Got my Abit IP35 pro up and running:case: Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000 salvaged from my MSi K8N Neo2ps: Antec Neo HE 550 also salvagedmb: Abit IP35 pro (Bios v10)cpu: Q6600 SLACRhs: Thermalright Ultima 90 (got from heatsink factory -- good svc)fan: 120mm scythe s-flex 1600rpmram: 2x1Gb Corsair 6400 twin-x c4 (4-4-4-12)graphics: EVGA 8800 GTS 320 super clockhd: WD caviar 16 7500AAKShd2: WD caviar 16 2500 salvaged from MSi systemdvd: Pioneer DVR-112Dfloppy: Mitsumi (or maybe teac?) salvaged from MSi systemAssembly: Abit manual very good. HSF install very easy, but the way the HS attaches it can rotate quite a bit. Fitting the graphics took some work. I had to move my hard drives to the top and bottom slots of the hd cage so that the tail end of the graphics would clear. The mb is currently shipping with both straight and 90 degree SATA cables. I used the straight. The location of the firewire connectors is under the cooling part of the graphics when installed, making a very tight fit. I got it in, but the cables from the firewire connectors are crossing the PCI slots so adding a sound card would be a chore. I had to dremel the addon card retention clips (toolless design) on the case to get the double-width EVGA card installed.System fired up in default BIOS settings with no issues. Had no reason to use the boot code display on the mb. Installed WinXP Pro on fresh partition and installed chipset, sound, LAN, e-SATA drivers. I've completed a 48 hr burn-in. All I've done is bump Vcore to 1.33 and Vddr to 2.1. I set the Ram to 1:1 and for burn in just set the FSB to 280MHz. I will probably flash the v11 bios before tweaking up the fsb. I would like to get 333 (x9) or so.I have vista business x86 (don't need any media center stuff) waiting to go into a dual-boot.Any ideas on voltage settings appreciated. I've seen some suggestions of Vcore as high as 1.4 to allow for droop, and different things on MCH, GTLref, etc.scott s..

I would like to see how good the Q6600 can OC by it. See if it can get near 3.6 or 4G stable.I hear people use 1.4+ for testing higher FSB first. When it get stable, then lower the Vcore down and see where is the stable limit.Good luck!Alkit

What is a SLACR?Is that a G0-stepped Q6600? RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>What is a SLACR?>>Is that a G0-stepped Q6600? Yesscott s..

Nice build, Enjoy the new computer! You can see the specs of my rig in my signature. What kinda of temps are you looking at w/ your HSF under full load?Cheers,Scott

My temps are way high. I'm going to have to pull that HSF off and try a reinstall. I did a lapping on it, but then saw something suggesting that it is intentionally rounded as designed. It's still a little rounded now, but not like before! The Coretemp 0.95 temps are about 15 deg higher than what the Abit EQ app shows. Everything I read says trust coretemp. My ambient air temp is 32-33 which doesn't help either.scott s..

When you lape you need to make sure and lape the base of the HSF as well. Most times the basses of the HSF aren't 100% flat either. I'm assuming when you lapped the processor you used a piece of glass with the specific grit sand paper. Post some pics of the lapped processor. One thing you can do to check if it is 100% flat is to use a razor blade and light source (flash light). On a side note I feel you pain w/ ambient temps, I live in phoneix and it's still in the 100's right now. If you need any help OC'ing w/ the IP35Pro visit XS forums, there is an entire thread dedicated to the mobo. Scott

Right now I'm running 330x8 and idle coreTemp .95 is around 50 with environment temp 31.1. Abit uGuru reports 41. Been looking at some different forums and I see many different results reported for temps, so I am skeptical of what the "real" max allowed. I'm getting about 65 when load testing. I've also seen various theories about how good the thermalright is, but I guess that's true of everything. One thing I noticed, that other posters have as well, is that with the HSF mount screws bottomed out, it is still possible to twist the HSF on the proc IHS. This is my first LGA775 build, so maybe that's just how it is on this design. Thermalright responded to someone that the static load was within Intel spec.I want to shoot for 400x8.scott s..

