Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P Motherboard AMD 770

Introduction and Specs

Once again we have the opportunity to look at a Gigabyte motherboard. We were pretty impressed with the GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard that we recently reviewed, so we got a little excited to see how its little sibling, the GA-MA770T-UD3P, would stack up. Today's economy is all about doing stuff as economically as you can, so most people will like a motherboard that can be gotten on the cheap and still perform very well. So, is that where this board fits in from Gigabyte? That is exactly what we intend to find out as we put it through our testing and see how it stacks up against the likes of a 790FX and a 790GX board.



The GA-MA770T-UD3P uses Gigabyte's famed Ultra Durable 3 technology on this budget friendly AMD socket AM3 platform. This technology brings 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 all the 45nm AMD AM3 Phenom II series processors that feature DDR3 memory controllers and HyperTransport 3.0 technology. To top all that off the board also features Easy Energy Saver technology to help conserve power and be green friendly. Not a bad list of features considering this board retails for just $79.99 shipped at Newegg! Add in one of the $87 AMD Athlon II 250 3.0GHz dual-core processors and you have a motherboard and processor for under $170!


The AMD 770 chipset does have some limitations though and the most obvious is that it lacks support for multi-GPU configurations as it sports just a single x16 PCI Express 2.0 slot for graphics. Looking at the AMD chipset specifications site for reference, we can see exactly what this chipset offers compared to the 790X and 790FX chipsets. According to AMD the 770 chipset lacks ATI CrossFireX Technology, Quad PCIE Blocks, GPU-Plex Technology, and Auto Xpress. Three of these features revolve around the board only having a single PCI Express 2.0 slot, so if you only plan on running one video card these features don't mean much to you. AMD Auto Xpress technology is a feature that automatically activates with AMD/ATI components to deliver better CPU, GPU, and system performance. If you know your way around a BIOS you can manually set things, so again no big deal. What you end up getting here with the GA-MA770T-UD3P motherboard is a solid single GPU platform that is able to run all the latest processors for under $80! Not bad at all! Let's take a quick look at the specs:

CPU Support for AM3 processors


Hyper Transport Bus 5200/2000 MT/s

Chipset North Bridge: AMD 770
South Bridge: AMD SB710

Memory 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory (Note2)
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 1666(OC)/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
Support ECC memory (Note 3)

Audio Realtek ALC888 codec
High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
Support for S/PDIF In/Out
Support for CD In

LAN Realtek 8111C/D(L) chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

Expansion Slots 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIE_16)
(The PCI Express x16 slot conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
4 x PCI Express x1 slots
2 x PCI slots

Storage Interface South Bridge:

1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1
iTE IT8720 chip:

1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive

IEEE 1394 T.I. TSB43AB23 chip

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

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 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
1 x CPU fan header
2 x system fan headers
1 x power fan header
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x CD In connector
1 x S/PDIF In header
1 x S/PDIF Out header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x IEEE 1394a header
1 x parallel port header
1 x serial port header
1 x power LED header
1 x chassis intrusion header

Back Panel Connectors 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
1 x PS/2 mouse port
1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 x IEEE 1394a ports
1 x RJ-45 port
6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)

I/O Controller iTE IT8720 chip

H/W Monitoring System voltage detection

CPU/System temperature detection
CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
CPU overheating warning
CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
CPU fan speed control (Note 4)

BIOS 2 x 8 Mbit flash
Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
Support DualBIOS™
PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b

Unique Features Support for @BIOS
Support for Download Center
Support for Q-Flash
Support for EasyTune (Note 5)
Support for Xpress Install
Support for Xpress Recovery2
Support for Virtual Dual BIOS
Support for Easy Energy Saver

Bundle Software Norton Internet Security (OEM version)

Operating System Support for Microsoft® Windows Vista/XP

Form Factor ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 21.0cm

Note (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.