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Intel D975XBX: Intel brings their Bad-Axe to Market

 by Gary Key on January 26, 2006 12:05 AM EST
34 Comments | Add A Comment
34 Comments
INTEL D975XBX: Features

Intel designed a very well laid out board with all major connections easily reached. The board is lacking most clearance issues and was simple to install in a mid-size ATX case. The board features a 5-phase voltage regulator power design that contributed to excellent stability. The MOFSETS are now passively cooled via decorative heat sinks that certainly offer additional stability over the prior Intel D955XBK board that was a 4-phase design with inadequate cooling around the CPU area.

The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup. The memory modules are simple to install with a full size video card placed in the first PCI Express x16 slot. The power plug placement favors standard ATX case design and the power cable management is very good. The floppy drive port connector is conveniently located on the edge of the board along with the 24-pin ATX power connector.

The Intel ICH7R IDE port connector is located on the edge of the board and did not present any connection issues in our mid-size ATX case.

The Intel SATA ports are conveniently located below the ICH7R chipset and to the left of the primary IDE connector. The SATA ports feature the new clamp and latch design. Unlike other 975x boards, the SATA ports are not color-coded for primary and secondary operation. We found the positioning of the SATA ports to be excellent when utilizing the ATI CrossFire cards in the primary and secondary PCI Express connectors.

The Silicon Image SiI 3114 SATA RAID port connectors are clustered on the left edge of the board. The Intel USB connectors and chassis panel are located below the SiI 3114 port connectors and to the left of the Intel SATA port connectors. The BIOS configuration jumper block is a traditional jumper design located above the IDE port connector. The location of this jumper was acceptable during repeated usage.

The board comes with (3) physical PCI Express x16 connectors and (2) PCI 2.3 connectors. The layout of this design offers a good balance of slots and allows for additional add-in peripheral cards.

The first physical x16 connector located next to the MCH heat sink is the primary PCI Express connector and is set up for electrical routing in x16 or x8 operation. The x16 interface supports full duplex transfers up to 8 GBytes/second in x16 operation and single-ended transfers are supported up to 4 GBytes/second in x8 operation.

The next physical x16 connector is the secondary PCI Express connector and is set up for electrical routing in x8 operation. This connector also fully supports x4 and x1 PCI Express add-in cards. The final physical x16 connector is set up for electrical routing in x4 operation and fully supports x4 or x1 PCI Express add-in cards.

We did not have any issues installing an ATI X850 Crossfire Edition setup in the primary and secondary x16 PCI Express slots. This configuration will physically render the first PCI slot useless. There were no issues utilizing this slot with video cards containing single slot cooling systems.

Returning to the CPU socket area, we find ample room for alternative cooling solutions. We utilized the stock Intel heat sink, but also verified several aftermarket cooling systems such as the Thermaltake Big Typhoon would fit in this area during our tests. However, due to the large MCH heat sink and the MOFSET heat sinks, installation of large air or water cooling solutions could be problematic. While the MOFSET heat sinks are decorative and provide additional cooling, they did present issues when changing out heat sinks due to their height and proximity to the mounting holes.

The MCH and ICH chipsets are passively cooled with heat sinks that do not interfere with any installed peripherals. In fact, this system kept the chipsets cool enough that additional chipset voltage was not a factor in our overclocking tests. Intel places the eight-pin 12V auxiliary power connector at the top of the CPU socket area, but out of the way of most aftermarket cooling solutions. However, the 4-pin auxiliary power connector is located in a difficult position and can hamper airflow with cabling that crosses over the heat sink.

The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel port, serial port, LAN port, and 4 USB ports. Located below the parallel port and to the right of the serial port is the Coaxial S/PDIF port. The LAN (RJ-45) port has two LED indicators representing Activity and Speed of the connection. The audio panel consists of 5 ports that can be configured for 2, 4, 6, and 8-channel audio connections along with the Optical S/PDIF port.

Basic Features INTEL D975XBX: Overclocking
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  • BigP - Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - link

    Im a self build Virgin - but I'm going in at the deep end. Intel's site makes their Dual Core stuff sound awsome!(a) Is it?(b)Should I look to spend my cash elsewhere when considering a motherboard/processor?

  • Gary Key - Saturday, July 15, 2006 - link

    This board is fine for stock performance and if you get rev-0304 it works very well with Core 2 Duo.