Why are you lowering the multiplier? Tests show by doing that you really only increase synthetic benchmarks, ie (super pi, pc mark, ect.) Why not just run a ram divider if your try to squeeze the extra little bit outa the ram? The temps look fine, what are you using to load the processor, Prime Small FTT Torture test? If it were my processor i would go NO MORE than 70C but 65C is a comfort zone. I have seen guys go all the way up to 80+C and thats just pure insanity. I'll play around a little and see what performance difference there is in running (400x8) vrs (355x9). Right now the max overclock on my chip is around 3.9ghz, temps are not holding me back but the vdrop on the mobo is. I cant stand setting 1.59 volts in the bios and havin the board drop .08-.1 volts under full load. BTW how is fsx running for you and what settings are you using? Im having a hard time finding good medium between a OC'ing and FSX settings.scott

I want to go 400x8 so that my ram at 1:1 is at DDR800, as it's rated. I have no idea if it makes any difference than using 355x9 and using a ram ratio, but at this point I want to keep the ram out of the oc equation.don't have FSX up yet. I just got Active Sky 6.5 installed on FS9. Want to get my FS9 stuff loaded before doing the FSX install. I also have Vista Biz waiting to install dual boot, about 30 scenery tools (well, maybe not quite that many). Meanwhile I had a family member who wanted me to troubleshoot her lan and router via long distance which killed 2 days. scott s..

>My temps are way high. I'm going to have to pull that HSF>off and try a reinstall. I did a lapping on it, but then saw>something suggesting that it is intentionally rounded as>designed. It's still a little rounded now, but not like>before! The Coretemp 0.95 temps are about 15 deg higher than>what the Abit EQ app shows. Everything I read says trust>coretemp. My ambient air temp is 32-33 which doesn't help>either.>>scott s.>.>Scott, unless you are in need of a silent system, a very excellent cooling option if your PC room is set up for this is to intall a low BTU in-wall air conditioner, then place your PC with side access panel off maybe 6" in front of the AC unit as I have done. I bought and installed a SHARP whisper quiet AC unit, I think it was around 9K BTU, and it serves two very nice purposes: cools the entire guts of my oclocked northwood system, including memory, northbridge, mainboard, GPU, CPU, FOUR 15K SCSI HDD's, plus it cools the room itself. Some other added value is that this AC unit has 3 fan speeds, with and without AC, so there are plenty of options which you can control via remote to meet your cooling needs. I run my 3.06 P4 at nearly 3.5GHz with a retail HSF, and it is always stable. As a side note, even in winter here in Nor California I can run the AC at say 70 degrees on a lower fan speed and the room does not get uncomfortably cold. The other huge benefit: this concept works WITH ANY SYSTEM, and never needs upgraded to meet the needs of a new system. Cost: $179 for the unit, plus I installed it, and it runs on 110v. Typical temps at peak load in dead of summer (we got hot here too!): CPU = 56C, GPU = 58-60C, mainboard = 26C, drives = 24C. Without this cooling my CPU will hit 70C easy on a warm day, if not higher tho never tried. When I first installed the AC unit I took some aluminum 4" ducting to route a larger portion of the AC output directly at the CPU, and discovered it was not necessary so took it off after a few months. P4 northwoods run at stock speeds fine up to 70, but 56C works fine with my level of overclock. I never run the AC at peak cool as it's just not necessary. Utility bills: <$100 in the summer here, and I have central air as well, but don't use it as the house is shaded well.Noise: really not an issue for me. The GPU and CPU fans in this rig are not that quiet anyway, and when AC is on it is a very low pitched sound so it is not any problem whatsoever. For applications not needing heavy duty cooling, such as Gigastudio for which I installed the 15K drives for, I run the rig without AC hence there is no additional noise when I am doing digital music/piano etc or other non-demand situations.I am looking at the ABIT board as well, however won't do anything until Penryns are out as my current rig is fine for FS9 which is what I use now.Noel

