Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P

Last month, we took a look at AMD's new mainstream processor: the Athlon II 250. We were impressed with both performance and cost. Today, Benchmark Reviews looks at an equally impressive motherboard: the Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P. Based on AMD's 770 series chipset, the MA770T-UD3P is one of the first mainstream motherboards to offer full support for AM3 processors and DDR3 memory. Throw in Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 manufacturing process and price tag of only $80, and it's easy to see why this board is quickly becoming a budget-build favorite.

AMD's transition from the AM2+ platform to the AM3 platform has been gradual, but significant. The same goes for the transition to DDR3, which can now be had for almost the same price as DDR2. With the Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P motherboard, both of these technologies are finally making their way into the mainstream, which should pair up nicely with AMD's new Athlon II family of processors.

In today's review, we'll look at four different AMD motherboards, each with a different combination of north bridge and memory support. From the high-end Asus M4A79T Deluxe, to the 780G based Asus M3A78-EM, we'll find out where the Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P fits in and what kind of performance to expect.

About the company: Gigabyte United Inc. (G.B.T. Inc. USA)

Gigabyte United Inc., established in December 2006, is assuming the GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd. Brand, which for the past 20 years has been a world-renowned leader in the motherboard industry. Continuing to focus on its core businesses of GIGABYTE branded motherboards and graphics cards, Gigabyte United Inc. is committed to providing our valued customers with the highest quality products and services featuring the industry's most innovative design.

In order to meet the challenges of today's intensely competitive channel market, Gigabyte United Inc. fully utilizes its key assets including its cutting-edge research and development team as well as its professional sales and marketing resources to continue to develop technologies to fit a complete range of digital life solutions. Now and for the future, Gigabyte United Inc. will continue to embody the unique spirit and culture, which has made Gigabyte one of the foremost brands in the industry.

More information about Gigabyte is available by visiting their website.

Gigabyte 770T Features

The GA-MA770T-UD3P introduces revolutionary GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 technology on latest AMD socket AM3 platform with featuring 2 oz copper PCB and further helps to reduce the system temperature and dramatically enhance the performance. Based on AMD 770 chipset, the GA-MA770T-UD3P supports new generation of 45nm AMD AM3 Phenom II series processors, integrated DDR3 memory controller, HyperTransport 3.0 technology links and PCI Express 2.0 graphics interface support. With the innovative GIGABYTE Easy Energy Saver technology, the GA-MA770T-UD3P is able to provide user friendly computing, reach the maximum system performance easily while still able to save the power and environment in real life at the same time.

Supports next generation of 45nm AMD AM3 CPU
This motherboard designs with Split Power Plane, 8+2 phase VRM to support AMD the latest 45nm AM3 Phenom II series processors, delivering the great performance enchantment to system and ultimate scalability hardware expending.

EC AOD-ACC Support
EC AOD-ACC is described as Embedded Controller for AMD OverDrive - Advanced Clock Calibration, which is the newest feature comes from AMD SB750/ SB710 SouthBridge chip, destined for the AMD Black Edition CPU to be overclocked through AMD OverDrive utility further than was previously possible.

• Apply sufficient cooling to CPU VRM zone when ACC function is enabled.
• Notice that GIGABYTE's product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking.

AMD OverDrive Support
The AMD OverDrive utility is provided by AMD, offering high-end users the ability to maximize the capability, flexibility, and adjustability of the platforms utilizing AMD processors, sockets, and chipsets.

Ultra Durable 3
GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 design, featuring 2 ounces of copper for both the Power and Ground layers which dramatically lowers system temperature by delivering a more efficient spreading of heat from critical areas of the motherboard such as the CPU power zone throughout the entire PCB. GIGABYTE's Ultra Durable 3 also lowers the PCB impedance by 50%, which helps to reduce electrical waste and further lowers component temperatures. A 2oz Copper layer design also provides improved signal quality and lower EMI (Electromagnetic Interference), providing better system stability and allowing for greater margins for overclocking.
Benefits of 2 oz Copper PCB

• Cooler than traditional motherboards
• Enhanced durability
• Improved energy efficiency
• Greater margins for overclocking

2X Lower Impedance
Doubling the amount of copper lowers the PCB impedance by 50%. Impedance is a measure of how much the circuit impedes the flow of current. The less the flow of current is impeded, the less amount of energy is wasted. For GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 motherboards, this means total PCB electrical waste is reduced by 50%, which also means less heat is generated. 2 ounces of copper also provides improved signal quality, providing better system stability and allowing for greater margins for overclocking.

