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For quite a while Ive been thinking about upgrading or rebuilding my core computer system from what I used to have. Doing all this required some thinking about the future requirements I am going to want in a computer and what it is I intend to do with my computer. The first of the concerns wa obviously what is in the piggy bank computer build budget. I wanted to keep the price of the new motherboard as close to or below 100$ while keeping the performance and future upgrading options maximized. This took some hunting and reading many motherboard reviews. My starting point really was the fact the CPU I am currently using is the  AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ which is 2.1 ghz. So I need to find a motherboard that is AM2 compatible, theres loads of them I know. But I also wanted to be able to upgrade the CPU at some point in the future without having to swap out the Motherboard again. In other words I can change the chip on the board and move up to an AM3 . The constraint in doing this is that I am locked into AMD and won’t be able to get into an Intel chip. Personal choice I guess. SO I needed some backwards compatibility. Not many boards like this. I also wanted something in the higher end graphic performance, I like graphic intensive applications and streaming video and all that. I dont do any gaming what so ever on my pc. So that wasn’t really a big concern, but If I wanted to I could. The board had to have some overclocking features which would allow me to maximize the performance of the board the cpu and the ram that I have. Saving me money in the future.The MA785G-UD3H uses DDR2 memory and can also support AM2+, along with the AM3 processors, so you have a more flexible upgrade path. Remember I have a 2.1 ghz AMD cpu and 2 gbs of ram to play with. Currently I have windows 7 beta 32 bit os so I am chained to a max of 4 gbs of ram, win 7 will really only see 3 gbs of it. So I have to be able to get the absolute most out of what I have to play with and I am only going to able to do this by overclocking.  So what motherboard did I decide upon then? Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H.

Features of the Gigabyte MA785g-UD3H:

AMD 785G + SB710 Chipset

1. Ultra Durable 3 Classic Technology with copper cooled quality for lower working temperature
2. Revolution energy saving design with Easy Energy Saver technology
3. Supports AMD AM3 Phenom II/ Phenom/ Athlon series processors
4. Dual Channel DDR2 1333+ for remarkable system performance
5. Integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics (DirectX10.1)
6. 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 interface with ATI Hybrid CrossFireX support for ultimate graphics performance
7. Blu-ray playback supported by high quality 106dB SNR ALC889A HD audio
8. Supports Dolby Home Theater audio to enjoy a rich surround sound experience
9. Integrated HDMI/ DVI interface for Full HD 1080 Blu-ray playback with HDCP
10. Patented DualBIOS with dual hardware BIOS protection
11. 100% 50,000 hours lifespan of Japanese solid capacitors design

The Gigabyte MA785G-UD3H  has one feature that you cannot see on the nicely colored PC board is the two ounces of copper that Gigabyte incorporates into the design to aid in cooling the components faster. This also improves durability and efficiency of the motherboard, allowing for better overclocking. In addition to the copper, the Ultra Durable 3 design also uses solid Japanese-manufactured capacitors, lower RDS(ON) MOSFETs, and Ferrite core chokes. All these features are designed to help you get the most out of your system, with better stability and cooling.

For the back panel, there are plenty of connections for every multimedia need. Starting from the top, there is a dual-mode legacy PS/2 ports for your keyboard or mouse, a VGA port, a DVI port, an HDMI port, an 8-pin FireWire port, an Optical SPDIF port, six USB 2.0 ports, a LAN port, and the audio ports, which are driven by the Realtek ALC889A codec. The LAN port is the Realtek 8111C/DL, for speeds up to 1Gb/s.

Below the back panel connections are the expansion slots. There are more than enough slots for any use, from newer current PCI-Express cards to the legacy PCI interfaced cards that you still might have lying around your house. Included on the MA785G-UD3H are two PCI-Express x16 slots, which support CrossfireX between two discrete cards or the IGP with certain cards, three PCI-Express x1 slots, and two legacy PCI slots. The blue PCI-Express x16 slot supports ATI CrossFireX for multi-GPU systems by using the integrated Radeon 4200 IGP and certain discrete video cards. The slot runs at x16 speeds when a discrete card is used. The orange slot runs at X4 at all times.

The CPU area on this board is not very crowded, with plenty of room to work around it. I had no issues installing aftermarket CPU coolers and a water block for better cooling. The socket supports both AM2+ and AM3 processors up to 140 watts, so your DDR2 CPUs will work and the AM3 processors will be able to run with the DDR2 memory as well. There are four DIMM slots, which support up to 16GB of DDR2 memory up to 1333MHz, when they are overclocked. There is also the integrated Radeon HD 4200 IGP for quick onboard graphics without the need for a discrete video card.

On the bottom are the headers, which allow for further expansion. Starting from the left, there is a COM port header, a floppy port, two FireWire headers, three USB 2.0 headers above the orange PCI Express X16 slot, a parallel port, the front panel headers, and a fan header. Flipping up to the right side of the board, you will notice there are six SATA ports and an IDE port. The six yellow SATA ports are controlled via the SB710 Southbridge, and support SATA 3.0Gb/s speeds with RAID 0, 1, 10, and JBOD. One thing of note about this board is the placement of some of the SATA ports – when a large discrete card is used, such as a GTX 260, it covers some of them, rendering them useless. Again, 90 degree ports would have made more sense.