Aimed at enthusiasts craving for extreme performance, the 975x Platinum is based on the Intel’s most powerful chipset, the 975X Express featuring the ICH7DH South Bridge. The chipset supports all Intel processors starting from Pentium 4 to the latest Core 2 Duo. For those planning to build a workstation, the maximum memory supported is 8 GB. The ICH7DH South Bridge featuring Intel VIIV technology offers four SATA 2 ports, eight USB ports (four via headers) and 8-channel high-definition audio support controlled by Realtek ALC882M audio codec. The rear panel features 3.5 mm jacks and coaxial S/PDIF output. However, it was quite surprising to find optical the S/PDIF output missing. In addition to the four SATA 2 ports, an extra port is provided by the JMicron RAID controller which also supports RAID 5 in addition to RAID 0/ 1/ 0+1. Although both PCIE lanes are 16x, they work at 8x speed in CrossFire mode.