975X Express Motherboard Round-Up: Foxconn, Abit, and MSI

Name: 975X Express Motherboard Round-Up: Foxconn, Abit, and MSI - Page 5
Brand: 975X

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, January 02, 2007, 10:00 PM EDT

Next up we have Abit's AW9D-MAX. If you're a regular HotHardware reader, or a have simply been a hardcore PC enthusiast for any appreciable amount of time, Abit should be a company that needs no introduction. They have been producing enthusiast-class motherboards for over a decade, and although the company fell on hard times a couple of years ago, they're back on track thanks to a long-term strategic partnership with USI that was announced in January of '06.

Abit AW9D-MAX

Features and Specifications

Processor
Designed for Intel LGA775 processors with1066/800MHz FSB
Supports Intel Core 2 Duo(Extreme Edition) & Pentium Extreme Edition & Pentium D & Pentium 4 Processors
Supports Intel Hyper-Threading / XD-bit / EM64T / EIST Technology / Virtualization Technology
Intel Quad Core ready

Chipset
Intel 975X / Intel ICH7R Express Chipset

Memory
4 X 240-pin DIMM sockets support max. memory capacity 8GB
Supports Dual channel DDR2 800/667 Un-buffered / Non-ECC memory

Graphics
Supports Dual PCI-Express X16 slots (dual ATI CrossFire Graphics)

LAN
On-board Dual PCI-E Gigabit LAN controller supports 10/100/1000M Ethernet

Audio
abit AudioMAX HD 7.1 CH
Supports Jack Sensing and S/PDIF In/Out
Dolby Master Studio Certificated

Expansion Slots
2xPCI-EX16
2xPCI-EX1
1xPCI
1xAudioMAX

Internal I/O Connectors
1 x Floppy port, 1 x UDMA 100/66/33 connector
7 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
2 x USB 2.0 headers, 2 x IEEE1394 headers
1 x FP-Audio header, 1 x CD-IN

Back Panel I/O
1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x PS/2 Mouse
4 x USB 2.0, 2 x RJ-45 LAN
1 x eSATA

Serial ATA
ICH7R: 4 x SATA 3Gb/s supports Intel Matrix Storage SATA RAID 0/1/0+1/5
ICH7R: Support SATA AHCI, providing native command queuing and native hot plug & play
Silicon Image 3132: 4 x SATA 3Gb/s, two SATA connectors of the same area can support SATA RAID 0/1

IEEE 1394
2 ports IEEE1394a at 400 Mb/s transfer rate

abit Engineered
abit ï¿¯ï¾¿ï¾¯ï¿¯ï¾¾ï¾¾ï¿¯ï¾¾ï¾µGuru Technology
abit AudioMAX HD 7.1 CH
abit Silent OTES 2 Technology
Quick Power & Reset Buttons
Back-light Blue LEDs
Low ESR and high ripple conductive polymer aluminum solid capacitors

Form Factor
ATX form factor 305 x 245mm
PCB Color: Black & Blue

The AW9D-MAX ships with a smorgasbord of accessories in its box. Abit includes a quick installation guide with the AW9D-MAX, two user's manuals (one for the motherboard itself and another for specific features like OC Guru, Abit EQ, Flashmenu and BlackBox RAID), a reference sticker, a driver CD, and three floppy discs with RAID drivers for the Intel and Silicon Image RAID controllers. The AW9D-MAX also ships with an abundance of cables and connectors including seven locking SATA cables, rounded IDE and floppy cables, and an optical audio cable. A single case bracket that houses a pair of USB and a pair of Firewire ports, a custom I/O shield (vented for OTES), an AudioMAX HD 7.1 card, and interestingly enough an SLI bridge connector round-out the package.

The AudioMAX HD 7.1 is essentially a riser card equipped with Realtek's ALC882M audio codec, and all of the requisite ports. Moving the audio codec to a separate riser card serves two purposes. One, it frees up a ton of real-estate in the board's I/O backplane, and two, it isolates the audio circuitry from the motherboard to decrease the chance of electrical noise / interference.

Tags: MSI, Motherboard, Pre, round-up, MS, XP, foxconn, fox, 975, Abit, board, express, AR, and

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com