Gigabyte's famous GA-78LMT-USB3 mATX AM3/AM3+ HDMI board now discontinued...

[waltchan]

Micro Center's latest February 15 ad no longer lists Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 with $40 combo anymore, which tells me this model is now discontinued and won't receive anymore after a nice 6 year run.

Stock up while you can...Just snatched two during weekend.

 

[DigDog]

why famous?

 

[waltchan]

why famous?

This one has been Gigabyte's #1 best-selling board for over 6 years now. Not even the FM2s or LGA1150s sell more than this board. They now call it quits after Windows 10 come out.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Do you have any actual evidence that this board is in fact discontinued, rather than just MC choosing not to combo it anymore?

I went to gigabyte.com , and the board still appears to be a current board.

There are Win10 drivers for the onboard audio, ethernet, and USB3.0.

Edit: Still available at Newegg, might be slightly premature to count it out yet. But I could see them finally stopping 760G AM3+ mobos, on the eve of AM4.

 

[XavierMace]

I would also love to know where you get all these various sales statistics you're full of.

 

[Leyawiin]

Actually bought one last week to replace a motherboard in my sister's computer. Its pretty dated (only SATA 2 for instance), but fine for a Phenom II X4 955 with only SATA 2 SSDs. Got mine from Newegg and it doesn't seem discontinued on Gigabyte's website.

 

[VirtualLarry]

These boards seem like false economy to me. Sure, they support 125W CPUs, but other than that, they suck in practically every other way compared to a 970 board.

SATAII versus SATA6G
BIOS + GPT/EFI bootloader, versus full UEFI
Useless 760G iGPU HD3000 (good for Windows XP?), which means that if you want to run a modern OS, you'll need a GPU anyways.

 

[XavierMace]

If Larry says it's bad, you KNOW it has to be bad.

 

[Leyawiin]

These boards seem like false economy to me. Sure, they support 125W CPUs, but other than that, they suck in practically every other way compared to a 970 board.

SATAII versus SATA6G
BIOS + GPT/EFI bootloader, versus full UEFI
Useless 760G iGPU HD3000 (good for Windows XP?), which means that if you want to run a modern OS, you'll need a GPU anyways.

It was cheap and all that's needed for that old hardware already in the case. Not like my sister's going to notice or care about the cons you outlined. She just wants to browse and do Facebook crap.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If Larry says it's bad, you KNOW it has to be bad.

I'm really just saying, that the HD3000 chipset IGP is no longer an asset, with any OS newer than XP, and the SATAII slows down SSDs somewhat. So not a great board.

OTOH, I use to use ePSXe (emulator) on a 785G board, and it ran really well. So that IGP is actually fairly strong, for a chipset IGP, for basic 3D stuff, and once I installed Win7, the 785G plays back HD MKVs flawlessly using hardware decode. (Couldn't ever get it working in XP.)

Now, that's the 785G. This board is a 760G, which is cut-down, and I think doesn't include the Blu-Ray / H.264 playback support. It may also lack some of the 3D support.

Edit: Like AT (main site) says in their reviews, there are no bad products, just bad prices. If you could buy a 760G / USB3.0 board, even with SATAII, for $30-35, then I think that it would be a much nicer value proposition, especially with an under-$10 Athlon II X2 3.0Ghz dual-core, and some cheap DDR3 memory. It would make a nice package, with an entry-level SSD. If you dig out older drivers, I think that the IGP even works with Windows 7 64-bit, just not with the newest drivers and games.

But $60? You can get a 970 board for that price.

Edit: Almost got tempted to buy a couple on ebay from Newegg. Almost. Then I remembered, wait for a G3258 combo. Even if it doesn't OC on the combo board, it's still a better performer than a 3.0Ghz Athlon II X2 dual-core (heck, even a quad-core), and H81 includes a pair of SATA6G ports, for modern SSDs. Plus, arguably better-performing IGP, although you have to deal with the garbage that is Intel video drivers. Adding a GPU is still almost a must.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Great. We can finally begin to get rid of budget 760G boards.

They've had a good run, but any way you cut it, the AM3+/760G platform is effectively obsolete.

 

[PingSpike]

These boards seem like false economy to me. Sure, they support 125W CPUs, but other than that, they suck in practically every other way compared to a 970 board.

