Core 2 Duo MBO Round-up: Part 4 - Intel D975XBX2
Author: Josip Brombauer
Date: 20 Nov 2006

Intel D975XBX2
The successor to the well known Intel Bad Axe motherboard has recently been launched as the preferred Intel platform for the new Quad Core Kentsfield CPUs. The layout of the board hasn?t changed much from the D975XBX, the two boards are nearly identical, with just minor differences here and there. Differences, however, are seen in the specifications. Apart from the quad core support, the Bad Axe 2 brings official DDR2-800 support, an eSATA port, SATA 3G speeds on the secondary SATA controller, a further enhanced BIOS with more O/C features, and finally, a power switch on the board itself. We?ve been waiting for quite a long time to see this feature on an Intel motherboard, it seems that times are really changing.
The cooling solution on the chipset hasn't changed; it's still the same old passive heatsinks on the northbridge, southbridge and the MOSFETs that we remember from the original Bad Axe. Even though there is no heat-pipe present, the cooling is more than adequate for the amount of heat this board generates.
One of the major advantages of the Bad Axe 2 remains the ATI CrossFire multi-GPU configuration support, which is bound to become more popular now that the new Catalyst drivers no longer require a master/slave setup in order for CrossFire to work. Of note is the choice by Intel to put three physical x16 PCI Express slots on the MBO, even though only one of them is electrically x16. The second slot is really x8, while the third is x4. The board comes with two PCI slots as well.
Another new feature is support for Corsair and Nvidia?s EPP (Enhanced Performance Profile) technology. When the board senses the presence of EPP memory modules, it can auto-configure the modules to work at optimised latency and voltage settings.
There is one IDE channel, eight SATA 3G and eight USB 2.0 channels available. Gigabit LAN is controlled by the Intel 82573E/82573L, and the 8-channel Sigmatel 9274D takes care of HD audio. The I/O panel includes optical and coaxial S/PDIF outputs, FireWire, PS/2, serial and LPT ports.
The BIOS rises up to the challenge, additional modifications from the first Bad Axe making it possible for you to tweak everything you need, and also many things you may never really need?