ASRock 4Core1600P35-WIFI+ or Abit IP35???

[Lonesloane]

ASRock 4Core1600P35-WIFI+ or Abit IP35???

I would like to buy one of those boards, combine it with a cheap 2160 or 2180 (until Quad-Penryn).

The Asrock has the added DDR-3 support, but how stable is it with high FSB? The Abit has heatpipe cooling and will probably run higher FSB.
How are the memory dividers? I have 4x1GB DDR2-800.
The price seems to be the same.
Any help is appreciated!


P.S.: there are 3 different versions of the Abit out there, which is the one to buy? (I want Firewire and eSata).

[Rkwok]

Hello Lonesloane, if overclocking is what you are looking for, then Abit should be the way to go.

[Lonesloane]

How about the DDR3-Support?
What about the missing PCI-E 2.0? Will the coming PCI-E 2.0 video cards be backward compatible with PCI-E 1.0? (without major performance decrease)

How high can the ASRock 4Core1600P35-WIFI+ be overclocked (FSB)?

[Lonesloane]

I really liked the fully equipped Asrock, but after a few hours testing, I decided to return it to the shop and replaced it with a Gigabyte P35C-DS3R.
This offers DDR3 as well, but no FiWi. However, a PCI FiWi is a cheap solution.

The K.O criterion for the Asrock was the missing memory divider, you can only set it to 667 or 800 for my DDR2-800, which leaves very little room for overclocking. Also, there was no option to lower the multiplicator of the cpu.

With the Gigabyte, you can set every combination just by adjusting Multi/FSB. The Bios appears much more grown-up than the Asrock BIOS.

Another advantage was the onboard sound with a coaxial digital out. I prefer coaxial, because it is much better than optical when you want to cover larger distances.

The best Bios, however, I found on the Abit IP35-E. Never seen such an Easy-to-use straightforward BIOS. If it had DDR3 support, I'd have taken the Abit IP-35.

[bluetooth]

ASRock 4Core1600P35-WIFI+ o/c to 560x6 on AIR using a E6550 processor (1333FSB). This is achieved by setting the BIOS to run the ES CPU at 6 x 540MHz. A pair of DDR2-1066 DDR2 modules were used, SPD timing is used. The memory was set to run at ASync DDR2-667 mode.

The system boots up at 6x540. We then used the ASRock OC Tuner and gradually increase the CPUCLK to 562MHz.

This proves that the the ASRock 4Core1600P35-WIFI+ is definitely a board made for overclockers. Imagine reaching such a high cpu clk on AIR, those who use LN2 should be able to do even more.

CPU voltage = 1.40v
DRAM voltage = 2.31v
NB, SB and VTT voltage all set to HIGHEST.
Jumpers FSB 1, 2 and 3 are set to positions 1-2.

Below are two screen shots of the CPU-Z and OC Tuner. You can read the full review at http://www.ocworkbench.com/2008/asro...5-WIFI+/g1.htm

[bluetooth]

Actually there is a hidden option that runs the ram at 533.

[Nuno]

Originally Posted by bluetooth

Actually there is a hidden option that runs the ram at 533.

Where??

[bluetooth]

The jumpers.

[Nuno]

Originally Posted by bluetooth

The jumpers.

Could you elaborate, please? I still don't get those jumpers. Reading the manual, they appear to need adjustment only if you use a fsb1600 cpu or DDR2-1066 RAM.

[bluetooth]

There is a special jumper setting not mentioned in the manual that sets it to DDR2-533 or something.