ASRock A620 Socket AM5 Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

Cost-effective Socket AM5 motherboards are finally on the horizon, as the first marketing pictures emerged of an ASRock-branded motherboard based on the yet-unreleased AMD A620 chipset. A successor to the A520 and A320, the A620 provides the bare-minimum feature-set for the platform, and cuts out certain premium features such as CPU overclocking. The chipset limits the x16 PEG connection from the processor to Gen 4, although motherboard vendors are free to provide just Gen 3 x16. The CPU-attached M.2 NVMe interface, too, is limited to Gen 4. This ASRock motherboard appears to be offering a Gen 3-capped M.2 NVMe slot, going by the "Hyper M.2" branding that ASRock uses for Gen 3 M.2 slots. The board offers an additional M.2 NVMe slot that's wired to the A620 chipset, and interestingly, an M.2 E-key slot for WLAN modules.

The ASRock A620M-HDV/M.2 from the pictures below, is a Micro-ATX motherboard that draws power from a 24-pin ATX and a single 8-pin EPS. It offers the simplest possible 6-phase CPU VRM, with what look like 50 A DrMOS. Besides the two M.2 NVMe slots, the only storage connectivity on offer are two SATA 6 Gbps ports. Display connectivity include DisplayPort and HDMI. We count at least four type-A USB 3.x ports on the rear I/O, besides one USB type-C, and a USB 3.x internal header. 1 GbE wired networking, and 6-channel HD audio using the most basic CODEC, make for the rest of the connectivity. An interesting touch is USB BIOS Flashback, with a button on the rear I/O, which sets even the oldest inventories of this board up for future-generation Socket AM5 Ryzen processors. Motherboards based on the A620 are expected to be priced well under the $100-mark.



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[Chaitanya]

Just as expected too many connectivity options have been castrated.

 

[Daven]

Just as expected too many connectivity options have been castrated.

Like what? PCIe 5 down to PCIe 4. Lol! You tried to make the accepted way of lowering motherboard pricing into something being done wrong.

So I’m guessing a ‘budget’ tier board must have 100% identical specs to a more expensive board to satisfy you? Explain how that’s possible.

No what you want is more expensive, higher spec boards to come down in price. That’s a different topic.

Now back to reality. Lowering and taking away connectivity options is the main way to make different price tiers in the motherboard space. For instance, I rather have lowered PCIe gen rather than using lower quality components like capacitors.

 

[ymdhis]

Motherboards based on the A620 are expected to be priced well under the $100-mark.

I doubt it, the way things are going. If they just price them at $100 they are already much cheaper than the b650 boards, so why sell them cheaper than that.

 

[Chaitanya]

Like what? PCIe 5 down to PCIe 4. Lol! You tried to make the accepted way of lowering motherboard pricing into something being done wrong.

So I’m guessing a ‘budget’ tier board must have 100% identical specs to a more expensive board to satisfy you? Explain how that’s possible.

No what you want is more expensive, higher spec boards to come down in price. That’s a different topic.

Now back to reality. Lowering and taking away connectivity options is the main way to make different price tiers in the motherboard space. For instance, I rather have lowered PCIe gen rather than using lower quality components like capacitors.

Look at rear panel, too few USB connections(2x 2.0(based on internal header starts count at 3,4), 2x 3.0 and Type-C most likely 3.0 speed as well), M.2 slot which according to article is PCI-e 3.0 not even 4.0 and 2x Sata ports. Also audio codec is most likely prehistoric ALC897. VRM is also of questionable quality means it will struggle with X series of CPUs. And at best this board should cost $60 else it will be another failed launch thanks to greed of motherboard makers.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I dont see the need for complaints, you get what you pay for. people wanted $100 mb's you got it, even if they were made last year.

 

[john_]

$40 motherboard that because of inflation and higher quality components needed for AM5, plus extra long support, should cost $70, but now starts at $100, so it can become "cheaper" in 2-3 years by dropping at probably around $80. Or at least hoping that $100 would be a starting point for the price to go down not up.

 

[Daven]

Look at rear panel, too few USB connections(2x 2.0(based on internal header starts count at 3,4), 2x 3.0 and Type-C most likely 3.0 speed as well), M.2 slot which according to article is PCI-e 3.0 not even 4.0 and 2x Sata ports. Also audio codec is most likely prehistoric ALC897. VRM is also of questionable quality means it will struggle with X series of CPUs. And at best this board should cost $60 else it will be another failed launch thanks to greed of motherboard makers.

This will most likely be a $70 to $80 motherboard. Other A620 versions will have more features and cost more. But as you can see from another post that says these boards should be $40, there is NO price and NO feature set that will satisfy even a tiny fraction of customers. We are all jaded now and have very little agreement over what something should cost. In the end, it comes down to an individual’s current situation in life so its impossible to get any consensus.

 

[Object55]

Wow... yeah, that's what $40 boards looks like.

 

[sLowEnd]

That's one heck of a weedy looking barebones board.
Reminds me of the kind of stuff you'd see in cheap prebuilts, like ol' Bara here.

