Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H Review

Value and Conclusion

At £68, it's not a lot to ask for a motherboard, especially when usual reports in the news these days are for boards costing upwards of £150. Compared to other, older 780G boards it's naturally a bit more expensive, which is also true of Gigabyte's 780G boards as well.

Compared to just as capable GeForce 8200 boards it's an extra £20, but again you'll be missing AM3 and DDR3 support.

The only "better" chipset out there is the GeForce 9300, but finding a board based on it that is a) just as cheap and b) at all on micro ATX, seems almost impossible. The benefit of the 9300 is that it offers a better video/audio acceleration features as ATI's UVD 2.0 engine, but it also includes dual digital outputs as well. That is, if you need them.

Most low power and low cost builds require only need a single output and, with home theatres specifically benefiting from the HDMI 1.3, Dolby Home Theatre on the quality Realtek ALC889a audio chipset and even some gaming support (providing you enjoy the Source engine or something equally simple).


Is there really any point in the extra horsepower and pseudo-UVD 2.0 from the 785G though? Not really, because even if you're a Blu-ray enthusiast there is still no LPCM 7.1 audio output to your amp - you'll have to go for a Nvidia or Intel solution still. There is HD post processing for Blu-ray, but with literally only a few fps difference between the 780G and 785G thanks to DDR3, it won't change your (low detail) gaming. It's certainly not worth the upgrade from the previous generation in this regard. With AM3 CPUs backward compatible to AM2+, you might as well settle for a cheaper 780G board if it still fits the bill, coupled with a 3GHz, 45nm Athlon II X2 250.

However that would be outright ignoring the latest BIOS benefits and for those investing in a Phenom II X2 550 BE or Phenom II X3 720 BE, it's well worth the purchase just for the ease of core unlocking. Of course, that's not a guaranteed result, but this combination makes for a very good and very cheap overclocking platform that certainly has enough features for not just budget concious users, but the average system builder too - there are plenty of SATA ports, quality audio, and lots of useful ports and sockets. All for £68. Why did you want that £150 motherboard again?

Unfortunately, in terms of the layout, for those using the PCI-E x1 slot it'll likely conflict against the northbridge heatsink, and those SATA ports won't make for neat cabling, but, if you're not fazed by that then grab one, because you won't be disappointed.

• Performance
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• -
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• 8/10

• Features
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• 9/10

• Value
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• -
• 9/10

• Overall
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• -
• 9/10

Score Guide