SATAII versus SATA6G
BIOS + GPT/EFI bootloader, versus full UEFI
Useless 760G iGPU HD3000 (good for Windows XP?), which means that if you want to run a modern OS, you'll need a GPU anyways.

I don't know about buying one today, but I just checked and this is actually the board I own and use in my wife's PC. IIRC I bought it because I had a Phenon II X3 deal it was the cheapest board that supported all the CPU for the socket. At the time SATA3 didn't matter much to me and the useless GPU still doesn't matter as its not used. I probably liked it had 4 DDR3 slots as well. Apparently I got it for $50AR back in 2011.

I don't think I'd buy one today though.

 

[waltchan]

I would also love to know where you get all these various sales statistics you're full of.

There's supposed to be REV 7.0 coming out with Windows 10 drivers, but it shows nothing. Gigabyte's policy is to put in newer REV number each year. If it doesn't go up the next year, it will be out of production after one-year full cycle ends (it already past, actually, the cycle ended on December 2015 from December 2014 REV 6.0's launch).

But Micro Center's ad gave me a big warning that day, and they have been pretty accurate in the past that if a board model is removed from catalog, it tells me it's discontinued and no longer in production.

After 78LMT-USB3, the next one will be all VGA output. Just come in (and Gigabyte revived this model after production halted for 2 years):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G3RH7965

 

[XavierMace]

In other words, you don't have any actual facts, just random speculation?

 

[escrow4]

I'm really just saying, that the HD3000 chipset IGP is no longer an asset, with any OS newer than XP, and the SATAII slows down SSDs somewhat. So not a great board.

OTOH, I use to use ePSXe (emulator) on a 785G board, and it ran really well. So that IGP is actually fairly strong, for a chipset IGP, for basic 3D stuff, and once I installed Win7, the 785G plays back HD MKVs flawlessly using hardware decode. (Couldn't ever get it working in XP.)

Now, that's the 785G. This board is a 760G, which is cut-down, and I think doesn't include the Blu-Ray / H.264 playback support. It may also lack some of the 3D support.

Edit: Like AT (main site) says in their reviews, there are no bad products, just bad prices. If you could buy a 760G / USB3.0 board, even with SATAII, for $30-35, then I think that it would be a much nicer value proposition, especially with an under-$10 Athlon II X2 3.0Ghz dual-core, and some cheap DDR3 memory. It would make a nice package, with an entry-level SSD. If you dig out older drivers, I think that the IGP even works with Windows 7 64-bit, just not with the newest drivers and games.

But $60? You can get a 970 board for that price.

Edit: Almost got tempted to buy a couple on ebay from Newegg. Almost. Then I remembered, wait for a G3258 combo. Even if it doesn't OC on the combo board, it's still a better performer than a 3.0Ghz Athlon II X2 dual-core (heck, even a quad-core), and H81 includes a pair of SATA6G ports, for modern SSDs. Plus, arguably better-performing IGP, although you have to deal with the garbage that is Intel video drivers. Adding a GPU is still almost a must.

Or instead of buying old crap from 2008 you can just buy a $199 2016 netbook that is slightly slower with an equivalent if not better iGPU all in a tiny fairly lightweight netbook that porns er emails well. I have no idea who would actually buy anything that predates the 9xx AM3 series right now.

 

[Iron Woode]

I will throw my $.02 in.

I own a revision 4.1 board. I bought it as a backup board in case of MB failure. I tested it out as a HTPC board and it worked quite well. The audio wasn't as good as my ALC892 audio, but it was acceptable. It played 1080P videos just fine. And that was with a Athlon II x2 250 cpu. I upgraded to a Athlon II x3 455 and unlocked the 4th core and the system was flawless.

The board can do 32gb ddr3 max and has USB3. The 760 chipsets are the only mATX boards for AM3+ cpus.

is it the best AMD board ever? no. but it's fine for budget type builds or cheap HTPC if you already have an AM3 cpu.

EDIT: revision 6 boards now have the ALC892 audio. if only they would put a better SB on it and give us SATAIII or make a 970 mATX board.

 

[waltchan]

In other words, you don't have any actual facts, just random speculation?

