Four 975X Motherboards For Core 2 Duo

Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H: Not For Overclocking

Foxconn's 975X7AB-8EKRS2H.

Foxconn's naming convention allows us to recognize most of the features right from the product's name:

L - 10/100 Mbit LAN

K - Gigabit LAN
6/8 - Audio channels
E - Firewire
S - SATA
2 - DDR2
R - Raid
H - RoHS compliant

Feature Overview

Foxconn does not cater to legacy users; it does not provide the connectors to use even serial ports. The back panel is color-coded and thus facilitates plugging in connectors under your desk. There is an eSATA port in between these connectors, but Foxconn doesn't provide any power supply for external drives.

The 975X7AB comes with the four Serial ATA ports that are offered by the 975X chipset. While this is usually enough, you will have only three SATA ports left after installing two ATI graphics cards, because one of the SATA cables collides with the graphics card. However, Foxconn decided to integrate JMicron's UltraATA/SATA controller, which gives the user one more of each.

Foxconn is the only motherboard manufacturer in this roundup to use smaller and more efficient voltage regulators, which remained impressively cool during our testing.