Hello,
I am not sure where to ask this but I am looking for a Core2Duo-based board and I have looked at Asus and Gigabyte boards mostly but I came across an IP35 Pro board. The specs and price looked good until I went to the Abit website. It's just horrible.

First of all, it doesn't look like the board is supported yet. There is an ad for the board but no drivers or bios (update) anywhere. So, if you bought the board now, you couldn't do much with it. The download section doesn't list the board anywhere. I was shocked.

I wouldn't buy an Abit product right now.

I am not done with my complaints either. Their website makes it difficult to search as I guess they want to avoid spammers. But, in doing so, they make it difficult for people who just want to look at their products and access their forum.

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone bought the mb and what is going on regarding the BIOS and any drivers. I would be worried if it is so slow to support, it is bound to have problems later on.

It is too bad as the price was not great but not bad for a P35 chipset board. I think I will stick to Asus and Gigabyte who have lots of updated support.

well, it sounds more like a rant so far than a question ...

Strangely enough the mobo comes with a CD with drivers, utilities etc. not to mention that you usually get the latest from the component mfrs own sites (e.g. Intel for chipset, Realtek for LAN, sound .

That's your right & no one is forcing you others incl myself may have a different view.

Again subjective I suppose - personally I find the website easier & faster than e.g. Asus & the abit-USA forum is a far nicer community.

On the other hand lots of updates may mean that there were lots of problems to start with ...
The other thing that you have to remember is that Asus & Gigabyte weren't supposed to start selling P35 mobos when they did almost a month before the official launch date of Jun 4th so they effectively have a month start.
Anyway, the early reports say that the IP35 Pro works out of the box with no major problems reported so far & it overclocks very well (I've seen a 610fsb screenie). It's also well priced against the P5K series.

It may interest you to know that the USA site is always a little behind the main Global/Taiwan site. So check the abit.com.tw site for downloads for the board. It's also good to check their ftp site now and then as files show up there first.
Buff is right - the forum linked at the USA site is full of helpful people... like Buff.

Go to Abit's Global Site http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/index.php

I've had an AW9D-Max for a while now and the global site has up to BIOS V5 but the US site has V3. Also the US site just got reworked and as far as I can tell it looks like it used to. I like Abit's higher end boards but the lower end sucks and none of them get good support.

Thanks, guys! I guess I was a bit harsh but I was frustrated to find very few downloads on a major manufacturer's website. It didn't occur to me to go to the other site.

It does change things but I am also looking at the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R which is cheaper currently. I will have to check out the Abit page, though. Thanks for the info.

If you can't find what you want locally sometimes you have to go global

I just built on the IP35 Pro, with 4x500GB RAID5, 4GB RAM, E6600, 8600GT and a 6600GT, running an Acer 24" and two Samsung 20" LCDs in triple-head, a SATA DVD and an IDE DVD, with an external HDD using the eSATA.

It all worked. All of it. No stability or driver issues with the board. Only thing I haven't used/tested is Overclocking and Sound.

My only (minor) complaints:

The CPU power plug is on the very top of the board, so in my Antec P180 case the Enermax Liberty PSU power cord BARELY made it to the CPU power plug.

The Sata ports are at 90-degrees rather than directly upright. This made plugging the four HDDs and the DVD Burner more difficult.

The minor stuff like extra firewire and USB ports and the LEDs were kinda hard to plug in once inside the box. But that was probably my fault for waiting until it was in the box, or until the two video cards were already in.

Considering the debacle with many P965 boards (DVD drives couldn't boot on the JMicron IDE ports, or a sata DVD burner would disrupt chipset raid, etc), this is an outstanding release of a new chipset. The thing even looks really good. Great feature set on the back ports (the two PS2 ports are important since my KVM is still PS2).

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS BOARD SUPPORTS DDR3 ??

Per Abit's website: 4 X 240-pin DIMM sockets support max. memory capacity 8GB. Supports Dual channel DDR2 800/667/533 Un-buffered Non-ECC memory

Scottoliver,your thinking of the Abits 2 X-38 mobo's that should be out in Q-4 one supports DDR2 and DDR3.One was the revised Quad Gt which supports DDR2,The other (can't remember the model #) supports both.
That Abit IP-35 Pro looks to be the one for me,when N.E. gets em back in stock

What about the regular Abit board with 'Dark Raider' on the box?

I think that board looks good. Is anyone here familiar with that board? I'm comparing it to the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R board. They seem comparable but the Abit board is a little more expensive. I've narrowed it down to those two boards.

I'm building a system this month also and I've narrowed my Mobo search to those two boards as well. Most folks seem to think the P35 is the way to go if your trying to future-proof your build a bit. I don't build often. Both boards seem to be reviewed pretty well and the comments on Newegg seem positive. I don't see a lot of difference between the two boards except price. The Gigabyte board is $50 cheaper which is considerable though. I don't have any experience with Gigabyte boards. This would be my first. Seems like they have been on a roll lately from what I've been reading (last 9 months anyway). It's high time I pulled the trigger huh. I plan on putting a Q6600 & DDR2 in one of those two mobos (Antec 900 case). Anybody have any major positive for either board that should make one a clear cut winner? If all things were equal...I'd pick the Abit as I've had good experience with them in the past (hmm...$50 more though...I could by the CPU cooler with that $). I'll have to look at the location of the PSU connection on the boards as I've seen several comments about difficulty reaching the connection when you use a case like the 900 (PSU at bottom of case).

Good Luck

mwave have it for $113 after rebate so it's not that expensive

principally what you miss out on from the Pro are the 2nd x16 (physical, x4 electrical) PCIE slot, uGuru, 2nd Gb NIC, 2x eSATA.
Actual performance is similar supposedly.

& it has firewire where the DS3R doesn't.

I have to order it from a Canadian retailer/seller.

I'm also looking at the MSI P35 Platinum but holding off to see if it reduces anymore in price. It's $15 cheaper now and who knows, it might reduce even more soon? The problem with the Gigabyte board is the reported noise that it makes. I will go to the Gigabyte forum section to see what Gigabyte owners are saying. I like the Abit but on the hardware.info website, it is last in a graphics and memory comparison. It also has the 'double boot' problem?