Dual Channel DDR3 1666+ MHz
Delivering native support for DDR3 memory up to 1666MHz, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 motherboards allow users to easily reach higher memory frequencies at lower voltages; achieving higher memory performance with lower power consumption to run even the most memory intensive applications such as high-definition video and 3D games with ease.

• DDR3 1666+ is supported with combination of AM3 processors and qualified memory modules, please refer "Memory Support List" for detail memory support information.

Ultra Cooling - Low RDS(on) MOSFET Design
Low RDS(on) MOSFETs specially designed to produce lower switching resistance for faster electric current charging and discharging....more.

Low Power Loss - Ferrite Core Choke Design
Ferrite core chokes comprised of a compound of iron oxide and other metal elements whose properties hold energy much longer than common iron core at high frequency....more.

50,000 Hours Japanese Solid Capacitors
GIGABYTE Ultra Durable motherboards are equipped with solid capacitors developed by leading Japanese manufacturers. With an average lifespan of 50,000 hours, these solid capacitors provide the stability, reliability and longevity essential to meet the power needs of high-end processors and other components running today's most demanding applications and games....more.

• 50000 hours of work time is calculated at 85? ambient temperature.

GIGABYTE innovative technology- Easy Energy Saver
GIGABYTE innovative technology- Easy Energy Saver Featuring an advanced proprietary software design, GIGABYTE Easy Energy Saver is able to dynamically adjust CPU power depending on workload, delivering just the right amount of power needed for the task. Coupled with AMD's highly efficient 45nm AM3 CPU, the Easy Energy Saver is able to provide exceptional levels of power savings and enhanced power efficiency without sacrificing computing performance.

EasyTune6
GIGABYTE has completely redesigned EasyTune6 from the ground up to make it easier than ever to manage and monitor your hardware resources as well as tweak your system settings in order to achieve maximum system performance. Whether you are an overclocking enthusiast, or a computer novice, EasyTune6 provides the tools you need to quickly and effortlessly fine tune your system.

DualBIOS - Patented Dual Hardware BIOS Protection
DualBIOS is a GIGABYTE patented technology that automatically recovers BIOS data when main BIOS has crashed or failed. Featuring 2 physical BIOS ROMs integrated onboard, GIGABYTE DualBIOS allows quick and seamless recovery from BIOS damage or failure due to viruses or improper BIOS updating.

Windows Vista Premium Logo Certified
Windows Vista Premium promises to deliver a streamlined computing experience designed to fundamentally change how users view, find and organize their digital information. With Vista Premium support, GIGABYTE AMD motherboards offer a fresh and unique desktop experience that will be more informative, intuitive and completely new....more.

GA-MA770T-UD3P Specifications

Closer Look: Gigabyte 770T

The MA770T-UD3P came packaged in Gigabyte's full-color retail box, clearly indicating the specifications and Gigabyte's trademarked features. One of the obvious selling points Gigabyte is trying to push is their Ultra Durable 3 manufacturing process as well as a three year warranty. It seems the hope here is to convey a sense of quality and reliability. Fortunately, it's not just marketing hype as several of the design features do translate to better durability.

Before we get into the detailed components, though, lets take a look at the board layout. As we discovered in our review of the MA790X-UD4P, Gigabyte seems to favor smaller than standard ATX designs. This may be a move to cut manufacturing costs, or they truly believe consumers like the smaller design. Whatever the case, the MA770T-UD3P measures just 8.3" in width. Compared to the standard 9.6", this has had an overall squeezing effect on the component layout. The RAM slots are pushed right up against the socket and the 8-pin power connector had to be moved down to a rather awkward position in the middle of the board. This may pose a problem for larger CPU coolers and RAM with tall heatsinks.

The bottom half of the MA770T-UD3P also suffers from the squeeze. The USB headers have been moved to the center of the board, the audio header was placed next to the rear I/O, and some of the SATA ports were shifted inward. Fortunately, none of this should interfere with the 16X PCI-E slot and larger graphics cards. Still, it will take some creativity when it comes to cable management.

Moving on to the rear I/O ports, things look a little better. The usual serial, USB, network, and analog audio ports are present. However, Gigabyte threw in a few extra ports with the MA770T-UD3P that aren't always seen in this price segment: firewire and digital audio. The only thing missing is an eSATA port, which I would much rather have over the firewire ports. Consumers looking for this functionality will want to find a case with eSATA built in or buy an aftermarket bracket.

