BIOS Setup

Not rich accessories bundle, modest exterior design, brief list of technical specifications – all this is typical of a budget solution and is not intended to impress anyone. However, when it came to BIOS, it turned out that abit IP35P has something to boast. Moreover, in some aspects it even turned out superior to one of the top products in the lineup – abit IP35 Pro!

The abit IP35P BIOS is based on Phoenix-Award code. SoftMenu Setup section with options for voltage and frequency adjustment is the first in the list, which is typical of abit (and very convenient for overclockers):

This section looks very well-planned and convenient to work with. The first info line reports the processor model name and its current working frequency. External Clock parameter that can vary from 200 to 600MHz with 1MHz increment allows overclocking the CPU by raising the FSB frequency above the nominal value. Multiplier Factor parameter allows reducing the processor clock frequency multiplier from the nominal value down to the minimum. Moreover, fractional multipliers are supported from the very beginning, from the first BIOS version 1.0. Once you change the multiplier and the FSB frequency, the Estimated New CPU Clock info field will immediately report the resulting CPU frequency that you will get after rebooting the system.

The functioning of the DRAM Speed (CPU:DRAM) parameter is also very well arranged. This parameter sets the memory frequency. It reports the current memory frequency in brackets (DDR2-800), however, it doesn’t stay like that forever. As the FSB frequency increases, so does the memory frequency in appropriate proportion. The system will report the current memory speed and not the initial one in brackets (DDR2-800, DDR2-804, etc.). This is exactly the great feature that many other mainboards out there lack.

By the way, this is where abit IP35P mainboard appears superior to the higher-end abit IP35 Pro for the first time. We have already mentioned a few times that abit IP35 Pro has very few supported memory dividers and in this aspect it yields to several budget mainboards out there. And this is a perfect example: abit IP35P supports more dividers!

Let’s continue our side by side comparison. CPU Core Voltage parameter on abit IP35P allows increasing the processor voltage from the nominal value (in our case it is 1.175V) up to 1.95V with 0.02V increment, while abit IP35 Pro supports maximum 1.775V. As for the memory voltage, both boards support the same values: 1.8-3.0V with a small increment of 0.05V.

CPU VTT Voltage parameter on both mainboards depends on the chipset North Bridge voltage. MCH 1.25V Voltage setting is responsible for this parameter. The higher is the NB voltage the higher you can set CPU VTT Voltage. abit IP35 Pro supports 1.1-1.47V interval for CPU VTT Voltage, while abit IP35P supports 1.2-1.5V interval with a variable increment.