HP Desktop PCs - motherboard specifications, Bara | HP® Customer Support

Specifications for the Bara motherboard

support.hp.com

 

[AusWolf]

Now that's what I call a poor VRM!

The lack of connectivity doesn't bother me on a board in this price range, but what kind of CPU will fit into this? The unreleased Ryzen 3 7300 tops, maybe? Even a 7600 would burn this thing down, or at least seriously throttle by the looks of it.

 

[Chrispy_]

What EDC can we expect from a 6-phase VRM setup using 5A DrMOS?

As for this particular board, capping storage to Gen3 isn't great - PCIe Gen4 drives are very affordable now and the limitation isn't one enforced by AMD for A620. The rest of the compromises are fine given that the goal is to keep costs low.

I'm waiting for Asus to make some A620 boards priced like everyone else's B650 boards so that I can have another laugh about how terrible Asus are at the entry-level.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

This will most likely be a $70 to $80 motherboard. Other A620 versions will have more features and cost more. But as you can see from another post that says these boards should be $40, there is NO price and NO feature set that will satisfy even a tiny fraction of customers. We are all jaded now and have very little agreement over what something should cost. In the end, it comes down to an individual’s current situation in life so its impossible to get any consensus.

The issue here is that there is no way a board like this, with such little connectivity, should be $100. Previous gen A520 boards at $70-80 has far better options then this, same with A320/420.

Mobo makers are taking everyone for a ride, no surprises there.

 

[kapone32]

That's one heck of a weedy looking barebones board.
Reminds me of the kind of stuff you'd see in cheap prebuilts, like ol' Bara here.

HP Desktop PCs - motherboard specifications, Bara | HP® Customer Support

Specifications for the Bara motherboard

support.hp.com

Imagine a 7900X (much less 7950X) on one of these. Probably a base clock of 3.4 and boost of 4.2 to 4.4 but 5 GHZ might melt them.

The issue here is that there is no way a board like this, with such little connectivity, should be $100. Previous gen A520 boards at $70-80 has far better options then this, same with A320/420.

Mobo makers are taking everyone for a ride, no surprises there.

Does anyone remember X399.

I dont see the need for complaints, you get what you pay for. people wanted $100 mb's you got it, even if they were made last year.

$100 for a board that looks like (based on the placement) that the 2nd M2 slot might share lanes with those 2 SATA ports? This is for OEM budget boards from Pre-builts. If retail $50 max or $60 just for the CPU support. I bet even an AM5 APU would be handcuffed by the VRM on this thing. I wonder how many phases they have for the IGPU?

 

[Gmr_Chick]

Why am I not surprised at this board and the fact that it's an ASRock...

 

[tabascosauz]

What EDC can we expect from a 6-phase VRM setup using 5A DrMOS?

As for this particular board, capping storage to Gen3 isn't great - PCIe Gen4 drives are very affordable now and the limitation isn't one enforced by AMD for A620. The rest of the compromises are fine given that the goal is to keep costs low.

I'm waiting for Asus to make some A620 boards priced like everyone else's B650 boards so that I can have another laugh about how terrible Asus are at the entry-level.

Maybe a 65W CPU that comes with 76W PPT? I mean, at least it won't reach 100C with some light airflow......7600/7700/7900 should fall around that mark. Shove it in a crappy hotbox case and you'll have problems.

I'm not sure what's going on with the other two weird phases (1+1 VSOC and Vmisc??), but it's definitely a 4-phase Vcore with some low end 50A(? Vishays are ASRock's fave) DrMOS. Take 4x50A DrMOS and slap a regular sized heatsink on it, and you'll still be hitting 80C+ at 100A, so you can guesstimate how this board would perform.

Not much else I can say, it's a bottom of the barrel ASRock board. AMD can try all they like with stripped down A620, nothing is changing anytime soon about AM5 board costs.

I would usually say that 2DIMM is a bonus, but this is also DDR5 so these 4-layer and 6-layer boards still fall flat on their face regardless of how many DIMM slots they have. Lack of layers isn't helping VRM heat dissipation either.

 

[LabRat 891]

Yup. This adds evidence that Gigabyte's recent 'budget' B650 offering was nothing more than a re-segmented 'A620' board layout.
It was funny seeing ASrock's B650m-HDV on sale for $15 less than Gigabyte's announced board, the day after the press release. AsRock is really trying to be competitive this generation.

 

[kapone32]

I was looking at AM5 boards yesterday and a few things stood out. There are inexpensive Matx boards that are way better than this for about $60 more. The best board in terms of price and features is the MSI X670E Pro for $389 (Canadian). There are also some good B650 boards that are in the $200-300 range that will probably be the bulk of sales for the 7800X3D. Indeed a board like this and some of the other ones does speak to a new OEM CPU that AMD can sell to HP for OEM goodness. Especially now that they all come with IGPUs. You can expect some $599 AM5 boxes with boards like these as a base.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Rumour! Most (or all) of A620 motherboards will be below 100 USD.