The included accessories are also adequate given the price point. The Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P comes with the driver CD, manual, two SATA cables, one IDE cable, and the rear I/O shield. Despite the sparse accessories, I have to admit my appreciation for Gigabyte's rear I/O shields. The color and descriptions add a touch of professionalism when building a computer that the bare metal shields offered by other manufacturers do not.

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P Detailed Features

As I mentioned in the intro, the MA770T-UD3P features support for all AMD AM3 processors. However, unlike the DDR2-based MA790X-UD4P we reviewed last month, the use of DDR3 in this motheboard prevents it from being backward compatible with AM2 and AM2+ processors. It's a necessary sacrifice to gain the extra performance of DDR3, but something you'll want to keep in mind. Fortunately, it looks like the majority of new processors released by AMD will be AM3 based.

The MA770T-UD3P also utilizes Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 manufacturing process. As we've found in previous reviews, this translates into better power delivery components and a sturdier PCB with an extra ounce of copper per layer. In the photo above, you can see the 8+2 phase power plane Gigabyte went with, incorporating 50,000-hour solid Japanese capacitors, low RDS(on) MOSFETs, and ferrite core chokes. Unfortunately, Gigabyte decided not to include a heatsink, which could limit the overclocking ability of this board. In fact, a closer look at the specifications reveals this statement: "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." Unfortunately, that leaves the consumer with the hassle of trying to find a heatsink that fits.

The good new is Gigabyte didn't skimp on memory support. The MA770T-UD3P is officially rated to handle 1666 MHz DDR3. Of course, those speeds are only guaranteed if you buy from the qualified vendor list. In my experience, though, most high-end memory kits should be able to hit their rated speeds. For example, the 4GB OCZ DDR3-1600 kit we used for testing isn't on the QVL, but we were able to hit 1600 MHz and 7-7-7-24 timings without any trouble.

The MA770T-UD3P also does very well when it comes to expansion ports. This isn't a crossfire motherboard, so there is only one 16x PCI-E 2.0 slot. However, that leaves room for four 1x PCI-E slots, a welcome number considering how many expansion cards are now being offered with this option. Not be left out, there are also two PCI slots for older expansion cards.

Finally, let's take a look at the south bridge. In the case of Gigabyte's MA770T-UD3P, it comes in the form of AMD's SB710 chip. This is an upgraded version of the SB700 chip and includes ACC. The number of SATA ports remains fixed at 6 with RAID support for 1,0, and 1+0 configurations. With the availability of single 2 TB drives, however, this should be sufficient for most consumers buying in this price segment.

Testing Methodology

Before I begin any benchmarking, I thoroughly stress the CPU and memory by running Prime95 on all available cores for 12 hours. If no errors are found, I move on to a gaming stress test. To do this, I use Prime95 again to stress the processor, while running an instance of FurMark's stability test on top of this. If the computer survives this test for 2 hours without lockup or corruption, I consider it to be stable and ready for testing.

Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. This process proved extremely important in the Crisis benchmarks, as the first run served to cache maps allowing subsequent tests to perform much better than the first. Each test is completed five times, with the average results displayed in our article.

Our site polls and statistics indicate that the over 90% of our visitors use their PC for playing video games. Since all of the benchmarks we use for testing represent different game engine technology and graphic rendering processes, we feel that this battery of tests will provide a diverse range of results for you to gauge performance on your own computer system. Since most gamers and enthusiasts are still using Windows XP, it was decided that DirectX 9 would be used for all tests until demand and software support improve for Windows Vista.

Test System

• Processors:AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE
• System Memory (DDR3): 2x2GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 (1600MHz@7-7-7-24)
• System Memory (DDR2): 2x2GB G.SKILL DDR2 (800MHz@4-4-4-12 or 1066MHz@5-5-5-15)
• Video:ASUS EAH4870 DK TOP
• Disk Drive: Western Digital 6400AAKS 640GB
• Optical Drive: LITE-ON iHAS122-04 DVD Burner
• PSU: Corsair TX850W
• Enclosure:Cooler Master CM Storm
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP3

Benchmark Applications

• EVEREST Ultimate Edition v5.01 by Lavalys
• 3DMark06 v1.1.0 by Futurmark Corporation
• PCMark05 v1.2.0 by Futurmark Corporation
• Crysis Benchmark Tool
• Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark
• MAXON CINEBENCH R10

Motherboards Tested

• Motherboard:ASUS M4A79T Deluxe
• Motherboard: ASUS M3A78-EM
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P

EVEREST Benchmark Tests

EVEREST Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes EVEREST Ultimate Edition a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

As expected, the two DDR3 based motherboards, the Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P and the Asus M4A79T, have a good lead over the others in the memory read and copy tests. Similar to past reviews, however, memory write bandwidth is limited by the memory controller of our Phenom II X4 955 CPU. Let's see how this translates to CPU performance.