>Scott, unless you are in need of a silent system, a very>excellent cooling option if your PC room is set up for this is>to intall a low BTU in-wall air conditioner, then place your>PC with side access panel off maybe 6" in front of the AC unit>as I have done. >NoelHere in Minnesota we just open a window and shoot a fan at the case, but it gets tricky trying to fit your heals into the rudder pedals with those pac-boots on......;)Regards, KendallDell 8400 3.2 GHZ H.T.3GB 533 DDR2X800XT 256MB/Catalyst driver - 7.1's6x AA/16x HQ A/FDiamond Xtreme/Logitech X-530'sDual Monitor: Dell 2405/1905CH Yoke/Pedals - Saitek Throttle

Noel --That's not a bad idea. Costco was selling some portable AC units, though I'm not sure exactly how they are set up. Our power prices are the highest in the country which doesn't help. Normally we rely on the trade winds for cooling, but I think that works better with evaporation effect on skin.I'm slowly bringing up speeds to characterize how temp changes with speed. I've keep my volts steady from my initial tweak and now run 360x8 and it doesn't seem any hotter during normal computing. I haven't done a torture test yet as I'm still loading apps and FS9 stuff onto my system.scott s..

Scott, I also have the Abit IP35 Pro and the Thermalright Ultima 90. Can you tell me how you handled the installation of the Thermalright's back plate, which appears to sit on top of some "linear" tracers on the back of the motherboard? This is my very first build, and I don't want to do anything that might short out my motherboard! Also, did you get your heat issues resolved, and are you generally happy with your build? I can't wait to get mine up and running! I'm a bit nervous about using this board with my Patriot PC2-8500 RAM. According to some forum posts I've read, it doesn't want to POST with the IP35 Pro until you increase the voltage, and you can't increase the voltage until it POSTs. Aaaargh. I hope they're wrong! (Once you bump up the voltage, however, apparently the RAM works just fine with this mobo.) Thanks, - Lee P.S. I got my mobo from Newegg, and the HSF (also with the Scythe s-flex 1600rpm fan) from Jab-Tech. I'd highly recommend both vendors, and Jab-Tech's prices were a tad lower than the HS Factory's.

>Scott, >>I also have the Abit IP35 Pro and the Thermalright Ultima 90. >Can you tell me how you handled the installation of the>Thermalright's back plate, which appears to sit on top of some>"linear" tracers on the back of the motherboard? This is my>very first build, and I don't want to do anything that might>short out my motherboard! It seemed to me that there was sufficient clearance for the back plate. At least, I didn't pay much attention when installing. >>Also, did you get your heat issues resolved, and are you>generally happy with your build? I can't wait to get mine>up and running! >I'm still playing with it. I've gone back to x9 mulitplier. I'm still slowly speeding things up, while installing all my software and generally watching things. right now I'm at 341x9 with my RAM at 1:1.2, for a slight OC on the DDR2 800. This corsair RAM booted no problem @ 1.8v at default settings and then I set it to 2.1v and haven't had a problem.My room is a little cooler lately, for instance right now ambient is 28.2 and my cores on core temp are at 49, 45, 46, 49. It seems like core 0 and 3 are always a little hotter -- maybe a lapping issue (I didn't lap the CPU, just the TR HS base). I was running prime 95 on the 4 cores and the temp was slowly climbing. The hottest core was around 67 after a while and I stopped running it. I'm not sure where it would stabilize since I didn't want to have to continuously watch it.I notice the PWM temp reported by the Abit uguru gets high -- I think the highest I've seen is 68. I see some folks are pulling the heatpipes off the board and working on them to ensure they are flat and make solid contact. It might be worth giving this a close look before mounting the board (I think I would have to pull my board out to really inspect it at this point).>I'm a bit nervous about using this board with my Patriot>PC2-8500 RAM. According to some forum posts I've read, it>doesn't want to POST with the IP35 Pro until you increase the>voltage, and you can't increase the voltage until it POSTs. >Aaaargh. I hope they're wrong! (Once you bump up the>voltage, however, apparently the RAM works just fine with this>mobo.) I guess in the worst case you could get a 512 Mb stick just to get a first boot.>Thanks, >>- Lee >>P.S. I got my mobo from Newegg, and the HSF (also with the>Scythe s-flex 1600rpm fan) from Jab-Tech. I'd highly>recommend both vendors, and Jab-Tech's prices were a tad lower>than the HS Factory's. >HS Factory ships by USPS priority mail which is a big advantage for me in Hawaii.scott s..