ASUS Preps Entry-Level A520 Ryzen 3000 Motherboards For Frugal Gaming Enthusiasts
We're now learning that ASUS has a family of A520 motherboards that are on the horizon, which will be even cheaper than their B550 counterparts. ASUS is reportedly delivering five A520 motherboards:
- PRIME A520M-A
- PRIME A520M-E
- PRIME A520M-K
- TUF GAMING A520M-A
- TUF GAMING A520M-PLUS
B550 motherboards aren't as feature-packed as those featuring the X570 chipset, as they are down on PCIe lanes, and lack a PCIe 4.0 uplink and general-purpose lanes. A520 motherboards are cutdown even further compared to B550.
For starters, the A520 supports a total of just 6 PCIe Gen 3 lanes (down from 10 on B550 and 16 on X570). The maximum number of SATA and USB ports have also been downsized. Most importantly, however, A520 motherboards miss out on PCIe 4.0 graphics and SSD support. However, these two bullet points are probably less of an issue for budget shoppers.
Given their more meager specifications compared to the B550 and X570, we expect that these motherboards will be much cheaper for consumers. That would make them perfect fits for the Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X, which are priced at $99 and $120 respectively.
We should note that even though the A520 might not be tops when it comes to features, they should support AMD’s incoming Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 desktop processors which are due later this year.