Looking at the CPU tests, the MA770T-UD3P and M4A79T still have the advantage in the PhotoWorxx test, which Lavalys states has some dependence on memory subsystems. The Zlib and AES tests, however, are primarily CPU dependent and we don't see too much variation among the different motherboards.

PCMark05 Benchmark Results

Using synthetic benchmarks to compare one product to another has some distinct advantages when testing similar hardware, yet I have never found myself completely satisfied by the process. I have come to understand that they're important for comparing "apples to apples", and that the results are usually very consistent. But as with any synthetic benchmark, the numbers can often mean very little more than just numbers. We don't take a high score on a synthetic benchmark to mean that a product will/should perform well, and neither should you. The difference between projected performance and actual performance is the difference between fire and the fire-fly.

PCMark is a series of computer benchmark tools developed by Futuremark. The tools are designed to test the performance of the user's CPU, read/write speeds of RAM and hard drives. We have used these tests to simulate a battery of applications and tasks, which will produce results we can compare to other systems using similar hardware.

The results of PCMark05 are somewhat contradictory to what we saw in EVEREST. The overall scores are fairly close, but the Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P manages to pull ahead, with the MA770T-UD3P posting a decent second place. Surprisingly, the DDR2-based MA790X-UD4P also takes first place in the memory benchmark set, ahead of the DDR3 based boards. Finally, in the hard drive benchmarks, the MA770T-UD3P with its SB710 south bridge manages to tie up with the SB700 based Asus M3A78-EM. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, as we would expect the boards based on the SB750 to have an advantage here. That said, it appears the MA770T-UD3P is a well-rounded board, performing well in each benchmark set.

3DMark06 Benchmark Results

3DMark is a computer benchmark by Futuremark (formerly named Mad Onion) to determine the DirectX 9 performance of 3D game performance with graphics cards. 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests.

3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. Some enthusiasts may note that Benchmark Reviews does not include CPU-bound tests in our benchmark battery, and that only graphic-bound tests are included.

Here at Benchmark Reviews, we believe that synthetic benchmark tools are just as valuable as video games, but only so long as you're comparing apples to apples. Since the same test is applied in the same controlled method with each test run, I believe 3DMark is a very reliable tool for comparing graphic cards against one-another.

More visitors to Benchmark Reviews operate at 1280x1024 resolution than any other, as it represents the native resolution of 19" LCD monitors. Using this resolution as a starting point, the maximum settings were applied to 3dMark06 which for these tests include 8x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering. Low-resolution testing allows the graphics processor to plateau maximum output performance, which thereby shifts demand onto the system components to keep up. At the lower resolutions 3DMark will reflect the GPU's top-end speed in the composite score, indicating full-throttle performance with little load. This makes for a less GPU-dependant test environment, and is helpful in measuring the maximum output performance in the test results.

At default settings, all four motherboards are within a few percent of each other. The Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P appears to do the worst while the Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P is neck and neck with the more expensive Asus M4A79T. Surprisingly, the 780G-based Asus M3A78-EM manages to keep up as well.

Adding a little post-processing tightens up the variation a bit, but doesn't change the overall trend. All four motherboards are within a few tenths of a frame of each other, with the MA770T-UD3P consistently matching the performance of the Asus M4A79T.

Crysis Benchmark Results

Crysis uses a new graphics engine: the CryENGINE2, which is the successor to Far Cry's CryENGINE. CryENGINE2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders. To get the most out of modern multicore processor architectures, CPU intensive subsystems of CryENGINE 2 such as physics, networking and sound, have been re-written to support multi-threading.

Crysis offers an in-game benchmark tool, which is similar to World in Conflict. This short test does place some high amounts of stress on a graphics card, since there are so many landscape features rendered. For benchmarking purposes, Crysis can mean trouble as it places a high demand on both GPU and CPU resources. Benchmark Reviews uses the Crysis Benchmark Tool by Mad Boris to test frame rates in batches, which allows the results of many tests to be averaged.

