Motherboards Any thoughts on the MSI 770-C45?

Trying to make a build for a friend, and I've come across this motherboard, so now I have some questions.

First of all, the build would include the Phenom II X3 720, 2*2 GB of DDR3 and... now I need a motherboard. Unfortunately, I live in the worst county in the world (TM) and the selection of AM3 motherboards is, at best, laughable. I can't find a single available motherboard within a normal price range, except for this one. Other boards are much more expensive and include things that my friend doesn't need, like crossfire support, HD audio, the SB750 and such. He wouldn't OC apart from a small bump to the multy, but I'm guessing that's just the matter of the BE cpu and not the SB? Please correct me if I'm wrong

Unfortunately, I can't find any reviews of the MSI 770-C45, so, no idea how it performs in real life. The price seems very good, and the specs are right on the money. All in all it seems like a very good deal.

Any info on the board, and of course any tips and advice, is more than welcome

 

*bump*

Anyone? Maybe?

 

Too late now! Already ordered. :]

Was searching for a review myself, and google came up with this.

 

I'm just polishing off a review of the 770-C45 for the next issue of Custom PC right now. Without giving too much away you shouldn't have any cause to regret buying one

 

This may be a silly question . but I am confused by all the various AMD cpus. Will a Phenom X4 9950 (not a Phenom II) work in the 770-C45 board? It seems to support almost everything else...

 

It won an award when customPC reviewed it. All AM3 MSI Boards came up trumps it seems. Gigabyte and specifically the Asus CrosshairIII Formula all got good scores too. Seems all I do not is quote customPC >.> /waits for lawsuit.

Nope, AM3 board use DDR3 memory. Only phenomII and athlon II can use DDR3 memory. They can also use DDR2 so both can run in AM2+ boards with a proper bios update however. Phenom I and Athlon I can only use DDR2 memory. HOpe that helps

 

770-C45 is AM3, and DDR3, so no, it won't support AM2 processors. Phenom IIs with DDR3 support only need apply.

 

Phenom on 770-c45

Thanks guys - I missed that in the myriad of specs

 

Been working great for the last two months since i had it. (if anyone is interested, cpuz specs)

Running XP SP3 on it and had no problems whatsoever since the first boot. Don't intend on tweaking anything on it yet, as I hope to have it for a longer period of time.

BTW, the whole rig is cheap as hell... ^^

 

Orionche I think your ram is only running single channel instead of dual.

 

I plan on buying one of these boards, according to the specs I should be able to run a set of 2x2gb patriot 1600 memory. My question is, the specs they put out was for the 9-9-9-27 timing ram...would the higher grade 7-7-7-20 or 7-7-6-18 suffice or would it be too much for this board..?

 

Welcome!

It's not down to the motherboard, it's down to the CPU quality. The motherboard should provide it with enough CPU-NB voltage to do 7-7-7. Im pretty sure it has the option, but I cant remember off hand

 

Yes... Singularity pointed out that to me just today. Being a hardware noob for some things (and not keeping up with tech), I have no idea how to make it dual channel (if its up to me, anyway >.>)

 

It's not single channel, it's in Unganged mode that treats each memory controller as a single 64-bit controller. It's better/more efficient for multitasking and multithreaded apps, but if you're benchmarketing then ganged gives bigger numbers.

 

Hmm... I switched a chip from slots 1 & 3 to 1 & 2 and its in dual channel now, says cpuz. Haven't noticed any performance boost, tbh... though, i can't remember the benchmarking numbers i did with everest a few weeks ago, so...

 

Fair enough

Should have looked what slots you are using haha

 

To make it dual channel you match the colours right ?

 

Yup

 

Quite Idiot proof no?

 

Not necessarily. MSI used to colour it so you had to put one in each colour. One colour designated a channel so for dual channel it was two colours.