AMD A520 chipset launched for budget motherboards

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Compatible with 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs and newer. Partners proliferate mATX products.

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Read more.

At least they snuck a new model in at the lower end - wondered what was going on with the B550 motherboards mostly coming in > £100. Would be where my money went had I not just gone for the B450.

Curious as to how much the itx versions will cost... this might be ok for a 'media pc'

I hope these are cheap,otherwise AMD have effectively replaced the B450 at the same price point,with a locked B450!!

Seems very odd to restrict compatibility to APU's based on Zen2 when they aren't even available yet AFAIK. Surely A520+3200/3500G would make a very obvious pairing. I suppose AMD want to encourage use of their forthcoming APUs, but it seems a heavy, and unnecessary restriction.

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

I hope these are cheap,otherwise AMD have effectively replaced the B450 at the same price point,with a locked B450!!

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I can't see the B450 disappearing soon. It's a bit of a mess but that's partly due to the massive success of Ryzen which I think caught even AMD by suprise

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Originally Posted by Irien

Seems very odd to restrict compatibility to APU's based on Zen2 when they aren't even available yet AFAIK. Surely A520+3200/3500G would make a very obvious pairing. I suppose AMD want to encourage use of their forthcoming APUs, but it seems a heavy, and unnecessary restriction.

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Given the already existing A320 chipsets can handle those why not just get one of those?

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Originally Posted by Irien

Seems very odd to restrict compatibility to APU's based on Zen2 when they aren't even available yet AFAIK. Surely A520+3200/3500G would make a very obvious pairing. I suppose AMD want to encourage use of their forthcoming APUs, but it seems a heavy, and unnecessary restriction.

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Despite their "3x00G" designation, those APUs are actually "Zen+", like the 2x00 series CPUs.

Sorry, I think perhaps I wasn't clear. The A520 boards look to be generally nicer than their A320 counterparts in terms of ports and connections (ie. user-facing functionality), so it looked to be preferable, and ideal for coupling with an APU, except those Zen2 APUs aren't out yet, and will (probably) be more expensive then their 3xxxG Zen+ counterparts. As others have said B450 ends up being the go-to chipset for the time being. A320 always felt rather, erm, a little too cut-down, plus there were always shipping-BIOS questions regarding Zen+ and A320, unless specifically marked.

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

I hope these are cheap,otherwise AMD have effectively replaced the B450 at the same price point,with a locked B450!!

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Given how overclocking most Ryzen chips seems to just increase heat output and void the warranty for no actual performance increase, I'm good with that. The PCIe 3 graphics when those lanes are coming off the CPU/APU is however *really* cheaping out. It might not matter now, but in 5 years time a PCIe 4 SSD and graphics card could well be a minimum.

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Originally Posted by Irien

Seems very odd to restrict compatibility to APU's based on Zen2 when they aren't even available yet AFAIK.

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I would agree, a bit more compatibility overlap on these motherboard would have been really nice. I guess these low cost boards are expected to have the smaller 16MB bios flash chips in them though, so I guess they are starting with as clean a slate as possible.

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Originally Posted by LSG501

Curious as to how much the itx versions will cost... this might be ok for a 'media pc'

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Looks like there's an itx markup but around £100/$100 is the current pricing I can find (compared to mATX starting at £65). Far cheaper than any Bx50 or Hxxx Intel itx motherboard so it's definitely one to keep an eye on.

I've been looking at replacing my 10 year old HTPC and downsizing to an itx build. Both Gigabyte and AsRock have itx A520 options which is a great start. Just need AMD to decide whether the 4xxxG CPUs will be available retail or they stay OEM only as they're the only supported APUs but aren't available at retail. I need the PCI-E slot for a TV card so if there's no supported APU that I can buy, I'll have to pay £50-100 more for an Intel CPU & motherboard just for the singular benefit of getting 4K UHD Blu-Ray support which I don't need.

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

The PCIe 3 graphics when those lanes are coming off the CPU/APU is however *really* cheaping out. It might not matter now, but in 5 years time a PCIe 4 SSD and graphics card could well be a minimum.

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Got to save component costs somewhere! Worst case all your gear is losing a couple of percent off the top, outside of synthetics?

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Originally Posted by edmundhonda

Got to save component costs somewhere! Worst case all your gear is losing a couple of percent off the top, outside of synthetics?

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Right now, sure. But PCs have quite long lives these days, and PCIe 3 motherboards started appearing some 8 years ago? In a 5 year old PC that technology is going to look ancient.

Locked against overclocking has real cost benefits, as the VRM stages are going to have much lower and better defined requirements. Fewer phases, less heat so smaller or no heatsinks required. Being mean with what CPUs/APUs are supported is annoying buy against has obvious cost advantages.

But what does PCIe4 require? Some BIOS code to enable it, and good enough PCB traces to the GPU and M.2 slots (I wouldn't expect more support than that given the B550 only supports those). So maybe this allows a cheap 4 layer PCB, but I think that could be left for an A500 board if they want to go that low.

At this stage, I am loath to buy any more PCIe3 boards.