  • FOXY25 - Sunday, February 4, 2007 - link

    hi that are my system setting. My system sometimes make complete restart and i dont know why. I have change entire board with another and nothing. Do y think that could be in memory i have 2x DDR2 1024 MB at 800 Mhz Kingmax. thanks for answer.Foxy


    ====== Board ======
    Manufacturer Intel Corporation
    Product Name D975XBX
    Version AAD27094-306
    Serial Number BQBX645001ND
    BIOS Version BX97510J.86A.1476.2007.0119.1334
    BIOS ROM Size 512 KB
    BIOS Release Date 19.1.2007

    ====== Processor ======
    Manufacturer Intel(R) Corporation
    Processor Name Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6400 @ 2,13GHz (2 Cores)
    Bus Speed 1067 MHz
    Processor Speed 2,133 GHz
    Stepping 6
    Form Factor Other
    Hyper-Threading Technology Status Not Supported

    ====== Cache ======
    L1 Cache Data Cache 32 KB, Code Cache 32 KB Per Processor Core
    L2 Cache 2048 KB Unified Cache (2048 KB Cache Per 2 Cores)

    ====== Memory ======
    Error Correction Single-bit ECC
    Maximum System Memory 4 GB
    Memory Slots 4

    ---- CHAN A DIMM 0 ----
    Socket Designation CHAN A DIMM 0
    Current Memory Type DDR2
    Installed Size No Module Installed

    ---- CHAN A DIMM 1 ----
    Socket Designation CHAN A DIMM 1
    Current Memory Type DDR2
    Installed Size 1024 MB
    Memory Speed 800 MHz

    ---- CHAN B DIMM 0 ----
    Socket Designation CHAN B DIMM 0
    Current Memory Type DDR2
    Installed Size No Module Installed

    ---- CHAN B DIMM 1 ----
    Socket Designation CHAN B DIMM 1
    Current Memory Type DDR2
    Installed Size 1024 MB
    Memory Speed 800 MHz

    ====== Onboard Devices ======
    #Device Type Ethernet
    Device Description Intel (R) 82562 Ethernet Device
    Device Status Enabled
    #Device Type Sound
    Device Description Intel(R) Azalia Audio Device
    Device Status Disabled
    #Device Type Other
    Device Description Silicon Image 3114 SATA RAID Controller
    Device Status Disabled
    #Device Type Other
    Device Description Texas Instruments TSB82AA2 1394A/B Controller
    Device Status Disabled

    ====== Hard Drive ======
    #Model ST3320620AS
    Max. Transfer Mode UDMA 6 (ATA/133)
    Active Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA/100)
    S.M.A.R.T. Status Enabled
    Size 298,09 GB
    #Model ST380811AS
    Max. Transfer Mode UDMA 6 (ATA/133)
    Active Transfer Mode UDMA 5 (ATA/100)
    S.M.A.R.T. Status Enabled
    Size 74,53 GB

  • JarrettV - Thursday, February 23, 2006 - link

    Does this board support dolby digital live in the sigmatel audio chipset? I'm looking to replace my old SoundStorm setup.

    Also, does Intel High Definition = Dolby Digital Live support?

  • neilfeier - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - link

    Unlike most users of this motherboard that want to use the dual x8 PCIe slots for graphics, I want to use them for benchmarking a pair of x4 data acquisition boards we are developing. I want to test max rates to and from memory, as well as peer-to-peer transfers between the two boards (assuming the MCH allows this).

    So my question is: Do you think I can I put a x16 or x8 PCIe graphics card in the third x4 PCIe slot hanging off the south bridge? I don't care about graphics performance too much, I just want a dual monitor card that will work in that slot and leave the main two slots free.

    And ideas on this would be helpful. Thanks!

  • Gary Key - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - link

    I will try it this weekend and report back.

  • neilfeier - Friday, March 3, 2006 - link

    Thanks Gary, I anxiously await the results of your experiment.

    Neil

  • Gary Key - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    Hi Neil,

    I had video working in this slot. I updated to the new bios release today and will test the performance in a couple of days.

    Thanks,
    Gary

  • Gary Key - Tuesday, March 28, 2006 - link

    Neil,

    Performance is average but it works.

    Gary

  • Missing Ghost - Monday, January 30, 2006 - link

    quote:
    The x16 interface supports full duplex transfers up to 8 GBytes/second in x16 operation and single-ended transfers are supported up to 4 GBytes/second in x8 operation.

    error! That's not how pcie works! pcie is always full duplex, and never single-ended!
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