Introduction

I would like to thank ECS for supplying the tested motherboard.

The ECS A770M-A is one of the first ECS motherboards that supports the new AM2+ Socket. This means that it is an optimum habitat for the new Phenom processors. However, you can also use all previous generation Athlon64 models with this motherboard. The board also uses AMD's new RX780 chipset which uses HyperTransport 3 and includes support for PCI-Express Generation 2. This motherboard has been designed for the value segment but still tries to give you all the features of more expensive motherboards like Gigabit Ethernet and high quality 8 channel audio.

Features

ECS A770M-A
Processor	All AMD AM2 and AM2+ compatible processors, including Phenom and Athlon64/FX
HT	5200/2000/1600/1200 MT/s
Chipset	AMD 770 (RX780) & AMD SB 600
Graphics	No integrated VGA
Memory	4x 240 Pin DDR2, Dual Channel DDR400/533/667/800, up to 32 GB
BIOS	AMI Bios
Slots	1x PCI-E x16 2x PCI-E x1 3x PCI
HDD Connectivity	1x ATA-133 (AMD SB600) 4xSATA-II (AMD SB600) 1xExternal SATA (JMicron JMB361)
Networking	1x 10/100/1000 Mbps - Realtek RTL811B via PCI-Express
Ports	10x USB 2.0 (6 on Back Panel)
Audio	8 Channel Realtek ALC883 HD Audio
Form Factor	ATX 305 x 210 mm

Specifications

CPU

• AMD Phenom™ processor (Socket AM2+)
• AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core/ Athlon™ 64 / Sempron processor
• High-performance HyperTransport 3.0 CPU Interface
• Support transfer rate of 5200/2000/1600/1200 mega-transfers per second

CHIPSET

• AMD® 770 & AMD® SB600
• North Bridge: AMD® 770
• South Bridge: AMD® SB600

MEMORY

• Dual-channel DDR2 800 memory architecture
• 4 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 32GB*
• Support DDR2 800/667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM
• * (Due to the DRAM maximum size is 2GB at present, the memory maximum size we have tested is 8GB)

EXPANSION SLOT

• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
• 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
• 3 x PCI slots

STORAGE

• Support by AMD SB600
• 2 x Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices
• 4 x Serial ATAII 3.0Gb/s devices
• RAID0, RAID1, RAID10 configuration
• Supported by JMicron® JMB361
• 1 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port

AUDIO

• Realtek ALC883 8-channel audio CODEC
• Compliant with HD audio specification

LAN

• Realtek RTL8101E/8111B Gigabit Fast Ethernet NIC

REAR PANEL I/O

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors
• 6 x USB ports
• 1 x Ethernet Port
• 1 x External SATA port
• 1 x Serial port (COM1)
• 1 x Audio port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in)

INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS

• 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector
• 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector
• CPUFAN/PWRFAN/SYSFAN connectors
• 1 x IDE connector
• 4 x Serial ATA connectors
• 1 x Speaker header
• 1 x Front panel switch/LED header
• 1 x Front panel audio header
• 1 x SPDIF out header
• 1 x CD in header
• 2 x USB headers

SYSTEM BIOS

• AMI BIOS with 8Mb SPI ROM
• Supports Plug and Play, STR/STD, Hardware monitor, Multi Boot, DMI
• Supports ACPI revision

FORM FACTOR

• ATX Size, 305mm*210mm