AMD has announced the launch of its new motherboards featuring the A520 chipset, providing a wallet-friendly solution for those building a PC where saving money is a priority.
A520 motherboards stay with the AM4 socket, and models will be available from the usual manufacturers across the globe.
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These boards support current Ryzen 3000 desktop chips, including the recently released additions to the CPU range which came in the form of ‘XT’ models.
They will also be compatible with the Ryzen 4th-gen (Zen 3) processors which are due to be released later in 2020. So even though this might be a budget choice, if you buy now and pair one of these A520 boards with an existing Ryzen chip, you aren’t going to be high and dry should you want to upgrade in the future.
A520 limitations
These A520 entry-level motherboards lack PCIe 4.0 support as provided by the new B550 boards (and indeed X570 products), sticking with PCIe 3.0. There’s also no support for overclocking with AMD’s A520 chipset.
A520 motherboards should be available shortly from manufacturers, with the likes of MSI, ASRock and Asus models being leaked via the rumor mill in recent times, with prices possibly being pitched as low as $100 (around £75, AU$140). Fingers crossed we’ll see some on sale very soon, giving cash-strapped PC builders some sterling fresh options for putting a rig together on a tight budget.
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