Introduction and Specifications

Gigabyte’s MA770T-UD3P is a sub $100 AM3 motherboard with a single x16 PCI-E slot, dual channel DDR3 1666 memory support, and decent overclocking functions. It’s price should entice many budget consumers to look hard at this board for their next upgrade. But, how will it match up against other boards almost double its price?

Gigabyte releases budget-minded AM3 board using AMD’s 770 chipset 

AMD’s 770 chipset seems to have found a home in several vendor’s budget AM3 motherboard offerings. Some of these boards are priced well below $100, which make them ideal for penny-pinching gamers and enthusiasts looking for a quick AM3 upgrade that will give them some great features at a very reasonable price.

However, these motherboards are usually stripped down quite a bit, but they still include most of the basic features to do everything a typical gaming or enthusiast system will do. There’s also some room for expandability in the RAM and processor departments, which should be a consideration for those who need a little bit of head room to make future upgrades to their PCs.

Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P AMD 770 AM3 Motherboard Review - Motherboards 81
(Courtesy of Gigabyte)

The lowest price we found on an AM3 board based on the AMD 770 chipset was Gigabyte’s MA770T-UD3P, which is what we are evaluating today. Don’t let the price fool you though. There’s plenty of power and features to be had with this $79.99 board. Some of the board’s key features include one PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, support for dual channel DDR3 1666(OC)/1333/1066 memory, Firewire, and four PCI-E x1 slots. 

Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P AMD 770 AM3 Motherboard Review - Motherboards 82
(Courtesy of Gigabyte)

The MA-770T-UD3P even has some of the advanced features that are typically reserved for mid-range and high-end motherboards. Some of these advanced features include support for RAID, Gigabit LAN, and firewire. There’s also a handy S/PDIF In/Out for high definition audio. This board also comes standard with an advanced 8+2 phase CPU VRM power design for AMD’s 140W processors.

 

Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P specifications (from Gigabyte’s website)

 

CPU
  1. Support for AM3 processors (Note1): AMD Phenom™ II X4 processor/ AMD Phenom™ II X3 processor
Hyper Transport Bus
  1. 5200/2000 MT/s
Chipset
  1. North Bridge: AMD 770
  2. South Bridge: AMD SB710
Memory
  1. 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory (Note2)
  2. Dual channel memory architecture
  3. Support for DDR3 1666(OC)/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
  4. Support ECC memory (Note 3)
Audio
  1. Realtek ALC888 codec
  2. High Definition Audio
  3. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
  4. Support for S/PDIF In/Out
  5. Support for CD In
LAN
  1. Realtek 8111C/D(L) chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Expansion Slots
  1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIE_16)
    (The PCI Express x16 slot conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
  2. 4 x PCI Express x1 slots
  3. 2 x PCI slots
Storage Interface South Bridge:
  1. 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
  2. 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
  3. Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1
iTE IT8720 chip:
  1. 1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive
IEEE 1394 T.I. TSB43AB23 chip
  1. Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (2 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a headers)
USB Integrated in the South Bridge
  1. Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (8 on the back panel, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)
Internal I/O Connectors
  1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
  2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  3. 1 x floppy disk drive connector
  4. 1 x IDE connector
  5. 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
  6. 1 x CPU fan header
  7. 2 x system fan headers
  8. 1 x power fan header
  9. 1 x front panel header
  10. 1 x front panel audio header
  11. 1 x CD In connector
  12. 1 x S/PDIF In header
  13. 1 x S/PDIF Out header
  14. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
  15. 1 x IEEE 1394a header
  16. 1 x parallel port header
  17. 1 x serial port header
  18. 1 x power LED header
  19. 1 x chassis intrusion header
Back Panel Connectors
  1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
  2. 1 x PS/2 mouse port
  3. 1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
  4. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  5. 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  6. 2 x IEEE 1394a ports
  7. 1 x RJ-45 port
  8. 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
I/O Controller
  1. iTE IT8720 chip
H/W Monitoring System voltage detection
  1. CPU/System temperature detection
  2. CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
  3. CPU overheating warning
  4. CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
  5. CPU fan speed control (Note 4)
BIOS
  1. 2 x 8 Mbit flash
  2. Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
  3. Support DualBIOS™
  4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b
Unique Features
  1. Support for @BIOS
  2. Support for Download Center
  3. Support for Q-Flash
  4. Support for EasyTune (Note 5)
  5. Support for Xpress Install
  6. Support for Xpress Recovery2
  7. Support for Virtual Dual BIOS
  8. Support for Easy Energy Saver
Bundled Software
  1. Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
Operating System
  1. Support for Microsoft® Windows Vista/XP
Form Factor
  1. ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 21.0cm
Notes (Note 1) We recommend that you enhance heat dissipation for the CPU VRM area if an AMD Black Edition CPU is installed and the Advanced Clock Calibration is enabled.
(Note 2) Due to Windows® XP 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.
(Note 3) Use of a CPU that supports ECC is required if you wish to install ECC memory.
(Note 4) Whether the CPU/ system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/ system cooler you installed.
(Note 5) Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model.
Remarks
  1. Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website.
  2. Due to most hardware/software vendors no longer offer support for Win9X/ME. If some vendors still has Win9X/ME drivers available, we will publish on website.
 

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