking for gaming, then media workstation, hence the absence of Wi-Fi and eSATA. But the P5E is a beautifull mobo and will take a quad core to 4GHz.

Or one can grab the ASUS P5K Deluxe new for same $200.00 and it of corse goes without saying, this mobo was and is currently the king of P35, even beating out some X38 on DDR2 (only due to inmature BIOS, but X38 is quickly passing that by).

Happy Researchin'!

 

Are you sure about the ABIT IP35-E? That's impressive. If you can confirm this then I'm not recommending the GA-P35-DS3L anymore.

 

What spacific point are you interested in? I didnt think to record much other then on notepad for my own use, but I can look for some records of the IP35-E. I did record some of the IP35-Pro since it was mine for messin with. I passed it on to a good friend and he loves it for the price.

Just to make clear, I was only reffering to the non RAID Gigabytes, as the DS3R is close in cometetion with the IP35-Pro except in the area of higher FSB due to coling on PWR and of lack E-ATX 12v, GTL and PLL tweaks. One especially point of interest (I loved it) is it is like the DFI C+P State comlient (meaning, it reduces the VID along with CPU ratio in TM2+C1E for added CPU cooling in idle, less vcore+less multi equals less heat for surfing the net) well above 450FSB and support of ACPI S3/S4 to 500FSB.

I can add, in faver of the GA-P35/C-DS3R, that if custom cooling by adding VGA copper RAM sinks to scattered PWM Mosfets can help cool when OC'd, especially for quads because with no PLL and GTL Ref to tweak, we're forced to crank up PCI-E/MCH/and CPU to make up for it.

So comparing the DS3R (even non "C") w/ the IP35-Pro the Abit does cost a good $60+ more but I feel it's worth it for the OC difference in this class of mobos.

 

sam dont bash a whole range of products by a company because they made some crappers in the past m8, they make some good solid boards now. its like saying all skoda cars pants as they made some skips in the past when in truth all their latest models are infact vw's rebadged.

ecs make one of the best versions of my current chipset on the market and they oc better than most other nf650i mobos from the likes of gigbyte, xfx and asus, would you consider that terrible? even crowey used to have an older ecs board that oced like stink before the mainstream makers even thought about adding the features to their boards so come on. yes they might still make some poor boards but who doesnt?


dont let the past cloud your judgement of today.

 

Last time I checked, ECS hadn't been taken over by VW. I still hear about ECS boards going wrong, so I feel I'm still right to say they are below the standard of other boards.

 

I never heard of ECS board, until recent;y you guys are talking about.

I lowered my voltage from 1.3250v to 1.0v and works, but it seriously messed up my pc totally, some programs won't run or even start, and it wouldn't let me shut down my pc, so after that nightmare i put it back to normal...phew!

@NuckNFuts
Make some more research on X38 chipsets! I love reading your research, making me reconsider getting a P35 board

 

Probably was't stable enough, try 1.1.

 

nah, i'm happy with normal volt, i was at 2.0ghz but i clock it back to normal.

 

ECS boards are well known as cheap boards that are not in any way made to be overclocked beyond basic 'why bother mode'.

However if you are looking a for a nice cheap board, then you are still better off missing ECS boards, as there is better value to be had with other more capable boards that are still cheaper.

The BIOS options are very limited in every section, low voltage settings, no clock locks, on top of poor quality components.

Only P35 chipset they make has max memory voltage of 2.0V, whereas most good memory used nowadays requires 2.1-2.4 to run at stock speed ie 8500 Ballistix and Dominator along with the host of others.

The following is a joke as far as price goes, as they are normally about £55-£60 which does not make it unmissable value at all, especially when you look at the options in the BIOS.

http://www.advancetec.co.uk/acatalog/ECS_775.html

£104 + Del

P.S.
I think that Skoda comparison was being too generous condsidering the VW take over, I would think something along the lines of Lada was more fitting --- no offense to all Lada owners out there (I would have said drivers, but they might well be off the road at ATM)

 

they know the rep they have and are working to change it, just wait. they had a nf680 that had no issues with quads when the likes of evga and asus were running around throwing together new revisions, they were the only ones i know of who had a digi on board mode switch for the nf650 when all the others used the ref design switcher card. they do cheap boards yes, but not all of them are. its like asrock too they make cheap boards but some of them are diamonds in the rough which are running c2d at 3.2ghz plus which is more than some have been able to get from more reknowned overclocking boards. would i now go and buy either....well probably not but im not going to totally dismiss them completly as they fill a niche in the market. i had a pita hyper psu, does that mean i should claim that the whole range is also of the same defective subpar nature?

love the lada joke btw, do they still make them??

 

Sorry couldn't resist.
If they do still make them, I'm up for one!!

 

@BigDK
You got a good enough mobo already

 

GTR, I think he is talking about a lada, which is a Russian Car, I think.

 

Will this make a diff on my current config? PNY GEforce 8600gt 256mb PCIe SLI For some reason it's lying around my house.

 

They do still make them - look!
http://images.hugi.is/bilar/123735.jpg
That's not even bad looking...

Jay: Nah, it's barely any faster than your 6800. Based on your current config I wouldn't go for anything less than an HD3850 if you upgrade.

 

poof, just embarressed myself ^^ to be honest never heard of lada

 

That's probably a good thing.

 

abuzar1,

I really wish you wouldn't do that! We get a lot of Newbies here and they read what you said above, and think the DS3L is not a good MB, when in fact it's a very good MB. Why would you stop recommending a board that's a known good quantity and a better than average overclocker? They are one of the most popular P35 motherboards on the market!

Quality and durability have always been an issue for the lower rung Abits as I've replaced more dead Abits (27) and MSIs (22) than any other brands over the years. Durability seems to be the issue! Most were out of warranty by only a few months! I'll stick to the known Quality and Ultra-Durable of the DS3L!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Me and my friends have had a few MSI boards over the years and never had any problems, but the only people I've known to have Abits have have had big issues, mainly with the BIOSes. So far nobody I know has had issue with gigabyte boards, and think how many people I've told to get one!

 

Well if is gives better performance, why not? You have a point about the quality though.

Man if I manage to sell this PC, I'm not building another one till Nehalem comes out.