GA-MA770T-UD3P general questions (Long thread...)

[Kenshiro]

Hello there,

I found this forum the other day, so I signed in and here goes my first thread...sorry in advance for having written so much....

I’m planning to upgrade to AM3  as I need a pc that will last for at least 5 years.  I’m happy with my current system, but  I’m going to edit a lot of videos of my baby son and I need some additional power for that. Hardcore gaming at night and weekends (when everybody sleeps) will be also targeted with this mobo as well as some Office programming & picture editing.
 I’m not going to do a big investment, probably around 400 €  ~ £ 365, but necessary to get me where I want.
After going through hours of investigation comparing here and there I finally decided to acquire the GA-MA770T-UD3P mobo, which provides everything I need.
However, I few doubts (5  in total ) regarding this mobo have emerged and I’m wondering  if you could point me into the right direction.

1. The mobo itself seems quite small, I own a Lancool K7 case, there would be no issues in getting this beauty installed there, right? Just wondering if the case is not too big  , but I guess that it will fit with no problems.

2. I also plan to get a 1TB HDD (Samsung Spinpoint F1). I’ve read somewere that there may be issues with the Dual Bios getting big drives recognized. Would you know if this is a known issue with Dual Bios?

3. I will fit a Phenom II X3 BE  cpu on this board, I’m not planning to overclock or anything similar (no ACC), just too scared trying it   .
Running the BE on this board at stock performance  (without OC), I won’t need a third party heatsink for this board, or?  

4.  How many Gig of RAM ?   I’m going to run XP SP3 on it, here we have the famous 32 bit limitation that will only show you 3.5Gig of Ram if you have 4 Gig installed.
  Nevertheless, would you go for 4Gig (2x2) or 2 Gig (1x1) DDR3 Ram Total?  

5.  Last question (finally)
According to the manual for the UD3P it says- >

4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory (Note 2)
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 1666(O.C.)/1333/1066 MHz memory modules

I’ve been going to many many sites looking for appropriate DDR3 Ram like for example:
Kingston  HYPERX PC3-12800 1600Mhz 2x2 Gig   or  MUSHKIN_PERFORMANCE_HP3_12800_DDR3_1600_4GB_2X2GB ....but they all have a voltage above 1.5!!!!!  Am I missing something here?   I’m really a noob with RAM, does this mean that this mobo won’t be able to access them if not enough juice is provided?  In the examples above they run I think between 1.7-1.9  & 1.65-1.7v.

I’m somehow lost with the RAM Voltage,  do I need to overclock something in Bios...or will Ram with a higher voltage than the mobo provides, be recognized?

Sorry for so many questions....but I like to know what I’m buying....

Thank you all for you patience in reading this,
Best regards,
Ken

[absic]

OK let's go one step at a atime here or I will get confused.

The Mobo you are thinking of is a standard ATX so that will fit your case OK.

If you are not planning to OC your CPU there should be no problem with the stock cooler so no extra expense there. (Just so that you know. I have overclocked on stock coolers with AMD and to be honest, there were no real issues)

The 1 TB HDD should be recognised OK. The old problem with PATA drives not being recognised seems to be a thing of the past

Your RAM question is a little trickier and my advice would be......

1: Go for a 4 gig matched set. Although it won't show up properly in windows it will all be there and it will be used.

As for the brand to use that is a matter of personal choice and a lot of reference to the supported memory by gigabyte. However Corsair Twin XMS3 (1333mhz) or the corsair Dominator (1600 mhz) or something along those lines will, from my experience work OK

Hope this helps and that you can now proceed and build your dream PC!

[Kenshiro]

Hey absic115,
Thank you for your reply, much appreciated.
Now I'm pretty sure about everything.
Take care,
Ken