Intel D975 XBX2

It’s fair to say that the original D975XBX is one of my favourite boards of all time, I used one in the Driver Heaven review system for quite a while and the great overclocking potential mixed with real ease of use and excellent stability were ideal for our uses. Having a board in the test system which we know and trust makes things a lot easier when reviewing and so when the XBX2 was released we were very keen to check it out. When the board comes you immediately know it means business because of the sheer weight of the box...

On the front of the packaging we have the standard Intel design with some arty product shots and a list of some of the more important specifications such as Core2 and DDR2-800 support (up to 8Gb). Dolby master studio also gets a mention however there is nowhere near as much information as Abit provide. The back of the box follows a similar trend with a decent product shot and a number of features bullet pointed and explained to the end user. There is also a handy list of the box contents which when reading seem very impressive. The software list alone is 15 items long and includes products such as WinDVD and Norton Anti-Virus.

Included in the Intel bundle is a good collection of documentation, the highlight being the quick start guide which folds out to show all the important installation points via easy to follow diagrams. For those requiring a little more detail there is also a well written manual. Shown in the 2nd picture above is the second part of the bundle which consists of some cool looking Sata cables, rounded IDE cables and extra USB ports. Other notable inclusions are the 4 to 8pin power converter which allows users with older PSU’s to power the board and the raid drivers on floppy which come colour coded to match the relevant sockets on the motherboard, a thoughtful touch.

The D975XBX2 looks on first glance to be identical to the original XBX and it is only when looking a little closer that we find a few minor changes to the layout. The large heatsinks are still present and whilst they are neither as cool as other boards (in the case of NB and SB) nor made of copper as with high end boards. They are however large and do perform well. Even when raising the voltages to their maximum levels the board never failed to perform flawlessly.

The selection of add in card slots on the XBX2 is slightly strange with no PCIe 1x slots included. There are two graphics card slots and a multi-purpose PCIe slot however they are only added to by two PCI slots. One of which is not use able when using the board with 2 AMD cards in Crossfire mode.

The XBX2, like the other two boards on test today supports raid and Intel have equipped the board with 8 Sata sockets which should be more than enough to cover everyone's storage needs, unlike Abit's 680i board all of the Sata sockets on Intel's board are internal which at this time is more useful in our opinion.

On the back panel of the product we have quite a different list of connections which cater for a slightly different audience to the other boards being tested today. Intel provides parallel and serial connectors for legacy device connection as well as the standard USB 2.0 and PS/2 ports. Also present are audio connections which include optical and coaxial out though no optical in. Sigmatel is Intel's audio brand of choice and we are happy with this decision as their Vista drivers have been in a good state since pre RTM times, something which is hugely important for those planning on moving to Vista. Finally we have a single Intel GB Lan and a firewire port. All in all a good selection of connections which should cover many peoples requirements.

One of the more unique features of the original XBX was the lack of a clear CMOS jumper. This trend continues on the XBX2. Instead of the Clear CMOS pins the board has a BIOS Config jumper. The idea is that should you change a setting in the BIOS that causes instability moving this jumper allows the end user to enter the BIOS in a safe mode and reset the stable options. Following this the jumper is returned to the normal position and the board should then boot successfully. Also shown above is one of the other changes Intel have made, the inclusion of a power button to allow the board to boot without case button attached.

Our final product shot shows the area around the CPU socket which clearly allows for the installation of oversized heatsinks. It is also possible to see the 4 pin molex connector which is used in cases where older PSU’s are connected to the board, allowing the product to draw additional power for stability.