Introduction

About a month ago, we took a good look at the Gigabyte GA-GI975X motherboard, boasting an elaborate cooling solution. More importantly, it was one of the first motherboards out in volume to feature Intel's 975X Express chipset. Although the chipset was more or less clandestinely launched, it marked Intel's official foray into the world of dual graphics technology and awarded Intel fans who have waited long and hard for such chipset support. For those requiring a little recap, the Intel 975X Express is a minor refresh of the enthusiast-level 955X Express chipset that enables configurable PCI Express lanes so that it can properly work in dual PCI Express x8 mode. However, since NVIDIA refuses to allow SLI operation on all but their own chipsets, this is good news for ATI fans as they now more or less have an exclusive chipset for the CrossFire platform with system performance that can be banked on.

Today, we'll have the opportunity to review another 975X Express based motherboard, this time around, it is MSI's 975X Platinum. Unlike Gigabyte's fancy approach, the 975X Platinum is a more down to earth motherboard. While you may not notice much of a difference up from its predecessor (MSI 955X Platinum), there is enough cause to get excited about. Before we begin though, note that the board we received from MSI looked like a retail PCB. However, it was still running on a beta BIOS revision. The board also arrived in a bare box without any packaging, so the peripheral bundle listed below is based on information gleamed from MSI's website and may change in the retail box packaging.

The MSI 975X Platinum motherboard.

MSI 975X Platinum bundled accessories:-

2 x SATA data cables

1 x SATA power converter cable (dual plugs)

1 x rounded 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cable

1 x rounded floppy drive data cable

IEEE 1394a (2 ports) bracket

USB 2.0 (2 ports) and MSI D-Bracket 2

I/O shield

Driver CD

Quick user's guide

MSI 975X Platinum Technical Specifications

CPU Support	Supports 90nm LGA775 processor package Supports Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition  Supports Intel Pentium D Smithfield processors Supports Intel Pentium 4 / Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors Intel Hyper-Threading Technology ready
Chipset	Northbridge: Intel 975X Express 800 / 1066MHz front side bus PCI Express x16 graphics Southbridge: Intel ICH7R Intel High Definition Audio Supports six PCI Express x1 lanes Supports up to eight USB 2.0 ports Supports four SATA II ports (with RAID 0 and 1 capabilities) Single-channel Ultra ATA-100 IDE port
Memory	Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.8 Volt DDR2 SDRAM Supports DDR2-677/533 dual channel memory architecture
Storage	Intel ICH7R Southbridge 1 x Ultra ATA 33/66/100 (data transfer rate up to 100MB/sec.) 4 x SATA II (Serial ATA II 3.0Gbps interface) Intel Matrix Storage Technology Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5 JMicron JMB361 PCIe storage controller 1 x Ultra ATA 33/66/100/133 (data transfer rate up to 133MB/sec.) 1 x SATA II (Serial ATA II 3.0Gbps interface)
Audio	Intel High Definition Audio (Azalia) Realtek ALC883 HD Audio CODEC Coaxial, Optical S/PDIF out
Networking	Broadcom BCM5751 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
IEEE 1394 (FireWire)	VIA Networking VT6308P FireWire controller 2 x 1394a ports @ 400 Mbps speed
I/O Interface	1 x Floppy connector 2 x Ultra ATA IDE connectors 5 x SATA connectors 8 x USB 2.0 ports (4 x rear, 2 x header, 2 x bracket) 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (1 x rear, 1 x bracket) 1 x RJ45 LAN port 1 x Optical S/PDIF Output 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output  8-Channel Audio I/O ports 1 x CD-IN 1 x 9-pin serial port 1 x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP)
Expansion Slots	2 x PCIe x16 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant 2 x PCIe x1 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant 2 x 32-bit PCI slots, PCI 2.3 compliant
Special Features	MSI CoreCell MSI D.O.T. Express MSI Live Update 3
PCB	ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.4cm)

Rear I/O featuring PS/2 keyboard and mouse, Parallel and Serial ports, with USB, FireWire, LAN and analog plus digital audio output.