OC3D Review: Gigabyte MA770T UD3P AM3 Motherboard

[JN]

"Is an updated southbridge and a sprinkle of copper sufficient to see the successful return of the AMD 770 Northbridge? Let's find out..." - by Mul.

Gigabyte MA770T UD3P AM3 Motherboard

 

[Rastalovich]

For it's price, the mobo is a complete bargain. If ur looking at the mid £60 price mark, ur not looking for an extreme sli/xfire with 50x usb ports and 10 iee etc.

£6x, a good cpu and a gfxcard (tbh spend most of ur cash on the gfxcard imo) - and u got the gaming rig right there.

I always hesitate when seeing the pwm with no cooler on it, this always suggests to me that long term oc'ing is going to be minor %ages to be safe. Might be irrational, but I do look at pwm temps and worry (after frying some mobos also).

I'd like to know more about the onboard sound and the lan version if u can Mul.

Great review. These mobos should be turning heads.

 

[VonBlade]

The sound quality is amazing*. I've got a Audigy 2 (ok not cutting edge but still) and it blows it into the weeds.

*790X but same Sound chipset.

 

[Rastalovich]

U know if it's like a Realtek ALC889a or similar ?

 

[VonBlade]

It's a ALC889a.

 

[Rastalovich]

 

[VonBlade]

Aye. It was the first onboard sound I heard that made me genuinely consider not bothering to buy a soundcard. Those AWE32 days are hard to get over.

 

[Rastalovich]

I'm not sure that it's soley the release of ALC889a or drivers for it that actually worked well. Cos subsequently I've put new drivers on an ABit IP35 Pro and the sound works really well. ALC888 I believe.

(I mean the inputs, thru-puts etc)

 

[Mul.]

Apologies for not mentioning anything about the audio guys. I can confirm that the 770T UD3P uses the Realtek ALC888 and at least from initial inspection it seems to be a very good onboard audio module. From a software point of view, it appeared to be trouble free as well. The same also applied for the Realtek LAN, which functioned without any issue really.

I do agree with what you're saying about the PWM area from a long term overclock perspective but I can only see this being an issue if there's inadequate airflow in the region. Most reasonable heatpipe coolers like the £15 Arctic Freezer 64 Pro offer some airflow to the naked power regs and cases as cheap as the Antec Three Hundred have plenty of movement in that region of space too. Some form of aftermarket cooling should be considered though if a watercooling loop is implemented for the CPU, but then again if you can afford watercooling, I'd question why you'd opt for this particular motherboard!

 

[Rastalovich]

Thanks for the come-back Mul.

A Realtek platform for onboard stuff is a great choice these days imo.

Atleast I know it's not just me that thinks 2ce when looking at pwm coverage when contemplating a mobo.