I don't know whether it's officially discontinued or not (I hope not and never because the Athlons X2 are reaching $5 shipped quickly), but I'm leaning above 60% bet it is discontinued. Generally, at end of socket's life, entry-level boards with HDMI out are discontinued and replaced with only VGA out board.

Two MSI boards I know clearly well during transition: 760GM-E51 to 760GM-P34, and H61M-E33 to H61M-P33. Gigabyte should be no exception. They do that ONLY to prevent sales taken away from newer sockets.

 

[escrow4]

I will throw my $.02 in.

I own a revision 4.1 board. I bought it as a backup board in case of MB failure. I tested it out as a HTPC board and it worked quite well. The audio wasn't as good as my ALC892 audio, but it was acceptable. It played 1080P videos just fine. And that was with a Athlon II x2 250 cpu. I upgraded to a Athlon II x3 455 and unlocked the 4th core and the system was flawless.

The board can do 32gb ddr3 max and has USB3. The 760 chipsets are the only mATX boards for AM3+ cpus.

is it the best AMD board ever? no. but it's fine for budget type builds or cheap HTPC if you already have an AM3 cpu.

EDIT: revision 6 boards now have the ALC892 audio. if only they would put a better SB on it and give us SATAIII or make a 970 mATX board.

Asrock listened! :sneaky:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157582

970, mATX, ALC 892, SATA III, front panel USB 3.

 

[waltchan]

Asrock listened! :sneaky:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157582

970, mATX, ALC 892, SATA III, front panel USB 3.

As much as I like this board, I don't like to fork out an additional $40 for a graphics card, making this board cost-prohibitive vs. Gigabyte's supplied HD3000 integrated GPU.

 

[Iron Woode]

Asrock listened! :sneaky:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157582

970, mATX, ALC 892, SATA III, front panel USB 3.

nice!!!!!!

unfortunately its $100CDN at my local suppliers.

I will keep my eyes open for a deal.

 

[NTMBK]

Asrock listened! :sneaky:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157582

970, mATX, ALC 892, SATA III, front panel USB 3.

Be warned, their support page notes this:

* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970M Pro3/?cat=CPU

Code for, "we cheaped out on the VRMs and cooling".

 

[NTMBK]

As much as I like this board, I don't like to fork out an additional $40 for a graphics card, making this board cost-prohibitive vs. Gigabyte's supplied HD3000 integrated GPU.

That HD3000 is utter garbage. Please tell me you aren't giving that to paying customers in 2016.

 

[Leyawiin]

That HD3000 is utter garbage.

Wouldn't be if AMD weren't so hasty to throw their older chipsets under the legacy driver bus. Nvidia at least released Windows 10 drivers for their Geforce 8000 series cards/mobile GPUs from the same era before totally putting them out to pasture.

 

[waltchan]

That HD3000 is utter garbage. Please tell me you aren't giving that to paying customers in 2016.

It may be garbage, but HD3000 is a FREE GPU at no cost, and it helps drives down cost a lot for budget builders. I'm not against it at all, as well as the 760g chipset. SATA II with AHCI is still far better off than SATA I or IDE with no AHCI found in ASRock N68C-GS4 FX board, another popular seller.

For a basic computer, it's okay paring with $7 Athlon X2 220 processor or cheap AM3s, but I don't recommend installing a FX processor due to higher cost. Unless I go with FM2, anything above HD3000 (or I install any card) can easily run $90 plus $7 CPU total, making it extremely cost inefficient. No, I don't own a shop or sell PCs to customers, but this Gigabyte board is still my #1 solution for cheap-builds with $7 CPUS, probably higher than LGA775 boards right now since they're getting expensive lately and still don't have HDMI out.

You can't have everything for $50. This Gigabyte has everything I need in one lowest price.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That HD3000 is utter garbage. Please tell me you aren't giving that to paying customers in 2016.

Oh, but he is, and he also "silences" cheap generic ATX PSUs, by disconnecting the fan leads. (Search his prior posts for a quote, I'm too lazy to do it.)

Personally, I think that's a bit nuts, and unsafe, but whatever.

Edit: To his credit, the 760G HD3000 IGP is usable for 2D desktop tasks in Windows 7, with suitable older drivers. (Before it got shoved off to "legacy" status.)