Another nice feature is the external CMOS switch on the rear I/O panel to reset the BIOS if something goes badly wrong, using this switch saves fumbling about on the motherboard looking for the CMOS jumper. Joining this switch on the rear panel are the two eSATA ports; two PS/2 ports; six audio ports, including in and out optical SPDIF ports for the integrated eight-channel audio; four USB 2.0 ports - the motherboard has four more USB 2.0 headers; and a pair of LAN ports for the two Realtek RTL8100SC Gigabit Ethernet controllers.

PCMark05 Results

Longer bars are better

When it comes to performance, there's not a great deal to choose between the Abit and other P35-based boards. We tried all the boards with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; 2GB of Corsair PC2-6400 DDR 2 memory; a 250GB, 7,200rpm Western Digital WD2500AAKS hard drive; and an Enermax Infiniti 720 power supply.

3DMark06 Results

3DMark 06 Overall scores
Longer bars are better

3DMark 06 CPU scores
Longer bars are better

But, small though it's lead was, the Abit did deliver better scores than the others. That said, it's important to mention that the Foxconn was the first board to market with the P35 chipset and therefore an early BIOS, which is why it seems to lag a little behind the later boards.

CineBench 9.5 Results

Longer bars are better

Related stories

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• Intel 'Penryn' Core 2 Extreme QX9770 and X48 chipset
• Intel 'Penryn' Core 2 Extreme QX9650
• Nvidia GeForce 7150/nForce 630i integrated chipset
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.67GHz desktop processor
• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 & MSI P35 Diamond mobo
• Gigabyte Odin GT 800W power supply unit
• EVGA 680i LT SLI nForce-based motherboard

Abit backs the IP35 Pro with a two-year warranty and should a faulty board be sent back and fixed, the returning board comes with a fresh two-year warranty.

Verdict

Abit's IP35 Pro is a well-featured, fast-performing motherboard with the stability to please most users. For those folk that like to overclock their systems, the BIOS is a treasure house of things to adjust. The inclusion of the external CMOS switch is a real boon, as nothing is more frustrating when things go awry with the BIOS and you have to keep shorting out jumpers. For a higher end board it's not badly priced either.