Intel D975XBX2 Desktop Motherboard Review :: Intel D975XBX2 Features

Intel D975XBX2 Spec Sheet
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Part Number	D975XBX2
Manufacturer	Intel
Price Check	Find Best Price
Downloads	BIOS Drivers Manuals
Chipset	Intel 975X Express ICH7R
North Bridge	Intel 82975X MCH
Socket	LGA775 Socket
Processor Types	Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo, Pentium 4, Pentium D
Number of CPUs	1
Front Side Bus	1066/800/533MHz
Memory Type	DDR2
Memory Channels	Dual
Maximum Memory	8GB
External Graphics	PCI Express x16
IGP	None
South Bridge	Intel 82801GR ICH7R
Audio	8-channel
IDE	100/66/33
SCSI	None
SATA	3.0 GB/s
RAID	0, 1, 0+1, 5, 10
LAN	10/100/1000
Firewire	None
USB	USB 2.0
Expansion Slots
BIOS	Phoenix
Form Factor	ATX

• Crossfire
• ICH7DH SouthBridge
• 82975X MCH Northbridge
• Sigmatel High Definition Audio CODEC
• Intel Matrix Storage Utility

ATI introduced Crossfire in late 2005 rather late to the market for Multiple-GPU solutions. Due to numerous issues including lack of game support, the Dongle that hung outside of the system to connect two cards and the fact that a specialized "Crossfire" edition of the card had to be purchased to run Crossfire, it never took off as well as NVIDIA's SLI technology.

The BadAxe2 comes with three PCI Express x16 slots. You can use the board in Crossfire mode by installing two ATI video cards into the first and third slots. With two cards installed the PCI Express x16 lanes are run in x8 mode. The third slot is available for x4 operation whether as a third video card or for other PCI Express devices such as a RAID card or LAN card. Also on the board are two PCI slots.

The ICH7DH Southbridge is the one included with the BadAxe2 board. The main difference between the ICH7-DH and ICH7-R chips is support for Intel's Quick Resume Technology for the PC. Four SATA ports are on the board controlled by the ICH7-DH RAID controller with an additional four controlled by a Marvell SATA controller bringing the total SATA ports on the board to 8. A single PATA port is also on the board offering legacy IDE support for DVD-ROM drives.

Onboard sound is provided by a Sigmatel Audio CODEC. This CODEC supports Intel's Audio Studio application and Sonic Focus audio filter that makes for a cleaner sound. The Sigmatel CODEC fully supports Intel's High Definition Audio standard (H.D.A.) and was the replacement for the AC'97 standard that was the audio standard for years. H.D.A. supports 7.1 Surround Sound natively, multiple audio streams and is Dolby Digital Live certified.

A Marvell 88SE6145 PHY controls the onboard Gigabit ethernet LAN port. Also on the rear IO are a Firewire port, 4 USB 2.0 ports, a Parallel port, a COM1 port, the six audio jacks for the onboard sound and the PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard ports. Intel has clearly done an excellent job with the rear I/O as the only really glaring omission would be the replacement of the COM1 port and Parallel port with two more USB ports as I'm not a fan of legacy devices.

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