The main audience for the AMD A520 platform is the budget and value consumer base who want to get the best value out of products. The AMD X570 and B550 platforms are far out of reach from a wider audience as you're going to pay extra for the PCIe Gen 4 advantage. Sure there's the used B450 motherboard market but there's rarely a good deal due to shortage of these motherboards as production has moved over to the new 500 series chipsets.
For that intent and purpose, the A520 motherboards will be catering to the entry-level market by offering a balance of features and performance at a sub $150-$100 US market range. We have got word that AMD's partners will be launching their respective A520 chipset-based motherboards on the 18th of August which happens to be the upcoming Tuesday.
The A520 lineup will not feature PCIe Gen 4 connectivity features that the X570 and B550 boards provide nor the higher I/O but you can expect full support for AM4 CPUs including 3rd Gen Ryzen and from what we've heard, the A520 boards will also be featuring support for the next-generation Ryzen CPUs & APUs.
With that said, there have been a couple of leaks and online listings already for the A520 boards. Momomo_US spotted an ASUS PRIME A520M-K motherboard listed over at Newegg for a price of $75.99 US. The motherboard seems to be fairly standard, rocking the AM4 socket with a 6 phase power design and a single 8-pin connector to boot. There are no heatsinks over the VRM while the A520 PCH is backed by a small piece of aluminum which we generally refer to as a heatshrink. The motherboard features two DDR4 DIMM slots which support up to 4600 MHz speeds and 64 GB of capacity.
Expansion slots include two PCIe 3.0 x1, a single PCIe 3.0 x16, and a single M.2 slot. There are also four SATA III ports. A range of I/O can be found such as 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 HDMI port, 1 D-Sub port, a Realtek Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, 3 channel audio jack & a PS/2 port. The motherboard comes in the mATX form factor and the price is $10 higher than its predecessor, the A320M-K which is also listed at Newegg for $64.35 US.
In addition to the listing, Videocardz also seems to have posted the first pictures of ASRock's A520 lineup which would include at least two new motherboards, the A520M Pro4, & the A520M-ITX/ac. The ASRock A520M Pro4 comes in the mATX form factor and houses what seems to be a 6 phase power delivery that is powered by a single 8-pin connector. The motherboard does feature solid heatsinks over the VRMs and the PCH.
Expansion slots include two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, a single M.2 slot that features a full cover M.2 armor heatsink, a standard M.2 slot without the heatsink, and a M.2 WiFi slot. Storage options include four SATA III ports. I/O on the motherboard includes four USB 3.2 Gen 1, two USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 USB 2.0, HDMI, D-Sub, VGA ports, Gigabit Ethernet LAB, and a 3-channel audio jack. Price-wise, the ASRock A520M Pro 4 should retail at slightly higher than what ASUS is asking for their A520M-K board but even then, we expect ASRock to price the A520M Pro4 under $100 US.
The ASRock A520M-ITX/ac features a more premium design with an 8 phase power delivery that is powered by a single 8-pin connector. The motherboard is also backed by VRM and PCH heatsinks and features two DDR4 DIMM slots with support of up to 64 GB capacities. Expansion slots include a single PCIe 3.0 x16 and a single M.2 slot which is hidden beneath the M.2 heatsink. There's likely a second M.2 slot on the other side of the PCB as seen on several other ASRock's ITX offerings.
The storage options include four SATA III ports while I/O is offered in the form of two USB 3.2 Gen 1, two USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 USB 2.0, PS/2, HDMI, DisplayPort, a Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, a 3-channel HD audio jack and a dual-antenna WiFi module.
This motherboard should be priced slightly over the $100 US price range. Expect more information on A520 motherboards in the coming days.
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