Abit has announced the availability of the IP35P motherboard, a budge P35 based board with some overclocking tweaks. Abit has included a "Clear CMOS" switch on the real panel, so the board can be reset to the stock configuration without the need the open the computer's case.
Although this is an almost essential feature to an overclocker, the rest of the motherboard is mostly disappointing.
While some companies, like Asus, have already provided 1600MHz FSB support with P35 chipsets, Abit releases an "overclocking" motherboard which only supports 1333MHz officially. Also, and although the new "Penryn" 45nm CPUs have less power consumption than the previous generation, a three phase PWM design in a motherboard aimed at overclocking, isn't the best solution. Worse though is the use of only two solid capacitors for the PWM area, instead of the six that the motherboard employs. Hopefully, the retail motherboard will differ from the picture provided and have all six.
I wouldn't try to overclock quad-cores with this motherboard, but dual-core E8000 series "Wolfdale" processor overclocking should be quite feasible, with a considerable amount of long term reliability.
The rest of the motherboard has a generally good layout although the 8-pin 12v ATX connector could be better placed; in the end, the BIOS will dictate if it stands up to the needs of overclocking.
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