Low-resolution testing allows the graphics processor to plateau its maximum output performance, which thereby shifts demand onto the other system components. At the lower resolutions Crysis will reflect the GPU's top-end speed in the composite score, indicating full-throttle performance with little load. This makes for a less GPU-dependant test environment, and is helpful in creating a baseline for measuring maximum output performance in the next few test results. At the 1280x1024 resolution used by some newer 17" and most 19" monitors, all of the video cards tested performed at very respectable levels.

Results from the Crysis Benchmark Tool echo what we saw with 3DMark06. These are all really good motherboards and, as such, are very close in performance. The M4A79T consistently tops the charts, as one would hope given it's price. However, the Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P, at half the cost, performs within 2-3% of it. With performance so close, it really comes down to which motherboard has the features you need.

Devil May Cry 4 Gaming

Devil May Cry 4 is one of the newest additions to Benchmark Reviews' testing suite. Fortunately for us, Capcom recognized the community's interest in hardware testing and included a built in benchmarking tool with this game. In fact, it is even included it in the demo. The benchmarking tool runs through four different scene, all of which I highly recommend watching. However, for the purposes of our review, we only report the scores of the most challenging tests: scenes 2 and 4.

Similar to the Crysis gaming benchmarks, we will start testing DMC 4 at lower settings to reduce the impact of GPU limitations. From there, we'll slowly increase resolution and quality settings until we reach the limit of our HD 4870.

As we saw in Crysis, when it comes to gaming, all four of the motherboards we tested perform well. In scene 2 of Devil May Cry 4, the only item of note is the last test, at 1680x1050 resolution and super high quality. The Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P that lagged slightly behind in Crysis, takes the lead here, while the MA770T-UD3P comes in last.

The fourth scene helps to clear things up a little. In the first two tests, it appears that the AMD 790 series boards have an advantage. Interestingly, memory does not appear to be a factor, with the DDR2-based MA790X-UD4P essentially tying the DDR3-based Asus M4A79T and the MA770T-UD3P tying the M3A78-EM. Instead, it comes down to the chipset. In the final benchmark, however, none of the motherboards tested have a significant advantage as we are reaching the limit of our video card.

MAXON CINEBENCH

CINEBENCH comes to us from MAXON, the developers of CINEMA 4D animation software. This benchmark runs several tests to measure performance of the processor and the graphics card under real-world circumstances. It can make use of up to 16 CPUs or CPU cores, but also includes a single-threaded test to provide an accurate comparison of efficiency and performance across a wide range of CPU types.

The resulting values among different operating systems are 100% comparable and therefore very useful with regard to purchasing decision making. It can also be used as a marketing tool for hardware vendors or simply to compare hardware among colleagues or friends.

At first glance, I was tempted to say that the OpenGL test favored DDR3 memory, however, the DDR2-based Asus M3A78-EM does just as well as our DDR3 motheboards. The good news for those considering the Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P, however, is that even though the results are close, it does take the lead in all three tests.

770T Power Consumption

Life is not as affordable as it used to be, and items such as fuel and electrical energy top the list of resources that have exploded in price over the past few years. Add to this the limit of non-renewable resources compared to demand and you can see that the prices are only going to get worse. Planet Earth is needs our help, and needs it badly. With forests becoming barren of vegetation and snow capped poles quickly turning brown, the technology industry has a new attitude towards suddenly becoming "green". Motherboard manufacturers, in particular, have been touting their new energy saving features. How effective these power management system are, is exactly what we intend to measure in our power consumption tests.

Before we get to the results, let me quickly explain the procedures. We begin with a completely idle system (Windows XP desktop with 0-2% processor utilization), and measure the power draw from the wall with a Kill-a-Watt power meter. We then max out the available CPU cores/threads using Prime95 to establish a maximum 2D power draw. After this measurement has been taken, we fire up the FurMark stability test, while still running Prime95, to determine the maximum VGA power consumption. I also monitor the power draw during the benchmarks to ensure we did, indeed, establish the maximum power consumption. At no point do we install or use the manufacturer's power saving software. This software can be very effective, but our goal here is to standardize as much as possible.

