Testing

Test Rig

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Methodology

Motherboard testing is usually performed by running several synthetic and gaming benchmarks, and comparing the results from these to other boards to see which has the best performance. However, in most motherboard reviews, you’ll notice that performance wise, most motherboards are pretty much the same; mobos have very little effect on performance. With that in mind, this review features no testing, and instead has focused more on features and overclocking ability.

Due to the simple fact that we only have an X58 motherboard to compare the 770-C45 too, it simply wouldn’t be a fair test so no comparisons are featured in this review. What we will do though is play around with the overclocking and find out what the highest possible FSB that can be achieved with this test sample.

Results

Overclocking

Trying to determine the maximum FSB is one of the first things most overclockers do, as it allows them to find the limit that their motherboard has; before finding how the peak performance of their CPU and memory respectively. To do this I dropped the CPU multiplier down to its lowest – x4 – and also set the memory divider to 1:2 which is the lowest possible ratio. Then I began to up the FSB from the default 200. I maxed out at 330 and couldn’t get it any higher, using the Auto Overclock Max FSB feature, 330MHz was again found. This is obviously, a non-too terrible increase, but hardly amazing.

Cost

Coming in at a very respectable £60, the MSI 770-C45 is certainly one of the cheaper boards for AM3.