12 Entry-level and budget-friendly A520 desktop chipset based motherboards have been registered by ASRock for regulatory approval at the EEC. As a successor to the previous entry-level A320 chipset, the A520 is designed with Ryzen 3 and Athlon processors in mind and comes with a number of compromises over more expensive, feature-rich motherboards. They lack CPU overclocking capabilities of more expensive boards, and there is no support for PCIe 4.0 so we have to rely on sixteen PCIe gen 3 lanes for graphics. I/O connectivity is also more limited than the higher-end counterparts with 4 SATA ports, and 9 USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. All of the boards are expected to be Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX form factors.
These are the models revealed in the regulatory approval register.
- A520M Pro4
- A520M Pro4 R2.0
- A520M Pro4 R3.0
- A520M-HDV
- A520M-HDVP
- A520M-HDV R2.0
- A520M-HDV R3.0
- A520M-HVS
- A520M-HVS R2.0
- A520M-HVS R3.0
- A520M-ITX/ac
- A520M/ac
These newly registered boards are expected to arrive some time in Q3 2020 and will replace the older A320 chipset series of boards. If you're looking at building a gaming system, your best bet will be to stick with the new B550 chipset, or X570 for high-end systems as these platforms support PCI-Express 4.0 and overclocking. For general-purpose use, or very-tight budget builds, the A520 boards will be worth considering.