At idle, all four motherboards fall within a few watts of each other. Under load, however, the Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P takes the lead. I have to admit, I was bit surprised. I was expecting the MA770T-UD3P, with the less power hungry AMD 770 chipset and DDR3 memory to win here. Perhaps it simply isn't as optimized as it's bigger brother. Still, it manages to consume less power than the Asus M3A78-EM and M4A79T that we tested.

Gigabyte 770T Final Thoughts

Today's review had an interesting mix of test motherboards, each a different combination of chipset and memory support:

• Gigabyte MA770T (770 + DDR3)
• Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P (790X + DDR2)
• Asus M3A78-EM (780G + DDR2)
• Asus M4A79T (790FX + DDR3)

Not surprising, each one comes in at a different price point as well. However, as we learned in the benchmarking sections, that price tag does not necessarily correlate to better performance in a basic, single-GPU system. All four motherboards put up a decent fight and took a turn at the lead. Overall, the Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P performed very well, even topping the Asus M4A79T in several tests--a motherboard that costs twice as much. Strictly in terms performance per dollar, the MA770T-UD3P is one of the best choices out there.

So why pay more for motherboard? Well, it usually comes down to features and specifications. The Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P that we tested today is a fairly basic motherboard. If you only have one video card, a few hard drives, and don't plan on overclocking much, it's a great choice. However, if you want to run multiple video cards and max our your overclocks, expect to pay more. The number and quality of I/O ports and controllers also tends to increase with price, as well as manufacturer-added extras such as heatsinks, fans, cables, bracket, etc.

MA770T-UD3P Conclusion

Gigabyte is one of the most well-known motherboard manufacturers out there. It comes as no surprise, then, that they represent their products well. The MA770T-UD3P arrived in an attractive, information-laden box with plenty of shelf appeal. Gigabyte also maintains an excellent website with additional information, photos, drivers, and support resources.

Once outside the box, the MA770T-UD3P is equally as appealing. The color choices work well and, although they're not necessarily about looks, the solid capacitors do contribute to an overall sense of quality and workmanship. Really, the only thing lacking in appearance is the heatsink. The anodized aluminum looks nice, but the heatsink is small and doesn't really instill the kind of confidence a more robust cooling solution would.

The small heatsink also seems to go against Gigabyte's claims of durability and construction quality. On one hand, the Ultra Durable 3 manufacturing process truly does reach beyond the marketing hype and help improve durability. But on the other, Gigabyte suggests that users find their own VRM cooling solution if they want to use ACC. It just seems counter-intuitive. Every other aspect of the MA770T-UD3P is built to last, but if you want to overclock with it, I suggest taking Gigabyte's advice and add some extra cooling.

Another little quirk with this board is the size. At only 8.3" in width compared to the standard 9.6", many of the components and ports had to be squeezed closer together or moved into awkward positions. Given the proximity of the RAM slots to the socket, you'll want to be extra cautious when picking out memory and CPU heatsinks. Once installed, though, most of these problems shouldn't be an issue and you'll be rewarded with excellent performance. In our benchmarks today, the MA770T-UD3P managed to keep up with the more expensive ASUS M4A79T in just about every test.

The Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P is currently on sale at newegg.com for $79.99. At that the price, the issues we had with the heatsink and layout are easily forgivable. It may not have all the bells and whistles of higher-priced motherboards, but it gets the job done and offers great performance in the process. If you're looking to build a new single-GPU AM3 system, this is definitely one of the better values out there and a perfect mate to AMD's new Athlon II processors.

Pros:

+ Excellent performance/dollar
+ Ultra Durable 3
+ 8+2 power design
+ AM3 support
+ DDR3 support
+ Four 1x PCI-E slot

Cons:

- Smaller PCB has layout issues
- No eSATA
- No VRM heatsink

Ratings:

• Presentation: 9.5
• Appearance: 8.75
• Construction: 8.5
• Functionality: 8.5
• Value: 9.75

Final Score: 9.0 out of 10.

Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.

Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.

Related Articles:

• Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 AMD FM2 Motherboard
• Intel BOXD945GCLF2D Atom 330 mITX Motherboard
• AMD Athlon-II X2-255 CPU ADX255OCGQBOX
• ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AMD 790FX AM3 Motherboard
• AMD Phenom-II X2-560 BE CPU HDZ560WFGMBOX
• Intel DZ77GA-70K Benchmark Performance
• MSI Z87 MPower MAX Motherboard
• The State of Intel Desktop Motherboards
• AMD Athlon-II X2-260 Regor Processor
• Intel DZ77GA-70K Motherboard Components